Tragedy on the Frontier
By Steve Lent, Crook County Historian
Homer Street met a tragic end along the banks of the Lower Metolius River late in March 1907. He was born in Indiana about 1863. He was a rancher and preacher and he moved from Washington to Central Oregon near the turn of the century. Mr. Street farmed on his homestead and served as a preacher at school houses that were within riding distance from his homestead. Since his ranch was at a lower elevation along the river there was a milder climate than that experienced by his neighbors on the Lower Desert. He raised vegetables and fruit and sold the produce to his neighbors. He also hauled his surplus to Prineville to sell. To irrigate his lands he constructed ditches and diverted water from the river to water his large garden. He used dynamite to blast rocks away to make the ditches.
Some dynamite had been placed under a log for safe keeping but coyotes had scattered it about. On March 30, 1907 he was on horseback and was showing his young daughter about the homestead site when his horse stepped on a stick of dynamite. Compression on rocks caused the dynamite to explode and he and his horse were hurled in the air and over an embankment into the Metolius River. He and the horse were killed instantly. His young daughter witnessed the accident but she was unhurt.
Search parties were sent out to look for his body for several days. The mangled body of his horse was located but not his body. An examination was made of the site and large pieces of rock and dynamite fragments were found within a twenty foot radius of the place where the explosion took place.
His thirteen year old daughter had been out with her dog chasing a squirrel when her father came up to her location on his horse and she vaguely remembered that there was a sudden cloud of dust and rocks. She was momentarily stunned and when she recovered she remembered something floating down the river but could not tell what it was.
The body of Mr. Street could not be found. His wife placed an ad in local newspapers offering a reward for the discovery of her husband=s body and is noted below:
$500 Reward
I hear by offer a reward of $500 for the recovery of the body of my husband, Homer M. Street, who was blown into the Matoles River on the evening of March 30 by an explosion of dynamite and is supposed to have drowned.
Mr. Street left his wife and four children to mourn him. His remains were never found. The family remained for a short while at the homestead but soon sold out to a neighbor and left the area. Street Creek, which is a tributary to the Metolius River, is named for Mr. Street.