The post office of Rolyat was one of several small post offices established on the Oregon High Desert during the booming homestead era. It was located just east of present Hampton between Bend and Burns. Settlers began to inhabit the High Desert rapidly during the homestead era and the region just south of Hampton Butte attracted many of the early settlers. As more people moved to get their piece of heaven a need for a local post office emerged. A petition was submitted and the name of Taylor was recommended by local settlers. It is believed that Mr. Taylor was a post office official that was very helpful in establishing the post office. Postal authorities claimed there was already a post office named Taylor so locals took the creative approach and submitted Rolyat (Taylor spelled backwards). The name was accepted. The post office was officially established on September 15, 1910. At the time it was established it was in Crook County. The first postmaster was Victor Schreder.

The small community became an active center for local social events. A school was established soon after the post office was official and it boasted nine students in the first session. The homesteaders were busy trying to prepare the land for crops. Usually, a correspondent would write to the Bend Bulletin relating news of the area and in the spring of 1912 the report was AThe homesteaders are all busy plowing and don’t have much time for gossip now, but I guess they will catch up next winter.

The ladies of Rolyat formed their own literary club in 1912 and they made big plans to entertain their men folk at a big social event. Settlers at Rolyat had high hopes as it was proposed that a railroad would run from Bend to eastern Oregon near their small community. As other communities and post offices began to emerge on the High Desert it appeared that the region would become a major center. Nearby Imperial was beginning a boom period that was to end shortly. Rolyat never did develop into more than a social center. Similar to nearby postal communities such as Stauffer and Brookings the population began to diminish when drought and harsh conditions resulted in many of the homesteaders abandoning claims. One optimistic settler even wrote to the Bulletin in mid-summer 1912 that A…..when people speak of this part of Oregon as the High Desert they are certainly mistaken, and I think they would certainly change their minds if they were happen through this way. We have plenty of the best fuel, fine water and post timber, and stock can range out all winter. About the only thing we lack is better railroad facilities and we will have them in the next year or two”.

Unfortunately the railroad never materialized and the good conditions soon changed and it became uneconomical to continue homesteading near Rolyat and the other social centers of the immediate region. Hampton became the center of activity and Rolyat became another of the causalities of a doomed homesteading dream. The post office managed to continue in use until July 1, 1929 when it passed into memory. The site of Rolyat is now part of cultivated field watered by a deep well pivot just east of Hampton.

Contributed by Steve Lent, Historian