Years ago, exhausted travelers on the old stage coach run from Pendleton to John Day used to relish the overnight stop at Ritter Hot Springs. Most travelers taking that same route today haven’t a clue about the venerable old hotel and the refreshing hot springs that provided relief from a harrowing ride through the mountains.

Ritter is now more of an area than a community and while there is no government structure in place, if there were a mayor, Janice Rehder would be a strong candidate.

Several years ago, we purchased the abandoned Three-Mile School which is located 19.5 miles west of Ritter Junction which in turn is between Dale and Long Creek on Highway 395. No neighbors are visible in any direction from the school which was opened in 1917 and closed sometime around the late ’40s or early ’50s. Since buying the school, a wide array of family members have been privileged to help with restoration.

Rehder, who lives about eight miles west of Ritter Hot Springs on Six-Mile Creek, came by the school last Saturday to inspect our progress and to pick up a sack of special dog food I had purchased for her at Bi-Mart. She was nearly out of dog food and the closest supply is a round trip of nearly 200 miles.

When the school was open

As she stood on the porch of the school, she reminisced about having once been a student there. Her mother also had attended the school when she was a girl and then went off to Western Oregon College to get a teaching degree. She returned home and spent 17 years teaching at Three-Mile School.

As she walked around the grounds, Janice pointed out where the original barn had stood. It was built by her father and was located below the school until the road was constructed. A new barn to house student horses was built to the west. There also was a teacherage but it was torn down several years ago.

When Janice started at Three-Mile School there were 15 pupils – 14 boys and one girl. I was “something of a tomboy” she told me, “I had to be to survive.” Perhaps those early coping skills are behind a reputation for toughness that exists to this very day, although looks are deceiving because she looks every bit the lady that she is.

Several years ago, she was severely injured in a bout with one of her Angus bulls and she still rides her horse, although she admits they now spend more time on four-wheelers than on horseback. “Truth be known,” she said, “with all the rimrocks and rugged areas around here, we spend considerable time chasing the cattle on foot.” Saturday she was nursing a new bruise on her lower leg, which I think was the result of branding cattle several days earlier.

In an area like Ritter, it’s important to get along with your neighbors and Janice made me swear I would keep her age a secret. I have no intention of breaking that promise.

A pioneer family in Ritter

But I do know she was born and has spent all of her life not far from where her mother also was born and spent her life. Janice’s grandparents settled in the Ritter area over 100 years ago and when Janice was married in 1950, she came back to the farm above the Middle Fork of the John Day River where she still lives. Her husband Bob died about four years ago after a long battle with cancer. It was his wish that Janice and her son Robert keep the ranch going – a promise both have kept.

Janice attended Three-Mile School through the elementary grades and then came into Pendleton to attend St. Joseph Academy. “That was what we did in those days,” she said. She attended school with the McLoughlins, the Dohertys, the Donahues, the Frenchs and the Herbers, among others.

At one time after Janice had left Three-Mile School, student enrollment went up to about 40 and then it dwindled down to a single student. The school at Ritter also was having trouble with enrollment and a decision was made to consolidate with Long Creek. In 1963, Janice launched a 27-year career as a school bus driver taking Ritter area students into Long Creek.

“Today,” she says, “even the Long Creek School is having trouble finding enough students. We certainly don’t have any kids to speak of living up this way. In fact, it isn’t just kids we don’t have, most of the people who used to live around here have either died or were starved out trying to make a living.”

As she talks about the area that has been her home for, let’s just say lots of years, she still marvels at the incredible views and the peaceful existence that comes when a big day for traffic is two or three cars. Traffic actually is even less at Janice’s house because in order to find her, you have to go three miles along the Middle Fork from where the pavement ends, go through her gate and drive another mile up a private lane.

Farmland becomes rangeland

Janice, who makes it clear she adores Greater Ritter, becomes wistful when she remembers the area that is now scrub pine and rangeland once was used for raising corn, watermelon and beans. She also remembers that before the road was put in to Highway 395, farmers in the area used to drive their hogs and turkeys up the old grade to Heppner.

Janice raised four children at Ritter but only her son Robert remains on the ranch. Belinda and William now live in Lincoln City and Benita is in Baker City. Belinda used to run the mini-mart in Ukiah and then Pilot Rock before she left for the beach. William was a businessman in Pendleton. Janice also has five grandchildren and three great-grandkids.

When it comes time for shopping, she says she either goes to Pendleton or La Grande. “When I have to run to town for some essentials, I’ll zip into John Day,” she says. John Day is 68 miles south, but in rural Grant County, distance is a relative thing.

As I watched her drive away from the school in her Dodge flatbed, with the bright yellow sack of dog food and two spare tires on the back, I felt like I had just come face to face with the tenacious pioneer spirit that permeated so much of Eastern Oregon in the days when the area was being settled.

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George Murdock is editor & publisher of the East Oregonian. He can be reached at 278-2671 or gmurdock@eastoregonian.com.