Child of Steens Mountain

by Eileen O'Keeffe McVicker, Barbara J. Scot (Contributor)

For Eileen OaKeeffe McVicker, born in 1927 to an Irish immigrant sheep rancher and a school teacher, growing up on a homestead in the West made for aa hard, happy life with layers of riches.a McVickeras memoir of a childhood spent on the southern slope of Steens Mountain offers a real-life, personal account of eastern Oregon history.An aoutdoor childa all her life, McVicker tells stories that revolve around life on the ranchatending sheep, picking wildflowers, doing choresaand describes everyday a rabid coyote threatens the family; a wild mustang stallion tries to kill her father; a Merino buck sheep leaps through the schoolhouse window. Images of Steens countryawild sagebrush and juniper country, with rugged vistas in every directionaare woven throughout her recollections, which share the profound sense of place found in the best Western memoirs. While vividly describing ranch life, Child of Steens Mountain also explores universal issues of parenting, making a living, and growing up. The homesteading life built a childas character and confidence, and as she reaches adulthood, McVicker, raised to be independent and responsible, ultimately defies her parents to follow her own path.McVickeras neighbor and friend, Barbara J. Scot, edited and organized the narration while preserving the authoras distinctive voice. In an afterword, Scot reflects on McVickeras experiences and describes the collaborative processaincluding a visit to the old homestead siteathat led to this book. Historian Richard Etulain, whose own childhood was spent on a sheep ranch in the West, provides an overview of sheep ranching and homesteading in Steens country in his foreword.Whether intrigued by Oregonhistory, the high desert country, or memoirs of homesteading life, readers will be unable to resist these appealing stories of growing up amid the natural beauty of Steens country.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

139 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2008

Reviews

[McK Jones]

Really enjoyable and interesting. Vignettes from childhood in Southern Oregon.

[Linda Howard]

I loved this book. What a different world, and what a different life. The amount of responsibility a very young child needed to assume (carrying a weak lamb home alone while keeping coyotes at bay) was taken for granted in her "everyone works" upbringing. She loved her remote mountain life, and so did I when reading about it.

[Greynomad]

What a childhood. I loved the bit how she was sneaking away to marry Gene and the hold town knew about it except the parents. What was even better was having her brother deflate the family car tires as she made her escape....

Just a great read

[Debbie]

This memoir of a hard life on a sheep farm in the wild frontier during the depression in remote Oregon. She tells of her childhood to adulthood in the rough scramble of life's challenges and how the challenges affected her and her family. It was a great memoir.

[Elva Paulson]

A wonderful description of an earlier time in Oregon, told with humor, grit, and love.

[Juana]

I really loved this book. Eileen O'Keefe McVicker was born in 1927 on a homestead sheep ranch in the remote eastern Oregon desert near Steens Mt.
She grew up an "outdoor child", working on the ranch, on the range with the sheep and playing among the sage and rocky outcroppings. Hers was a loving family but a very pragmatic one; children were expected to be capable and hard working. The book is a series of vignettes, stories of the family's life - humorous, hair raising, poignant. It made me nostalgic for a way of life I would have loved to experience.

[Jan]

The author, now about 80, grew up in the vicinity Steens Mt.with her parents, two sibs and many, many sheep. What a different life it was---harsh, demanding even of young children and full of beauty and connection. The book became increasingly interesting to me, as I kept getting an increasing sense of what it was like to grow up then and there.

[Judy]

This is the kind of memoir that everybody should write - very real simply telling the story of your childhood in a place that you love. For anyone who has spent any time at Steens Mountain in Southeastern Oregon, her memories literally bring you to a place that you can hear, taste and smell. Lovely.

[Joel]

Author grew up in Steens Mountain area in the 30s - 40s. A series of anecdotes that brings to life her family and what it was like growing up then in that special area. Like going back in time.