Why was C.M. Rowley here in 1875?
By Sherry (Woods) Kaseberg, 2016
Inscribed on a basalt canyon wall – on private property – near the DeMoss Family Cemetery:
“C. M. Rowley”
“Sept. 29, 1875 WELL”
Inscriptions carved into two obscure basalt canyon sites on private property near the DeMoss Family Cemetery in T1S R17E at the North edge of Section 3 or T1N R17E Section 35 in then-Wasco County, were apparently left by C.M. Rowley. Speculation by locals that Rowley might have been part of a survey party has not been substantiated (2016). He may have been marking a homestead or mining claim. The inscriptions were transcribed by landowners years ago. The terrain is steep. An 1862 survey noted there was a road from John Day River to Tigh (Tygh) Valley running diagonally through Section 35.
One Charles Rowley was in Umatilla County, Oregon, as recorded in the 1880 U.S. census. He was 60, born in New York and working in a stable. Charles M. Rowley, 1814-1897, is buried in the Weston Cemetery in Umatilla County. An unidentified newspaper noted that, “Uncle Charley Rowley was near death, a resident of Weston since it became a town.”