Developer Marketing Video

This excellent video was created in approximately 1993 - before Rainbow Lake, the bridge over the Little Deschutes, or the current barn and other structures were built. It does not accurately represent the ranch of today. The video is roughly eight minutes long and is available by clicking below:

Vandevert Developer Marketing Video - Windows Media Player Format (.wmv) - If you get a barren black page and the the.wmv video does not start, you may need to download the file (i.e. save the black page - about 90 Mbytes) as a file on your computer and click on that file to play it.

Vandevert Developer Marketing Video - Quicktime Format (.mov)

Developer Marketing Video - Transcript

Vandevert Ranch

One hundred years ago W.P. Vandevert first set eyes on the homestead ranch of his dreams – a special land of majestic mountain vistas, clear trout-filled rivers, open meadows and lush pine forests.  Today, Vandevert Ranch remains much the same.  Bald eagles still soar gracefully over the meadows and brown trout thrive in the Little Deschutes River.  Vandevert Ranch not only offers splendid natural beauty and a peaceful and exclusive lifestyle, but a vast array of recreational opportunities and authentic historic character.  Landholdings at Vandevert Ranch represent a rare and vanishing opportunity, unique in the Pacific Northwest.  Beautiful, private, secure, and sophisticated, yet accessible to the culture and amenities of contemporary society.

Landholdings

Inspired by W.P. Vandevert’s original vision of a great homestead ranch, an exclusive residential and recreational opportunity has been created.  Designed for those who choose to enrich their lives in an environment of pristine natural beauty, Vandevert Ranch offers 22 private landholdings of two to three acres each on 400 acres of quite possibly the finest land in Central Oregon.  These landholdings were carefully planned to protect and enhance the natural beauty of the land and provide the most spectacular views, while insuring the utmost in privacy and quality of life.

Natural Beauty

Vandevert Ranch owners have private access to the Little Deschutes River which winds gently for two miles through the property.  This natural environment of willow and grassland is home to native fish, the beaver, playful otter, and nesting and migrating waterfowl and osprey.  The lush meadows along the river abound with wildflowers and provide habitat for mule deer.  Bordering the meadows are stately forests giving fresh pine fragrance to the clear mountain air.  Beyond the forests are majestic views of the snow-capped Cascades, including Broken Top, Mount Bachelor, South Sister, and the Paulina Mountains.  Cradled in a river basin between these peaks, Vandevert Ranch enjoys four seasons, 265 days of brilliant sun.  And it frequently experiences the dramatic big sky sunsets of the high Cascades. 

Vandevert Ranch is enriched by architecture reflecting classic log and stone structures of the past.   As you pass through the Adirondack style gate, you enter a private world of natural beauty.  Life at the ranch is made carefree and easy by the security and maintenance provided, offering a working ranch without work.  And by diverse recreational and educational opportunities.  The historic Vandevert Schoolhouse, while used as a landholders association’s meeting place, can also be used for a variety of educational programs, such as fly-tying, or Native American culture studies, and for landholders’ private gatherings.

Imagine mornings on a sunny deck enjoying breakfast with your favorite national or world newspaper.  You can listen to the gentle sounds of the river, the distant call of the wild geese as you savor the beauty of a life at the ranch.

But society may be as distant or as near as you wish.  Vandevert Ranch has immediate access to Sunriver Resort with its restaurants, shops, and recreational amenities, and professional business and medical services.  Vandevert Ranch also has easy access to Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. 

Outdoor Living

Within Vandevert Ranch you can enjoy a wonderful array of private recreational opportunities.  On balmy summer days you may enjoy a morning nature walk along the Little Deschutes River.  During the day you may canoe in quiet solitude.  Your children or grandchildren can swim or float in the gentle water of the river.  Other recreation includes horseback riding in the meadow and forest of the ranch and surrounding national forest, hiking, bicycling, picnicking, or camping.  Evenings are particularly important to the fly fisherman, anxious to cast for the evening rise.

Winter on the ranch is reminiscent of the wonderland illustrations of Currier and Ives.  You may enjoy cross-country skiing through a snow-blanketed meadow or ice skating by the light of a bonfire or lantern on Rainbow Lake.  Other nostalgic activities include riding on a one-horse open sleigh and classic barn dances of the American West.

Outside the ranch, the world class skiing of Mount Bachelor is just 20 minutes away.  Spectacular golf is available at any one of seventeen public and private courses within 45 minutes of the ranch, the most notable of which is the course designed by Robert Trent Jones the Second at Sunriver just two miles away.

Historic Legacy

The saga of the Vandevert family is one of the great adventures of the American West.  It reaches from the opening of the Oregon Trail to the California Gold Rush and thereafter to the Hashknife range wars of Texas and the Apache wars of Arizona.  Finally, in 1891, W.P. Vandevert returned to Oregon to settle the homestead ranch of his dreams.  The old Homestead house, variously used as ranch headquarters, a stagecoach stop, hunting guide camp, and social center of the area has been lovingly restored.  Other protected legacies of the ranch include stagecoach tracks across the meadows, the historic Vandevert School and the evocative riverside grave of Kathryn Vandevert, daughter of W.P. Vandevert.

As it has been for a century, Vandevert Ranch is private and continues a heritage of a respect for nature and enjoyment of a beautiful lifestyle.  As quoted by Captain John C. Fremont describing his travels along the Little Deschutes River at Vandevert Ranch on December 7, 1843, “The great beauty of the country in summer constantly suggested itself to our imaginations… And even now we found it beautiful as we rode along these meadows from half a mile to a mile wide.  The rich soil and excellent water surrounded by noble forests…

(End of Video as Distributed by Developer)