Mildred Kanipe lived life on her own terms. She was born on the family ranch in Oakland, Oregon, September 30th, 1907. She lived in the same house until shortly before her death in 1983.
The family house did not change much from her childhood. It never had an indoor bathroom. At some point electricity was added and there was one bare light bulb on the dining room ceiling. Plumbing led to a double stainless-steel sink in the kitchen. Cooking was done by firewood fed into a wood range.
Mildred grew up helping her dad on the family farm and he taught her how to do everything around the ranch, even hunting. One photograph shows her hoisting an eagle she shot. Back then, it was ok to shoot eagles. In fact, it was common for sheep farmers.
She was called the belle of Oakland in the 1930s and was strikingly good looking. She did not use her beauty in traditional ways. She used her body and mind toward her land- efforts to carve out her own life. People said she could throw hay bales effortlessly. She was a skilled horsewoman. Her dad died in 1940 and for many years it was just two women in the house, Mildred and her aunt Mary. Mildred’s mom died of the flu 3 months after Mildred’s birth. Aunty Mary did the cooking and housework while Mildred ran the ranch. She occasionally hired help, but did the majority of the work herself.
Work was her work, play, meditation, reason for being. There isn’t a lot written by her or about her, except a book called For Love of The Land, by Lois Christiansen Eagleton.
Running the ranch meant knowing how to do a lot of different jobs. She ran a grade A dairy for eight years. She also raised beef cattle, rabbits, chickens, sheep, and goats. She named all of her animals rather than using numbers. Mildred also logged portions of her land and maintained an orchard with more than 80 trees: apple, pear, peach, and walnut.
She had a way with animals, a connection, and this was witnessed by a friend who went along with her one evening as she called her cows. The two walked up a hill and sat on a log. Mildred called out and a cow face poked out of the bushes, then another, then soon all the cows were assembled and followed her in a line as she walked toward the barn.
Another story tells of her coaxing a 2,000 lb. bull back to its ranch with a small stick after it broke into her property.
Mildred liked peacocks and they still live on the land. She found them to be excellent guards, sounding alarms whenever anyone arrived. Even with her dogs and peacocks to watch out for her, she carried a gun- sometimes a pistol, and sometimes a 30/30 rifle. No one messed with Mildred.
Though greatly industrious, she was known to have some fun. One story goes that she was seen riding into town with a “doctor,” both of them drunk, on horseback. She would fall off her horse, and he would laugh and shout that she didn’t know how to ride. Then he would fall off and she would do the same to him.
She kept diaries in which she would write one line entries such as “put hay in barn,” “went to rodeo,” “got drunk.” The next day after the drunk entry, she wrote, “took it easy.”
Mildred had excellent cursive writing and wrote letters, some which remain in her Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound tablets. They appear to be drafts of letters, one offered praise for a classroom studying wild horses and why the wild herds are important to protect.
Another note was a detailed account about a horse that only let her ride it, and how they had mutual respect for each other. From her letters, it’s clear that she had opinions and felt strongly about fairness and the honoring of agreements.
When she died her estate was valued at $1,077,865. She donated a little over 1,000 acres to Douglas county to be used as a park. No one knows the reason, she never mentioned why. My guess is that she loved it a great deal and wanted it preserved, protected, and enjoyed by others. The condition of her donation required that she be buried on site, on her right side, by the house, under her favorite trees, wearing her work clothes. She wore a specific “uniform” every day- blue jeans, a blue work shirt, rubber boots. For a period of time she enjoyed wearing an aviator cap with flaps.
Go the the Mildred Knipe Memorial Park in Oakland, Oregon, where you can ride horses or walk for miles on trails. You’ll see peacocks, Mildred’s grave and the family home, which is currently fenced off and in ill-repair. Funds are still needed to restore the home. Even without being in the house, you’ll feel the impact and presence, the legacy and love of the land. One person can make a difference.
In 1974, Governor Tom McCall presented Mildred with the Century Farm Certificate at the state fair in Salem. This is awarded to families who work the same land for 100+ years.
Mildred wrote a note of thanks with humility, and emphasized the sacredness of our land and her thoughts that we should “take care of it, protect it, enhance it, and above all, love it.”
