Ask Garrett Zoller
Welcome to the Historic Katydid Ranch, a private well-established ranch nestled back in the beautiful Southern Oregon Cascade Mountains. This stunning property provides the opportunity to enjoy a refreshing rural lifestyle, equestrian opportunities, and charming small-town culture. With protected forest woodlands, trails, open meadows, wildlife, ponds, wildflowers, old growth timber, not to mention the majestic mountain views. Unspoiled nature is at its best!
Not only does the Ranch give the feeling of rural and private tranquility, you are also close to amenities and everyday necessities. Being roughly 50 minutes east of Medford on the beautiful Rogue-Umpqua Scenic byway, Crater Lake Hwy., approximately 3 miles west of the little town of Prospect (cafes, a charter school, historic hotel, market and country bar), 1 mile to the Rogue River (famous for fishing, rafting and waterfalls), and 23.5 miles to the breathtaking Crater Lake National Park.
PROPERTY FEATURES
The gently winding driveway of Katydid Road opens up to your own private paradise of two custom homes. Tranquility, nature, and wildlife abound on this 95.46 acre property.
Katydid Home:
You are welcomed into a majestic view of wilderness. Opening through the trees you come across the first meticulously renovated custom Craftsman-style “Katydid” home boasting roughly 2995 sq ft of living space. Situated with stunning views of distant mountains and an expansive irrigated meadow. Mature landscaping surrounds the home and doug-fir framed windows are designed for wildlife viewing.
Katydid is a 3 bed, 2.5 bath, turn of the century Craftsman home and has been renovated with attention to original detail. The artwork of traditional Craftsman clinker-brick and column stairway leads to the covered porch and front door.
Craftsmanship shines throughout from doug-fir wrapped casement double pane and transom windows to venetian plaster walls and art tile surrounded fire place. The Katydid Home is heated by the earth with full floor geothermal heat. An auxiliary furnace provides cooling if needed during the summer months. Whole-house sound brings favorite tunes throughout the house and exterior porches as well.
A serene main-level primary bedroom with a luxurious ensuite will become your private retreat. An adjoining sun-room is situated perfectly to take in an expansive meadow view of meadow wildlife, french doors to a brick patio, a spa-like bathroom with gorgeous dual showers, a jetted two-person jacuzzi and his/ her walk-in closets.
The living room and dining area charms with 9-foot ceilings, venetian plaster walls, picture rails and wood-burning fireplace.
The spacious kitchen features an 8 ft. island with gas range top and dual oven, plentiful custom knotty alder and pine cabinetry with soft-close drawers, granite and wood counter tops, a built-in china and linen cabinet as well as a breakfast area. Keeping with the home’s theme, the windows overlook lawn and park-like woodlands.
Upstairs, a lovely second and third bedroom are reminiscent of early charm with built in dresser, cabinetry and closets. The unique step-down bathroom features the original clawfoot champagne length tub and pedestal sink.
A traditional mudroom with hooks and closet house outer-wear, shoes, and boots for rainy days, and a large flex room serves as laundry, pantry, and exercise room.
Meadow Home:
The second home the “Meadow House” is roughly 2406 sq.ft., 2 bed, 2 bath, Craftsman renovated home situated between meadow and woodlands, with the resident great horned owl typically perched nearby.
Upon entering the home, a grand hallway carries you to floor to ceiling windows overlooking meadow grasslands and stunning views of distant mountain peaks. Hardwood oak floors and wainscotting walls are beautifully appointed throughout this home as well as plenty of natural light. The home features central heating and cooling as well as whole house sound for your own playlists and television alike. Chilly nights can be cozied up near the living room wood-burning fire place, which was custom built with heat insert, and is designed with basalt lava rocks originating from the Mt. Mazama eruption of over 7000 years ago.
Windows continue wrapping the meadow-side of the home with a wrap around porch comfortable for all seasonal seating whether breakfast, lunch, or evening with a view of the amazing sunset.
The Meadow House kitchen and adjacent dining room area are spacious and can be intimate or inviting for a large family gathering. High-end appliances and granite counter tops along with a full range of appliances make meal prep a delight of its own.
A large secondary bedroom is situated next to the custom tiled bathroom with step-in shower. The stairway leads to the expansive primary bedroom and en-suite tiled bathroom with step-in shower and pedestal sink. Bathroom windows look out to the tree tops of a beautiful Pacific madrone.
An enclosed balcony off the bedroom provides more views as it leads to the “eagle’s nest” sleeping room, just right for a little getaway with a good book or an extra special napping nook. A nice-to-have pleasure in a rural setting is a great mud-room and laundry which the Meadow House fully enjoys. A full-house generator, with an instant on feature, is on hand should there be a power outage.
OTHER MISC STRUCTURES
Carriage “House”
Sitting across from the Meadow House is the historic Carriage House which could easily be used to house cars, lawn mowers, 4 wheelers, & more.
Dry Cabin:
Tucked in the nearby woodlands is the quaint single-room dry cabin hoping to someday be a magical getaway for someone’s imagination.
Shop:
The roughly 1400 sq.ft. Shop has limitless possibilities for a future extensive woodshop, art gallery, full gym, etc. This Shop was built to last with thick Doug fir planks and at the interior end, a roughly 600 sq.ft. commercially refrigerated “cool room.”
Up the stairs and above the “cool room” is an Art Studio with surrounding windows viewing the tree tops and providing an abundance of natural light. The studio is complete with a heating and cooling ductless mini-split.
Bunk House:
One of the property gems is the historic Bunk House once used for Ranch hands. Today, it has been renovated with creature comforts including instant hot water for the claw foot slipper tub and at the same time, it has retained its historical charm with original raked-pine walls and ceiling as well as a custom sugar-pine kitchen counter top. Original windows the length of the south side still feature antique wavy glass. The Bunk House features a large bedroom with kitchenette and full bathroom plus a bonus recreation room including a pool table, karaoke, dartboard, and original shuffle board flooring.
Barn:
A Vintage Post and Beam barn has two stalls, tack/ grain room, hay storage, and heated waters. Two pole paddocks and an extended upper meadow for horses or livestock is fenced with western wood fences. Across from the barn is an open liberty round pen with decomposed granite footing ideal for working horses.
Well House:
The property enjoys a 30 gallon plus deep well which provides refreshing delicious water throughout all the properties including the barn. Heated well house that features a filtration system as well.
Outdoor features:
This property has many well-maintained trails for hiking, horseback riding, or mountain biking. These trails are so well maintained they are drivable for 4 wheelers and off road vehicles as well.
Two beautiful spring-fed ponds provide additional viewing of birds, geese, cranes, ducks, and frogs as well as the Oregon Pond Turtle. A 10 minute gentle hike takes you to the Tree Nursery, of which was planted by Boise Cascade for their re-planting project. Just adjacent to the Turtle Pond also is the roughly 5 acre Duck/ Lily Pond.
A short jaunt up the Creek Path opens to the Turtle Pond and a lovely new glamping A-frame cabin which features a large cantilevered deck. The pond-side wall opens like an awning to view the pond and gorgeous sunset.
Roughly 17 areas of protected wildlife habitat area surround the dwellings of this property. Beyond that are acres of forest land home to elk, deer, fox, bob-cats, and other abundant wildlife.
Well established and maintained trails lead to sites for star-gazing and five dry campsites with picnic tables providing wonderful camping opportunities.
This property truly just goes on and on to what it has to offer both currently and in the future.
OWNER ADDITIONS
Below is some brief history, wildlife, nature and cultural facts of the property shared and gathered over the many years from the current owners. This property truly is a homefront for many generations to come.
Property History
The story of Katydid Ranch goes back to the early 1930's when it's owner named "Katy" Grieve used it as the "half-way" overnight lodging for horse & buggy guests traveling to Crater Lake from the Rogue Valley. Leaving the Rogue Valley at the crack of dawn, they could arrive at "Katy's" by nightfall, in time for a meal and sound mountain sleep. The Carriage House served to rest and refuel the horses. Hitching up at dawn the next morning, they could make it to Crater Lake and the Crater Lake Lodge by nightfall.
Katy Grieve eventually sold the property to Elk Lumber and in the 1960’s Boise Cascade purchased it using it as a Retreat for their Executives. In the 1980’s Boise constructed and planted a five acre nursery with seedlings that were harvested, processed in the shop, stored in the Cool Room and trucked out to replant logged hillsides. In the late 90’s the operation was closed down. Katydid forest and woodlands enjoys mature Tree Nursery and some of the now grown specimen hybrid trees that had been planted during that time span.
Barbara and Dan Long purchased the property in 2006 and began a long restoration process honoring its history. Dan, an artist, with a background in construction and carpentry, rebuilt the homes in the original craftsman style with some additions and many creature comforts.
The main house, for example, enjoys a geothermal heating system (a 7 acre underground loop) which heats the house from the earth. Windows have been designed for mountain views and wildlife viewing. Both homes were stripped to the studs, lifted on steel beams for new foundations and rebuilt. A whole-house generator serves as back-up in case of power outage.
Wildlife:
Animals include, but are not limited to, Black Tail deer, Roosevelt elk, Bobcat, fox, coyote, ring-tailed cat, raccoon, jack rabbits, skunk, and also typically farther up the mountain are the elusive mountain lions which we have never spotted on our property. We have spotted Black Bear on a rare occasion.
The ponds aNd surrounding area are home to Canada geese, quail, wild turkeys, partridge, various owls including the great-horned owls, hawks, cranes and eagles. Our pond bird watcher guest spotted Common Mergansers, Ring Necked Ducks, Buffleheads, Canada Geese…and a Loon, as well as the Oregon Pond turtle and a long list of other birds. The bull frogs orchestrate the evening and can be heard at times throughout the day.
Trees:
Katydid trees include old growth Douglas Fir, Ponderosa, Sugar, and Jeffrey Pine, various Cedar tree varieties, Incense Cedar, the majestic Pacific Madrone, Alder, Big Leaf Maple, Black and White Oak, Dog wood, Vine Maple and a few Coastal Sequoia. Hybrid Trees were planted by Boise forest biologists and can be spotted in the Tree Nursery and surrounding area. You may also spot the prolific wild hazelnuts. As Forest Stewards, we have been committed to maintaining a well balanced and diverse forest ecosystem. Much of the Forest and Woodlands have been thinned and cleaned.
The flora and fauna of the Katydid forest is abundant and diverse. This land is home to many native grasses, ferns, berries, wild flowers, as well as many other edible and medicinal plants and numerous varieties of mushrooms.
Native American/ Early Residents:
Historically, in the 1800’s, the first residents were the Rogue River Takelma and Latgawa native Americans. They were known to have a stationary settlement and trading post at the Katydid Ranch location. Artifacts continue to be discovered at this location.
Their tribes lived in the upper Rogue River area extending beyond Prospect and Union Creek up to Crater Lake.
Latgawa lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwest Oregon. In their own language "Latgawa" means "those living in the “uplands," though they were also known as the Walumskni by the neighboring Klamath tribes. Specifically, Ha-ne-sakh. The Latgawa were one of two peoples who spoke the Takelma language. They were hunters, gatherers, weavers and fished the Rogue River.
