What’s the difference between a beer…and a cowboy beer? A sort of weather-beaten, leathery manliness, perhaps? Well, craft beer’s got you covered there—have you seen some of the beards people lining the Crux bar are sporting these days? Ignoring the fact that real cowboys would likely prefer cheap whiskey, a good cowboy beer should involve […]
The scene is bucolic as I arrive at Gunpowder Roasting Ranch. The sun is warm, the air is fresh; goat and pigs are in pasture. At 10 acres, Gunpowder Ranch is modest and easily missed when driving along Marsh Road just a few miles northeast of Tumalo, but it is not soon forgotten. Started just […]
The guitar. It’s iconic. Even as children, we’re not raised playing “air piano” or “air oboe.” It’s air guitar. No offense to those other instruments, but the guitar just has a certain coolness that’s both unmeasurable and unmatched by any other musical device. It seems only natural that the most beautiful guitars, both visually and […]
Cate Havstad believes in signs. While a student at University of California-Santa Cruz, she was struggling with whether formal education was the right path for her. A friend, musician Willy Tea Taylor, invited her to join on a road trip and film project—and to sweeten the deal, he offered her a vintage cowboy hat. “That […]
Over the past five decades, the demographics in America have dramatically shifted from rural to urban. In 1950, some half of Americans lived in rural areas, with lifestyles closer to the sensibility and demands of land than their urban counterparts. But by 2000, that balance had shifted to only one out of five Americans still […]
Six years ago, Perla and Bill Pearce packed up their life in Tuscon, Arizona, and moved north to Bend, Oregon. But they weren’t ready to leave the flavor of the southwest behind—and brought along with them their gourmet salsa company. With its now-somewhat geographically askew name, the Southwest Salsa Co. was created when the founders […]
More than a decade ago, brothers Damon and Nick Vracin were traveling down parallel paths in separate cities—Damon in San Diego, and Nick in Portland—gaining a foothold in their respective markets for their handcrafted leather accessories. But it wasn’t until the brothers moved to Central Oregon that Nomad Leather really started to take off. “We […]
From the blazing saddles of the old west cowboy, to the iPhone-obsession of the 21st century, entrepreneurs in Bend—and beyond—are exporting the Central Oregon lifestyle as much as they are living it. This year’s Made in Bend issue highlights products that reflect a distinctly Bend outlook on the world—and, values heavy with tradition, health, the […]
Nearly two years ago, Bend’s Tosch Roy was prepping for a ski mountaineering race in Bozeman, Mont. when inspiration hit. Using a bulky backpack littered with straps and buckles and other bits unnecessary for an uphill/downhill ski race seemed absurd, Roy said. He knew that at the top of the course he would have to […]
Cowboy hats are undeniably romantic. They are one of the few remaining symbols of the open range, the Wild West—the topper for the iconic silhouette of a cowboy riding toward the horizon in the last glimmers of the Central Oregon daylight. Today, for rural Oregonians, unreliable Wi-Fi connection is likely to be more of a […]
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