What do you know about Fort Rock, Oregon (Bend, La Pine: houses, place to live)

[fleetwood450]

Thinking of moving to Bend area, thought LaPine would be rural enough but understand it is getting overflow from Bend. What about the Fort Rock area? Is it a growing area? Does the town have DSL service etc Thanks

[PNW-type-gal]

There is virtually nothing there other than the State Park, which consists of a very cool tuff ring and a small homestead museum. There isn't really even a town - I think there is a small church, a general store and a diner. I think there are maybe 120 people in the entire zip code.

[skypros]

The outskirts of LaPine are pretty Rural !!

Fort Rock is really rural.... and as for "services" there.... I think you would be lucky to have electricity there.

[Deezus]

It's a great place to go hiking and take some photos(it looks like Utah or Nevada)--but do many people actually live near there? It's like 2 hours to La Pine or Bend, but I don't remember seeing many if any towns out there...or many houses at all(or much of anything).

[delta07]

As others have already stated, there really isn't much to Fort Rock. It doesn't even show up on the City Data location information. It's definitely not a growing area and I don't anticipate that to change anytime in the near future. It's probably an area in decline, actually. The Oregon high desert is a hard place to live. I think you need to actually head out this way to see it for yourself. La Pine is still pretty darn rural and would probably suits your needs better. I am doubtful that you can get any sort of Internet out in Fort Rock, unless it's satellite (but don't quote me on that, it's a guess).

This seems to be the only information I can find about the community in Fort Rock. Not much info out there. Fort Rock, Oregon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Fork Rock is the location of some of the oldest Native American artifacts yet discovered. It is a beautiful area, surrounded by large farms.

I'm not sure if there are any smaller properties located there, but I do know that getting a permit to sink a well is just about impossible. Too many permits were issued for Fort Rock and Christmas Valley and the farms were drawing down the aquifer at a much faster rate than it was being replaced.

As for DSL, call the provider and ask them. Yes, of course there is electricity.

It's a very long drive to get to shopping or hospitals.

[neguy99]

I've been to the Fort Rock area for hiking and photography.

Fort Rock itself is, at best, a couple of hay weighing stations and a general store / gas station run out of a single-wide trailer, which I think was even closed when I drove through in 2012. That and a spread out ranch house or three. I'm pretty sure there is not a restaurant. There really is no 'there' there.

Counting from the crossroads that counts as the official location of the 'town', there can't be more than 10 people who live within a mile, and probably not more than fifty who live within five miles. Whether that's good or bad is your call.

There is a bit more to Christmas Valley, but that's another 25 miles farther away from Bend & La Pine, pop 1,500 but spread out. That has a real Chevron station with mini-mart grocery, a hardware & farm supply store, and diner-style restaurant or two. And a golf course oddly enough. The scenery isn't as nice as the Fort Rock side of the valley (more flat and dusty, less cool rock formations) and its farther from public lands where you can hike; it's mostly hay and alfalfa farms.

They do have electricity and some sort of internet service, and good cell coverage now (as recently as 2002, there was no cell coverage at all once you got a few miles out OR 31 from LaPine). But it is way, way out there. Pretty much two hours to the next town in every direction -- plus it's not on the way to anywhere, not served by a state highway, so very few people are going in or out, no trucks passing through, etc.

Now that I think about it, Christmas Valley did feel rather odd that way: 1,500 people is actually not small by Oregon high desert standards (La Pine is barely 2,000) yet no one has heard of it, and it feels vastly more isolated than much smaller towns on main roads.