Sisters Timeline

7,700 years ago...Evidence of First Americans moving into Sisters Country, using these lands for huckleberry, root and nut gathering, fishing and hunting.

1805  Lewis and Clark note the snow-capped peaks of the “Western Mountains” (Cascade Range), and name Mt. Jefferson after the President who sent them on their journey.

1859  A group of men from Lebanon, Oregon, scout a route for eastern road over Cascades; it becomes Santiam Wagon Road, completed in 1865.

1865  Captain Charles LaFollette and forty men from Company A, 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry, establish a military camp at Camp Polk.

1870  Samuel Hindman and family, one of the first settlers in Central Oregon, establishes a homestead near the abandoned Camp Polk.

1895 Squaw Creek (Whychus Creek) Irrigation District organized.

1912  Hotel Sisters built.

1923  Fire destroys buildings on Cascade Avenue, including businesses and residences, one being the Sisters Drug Store and Post Office. 

1924  Fire starts in a defective flue in the Gist Hotel, destroying buildings on both sides of Cascade Avenue between Fir and Spruce.

1937  Separate Sisters High School building built. (This brick building is now used as the school district administration offices and is on the National Register of Historic Places.)

1946  Sisters becomes an incorporated city.

1968  Sisters High School closed; students bussed to Redmond High School.

1971  Black Butte Ranch, the Brooks Resources resort, begins selling lots and Big Meadow Golf Course opens.

1975  Jean Wells and Cathi Howell begin the first annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show; eleven quilts exhibited. 2025 is the 50th anniversary show, and is always held the second Saturday of July.

1992  New Sisters High School (now Sisters Middle School) opens, taking old mascot name: Outlaws.

2003  New Sisters High School opens. B&B Complex Fire.

2006  Squaw Creek renamed Whychus Creek.

2014  Cascade Avenue/Highway 20 undergoes complete renovation.

2017  New roundabout installed at Highway 20 and Barclay Drive at the west end of Sisters.

2024  New roundabout installed at Highway 20 and Locust Street at the east end of Sisters.

2024  New Sisters Elementary School opened. Sisters now has a three-school campus located in close proximity at the west end of town. Sisters Park & Recreation District took over the former elementary school site as a new community center, which will include a new public park.

Information in this timeline was graciously provided  by Three Sisters Historical Society.