other is rugged precipitous country, with beautiful mountain lakes and other striking scenery. The climate is less temperate than in the western part of the State, and the annual rainfall is from ten to twenty inches. The only farms are on the broad river bottoms, with livestock, wool, and hay as the most important products. There is much gold mining, principally by dredging. Parts of five national forests lie within the region. Industrial activity is restricted largely to lumbering, flourmaking, and gold and copper refining. Highways are being extended as the recreational advantages of the region become more widely recognized. There is one main-line railroad. Baker and La Grande are the largest towns.
The Southeastern Lake Region, including the High Desert, gives a first impression of being an immense wasteland of little value for human use, but it has many undeveloped resources. It extends southward from the Blue-Wallowa Region to the southern state line and contains many lakes, some of which dry up altogether or shrink greatly during the summer. Even some of the larger lakes have been known to evaporate entirely, then fill again. A striking example of this is Goose Lake on the southern boundary. For years settlers had seen the weathered wagon ruts of early emigrant trains leading up to the lake shore, and continuing from the water's edge on the opposite shore, although the lake was too deep to ford. One of the emigrant-train pioneers was asked how the wagons got across. They didn't cross any lake, he said, in their journey. The mystery of the tracks remained; but years later the lake dried up, and there were the wagon ruts leading across its bed and connecting with those on the two shores. Precipitation in most parts of this region amounts to about 10 inches annually. Livestock, principally sheep, is the chief product, although some farm crops are raised in scattered sections, and there is some wild hay. Surface streams and underground water are both scanty. Minerals other than salts from the dry lake beds are rare. There are few improved highways and but one branch railroad. Although the area is generally treeless, portions of the Deschutes and Fremont National Forests have fair stands of pine, in which some lumbering is done. The population is sparse. Burns and Lakeview are the chief towns.
The Snake River Region is a strip along the eastern boundary of the State, consisting of an open plateau from thirty-five hundred to four thousand feet in altitude, with narrow and deeply-cut river valleys low ranges of mountains, detached buttes, rim-rock, and sagebrush plains. It is semi-arid, with only about ten inches of annual rainfall
