Pine Valley History

The first white settler in Pine Valley is believed to be Charles Fee. Fee was born in South Carolina but came out west around 1850 and served as a scout in the Rogue River Indian Wars later came to Pine Valley to trap beaver. Dunham Wright, who passed through the valley in 1862 with the Tim Goodall wagon train, said Fee was the only white settler in the valley at the time. Fee was still living in Pine Valley in 1870 when J. W. Gray and his son came to the valley looking for stock range. The Grays built a cabin but a big snowstorm convinced them to leave and they traded their cabin to Fee for two beaver skins. Fee finished the cabin and lived there up until 1876, when he sold the cabin and squatters rights to Reese Pindell. Fee was loved by all Pine Valley residents and was a good friend of the Umatilla and Nez Perce Indians who roamed the country. Fee was known to have hauled a sick Indian 25 miles to the Chinese doctor in Sparta with an ox team and wagon. Charles Fee lived in Pine Valley until 1902, when he returned to Indiana. The site of Charles Fee's first cabin in Pine Valley is near the present day Fair Grounds. Reese Pindell bought some lumber from the old Gem mining town west of Sparta and built the first lumber house in Pine Valley. Although it was moved to the Fair Grounds in the late 1990's, the house has since been destroyed.