Page "Lake County, Oregon" Paragraph 6

Lake County once hosted significant populations of Basque and Irish sheepherders.

Disputes over grazing rights, exacerbated by the introduction of wheat farming, led to the eruption of range wars between cattle ranchers and sheep herders.

At least one band of masked rifle-armed cattlemen killed sheep in the northern part of the county and in Deschutes County during the early 20th century and they came to be known as " sheepshooters ".

According to the Oregon History Project, 2, 300 sheep were killed in a single night in April 1904 in Lake County.