Joaquin Miller, one of Grant County’s earliest citizens, could be described as a romantic, lawyer, pony express rider, Indian fighter, husband, father, county judge, poet, surveyor, newspaper publisher, school teacher, miner, horse thief, orchard grower or bum.

Miller was born into a Quaker family in Indiana in about 1839 – Miller himself often gave differing dates. His father was a school teacher and the family headed west by wagon train about the time Cincinnatus Hiner Miller was 15. They arrived in Oregon and settled in the Willamette Valley.

Miller, described as “venturesome, romantic and with a decided urge for the dramatic – lived half a lifetime in his teen years.” He mined for gold and worked as a camp cook during the Northern California gold strike. He was arrested and imprisoned for horse stealing, but soon escaped. Sometime during his mining days he lived with the Shasta Indians and married the daughter of a chief. They had one child before he deserted the mother and child and headed off to his next adventure.

In the Rogue River area he fought Indians raiding parties. In 1857 he studied at Columbia College in Eugene and graduated as valedictorian of this class. The next year was spent teaching school near Fort Vancouver, then he mined in Idaho and began a freight company and stage line in Oro Fino, Idaho.

Returning to Oregon again in 1862, he purchased the Democratic Register newspaper in Eugene. His pro-Southern editorials inflamed the community and the newspaper was suppressed. It was there he also met Theresa Dyer, a poet who wrote under the name Minnie Myrtle. He courted her and married her within a week; their first year a baby girl was born. Wanderlust caught up with Miller again and the small family headed east to the mining town on Canyon City, where he brought with him a small herd of livestock and the starts for an orchard. The family settled into a cabin on Rebel Hill and Miller planted the first orchard in the area.

The home was well furnished and situated with an east view, surrounded by ornamental trees. He hung out his shingle as a lawyer and took to writing poetry. In 1866, he became a candidate for the office of county judge. Men who had known him in other places and times were “asked to let bygones be bygones.” Miller was successfully elected and installed as judge. He continued to study law and write poetry and also organized a local Literature and Debating Society. Meanwhile, Minnie felt neglected and Miller was deserted by his unhappy wife. When Miller left Canyon City, he turned strictly to writing, never again to practice law.

Now know as Joaquin, he went to California and completed a volume of poetry titled “Songs of the Sierras,” but could not find a publisher in the United States. He traveled to London where the book was published and he became known as the “Poet of the Sierras.” He returned to Oregon and San Francisco but did not find the acclaim he needed and soon returned to Europe. He traveled and lived there for an extended period and wrote book after book – about 25 volumes of poetry, novels and plays.

Still following adventure, he took part in the aborted Walker Revolution attempt in Nicaragua, wrote for newspapers during the Boxer Rebellion and joined the gold rush in the Alaskan Klondike. He finally bought land in the hills east of Oakland, Calif., planted orchards, built a home and lived there with his mother and brother until he died in 1913.

Joaquin Miller is a small but very colorful part of Grant County history!

Jayne Primrose of Canyon City is curator of the Grant County Historical Museum.