Our Unique Amenity of Our Tygh Valley Lodging
Our Tygh Valley lodging includes access to the White River Store, which is located on Tygh Valley Road, an easy 2-minute walk just southwest of Redband Lodge.
The White River Store has a long and interesting history. Renovation beginning in 2022 revealed an underlying original structure built of rough-hewn logs. After making this discovery, the owners’ conferred with Jermayne Tuckta, Archives Special Projects, at The Museum at Warm Springs. According to Mr. Tuckta, the store is located within a mile of the Klamath Trail and a location where the Tygh Indians wintered, suggesting the store may originally have served as a general store or trading post in the early 1900s or possibly earlier. The owners have been working with Oregon State University (OSU) to pinpoint the exact age of the store by using a dendrochronological technique that cross dates “tree cookies” cut from the original log structure with other data collected in the area by OSU.
As Tygh Valley grew, the store became Ted’s Haven Rest where travelers from The Dalles would spend the night before continuing their journey south on The Dalles-California Highway (which later became Highway 197). At some point, the store was converted into a Red & White rural grocery store and remained a grocery store until the 1990s when the local Mountain Fir sawmill closed. The property was also used during that period by the sawmill as a log-holding yard. Shortly after the sawmill closed, the local Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) utilized the building as its meeting place until around 2010.
The owners bought the building and incorporated it into the Redband Lodge property in 2020. Currently, the store is available to Redband Lodge guests only. Come explore the historic nature of the building and peruse a small collection of handmade, quality works and products made by local artists, makers, and producers. If of interest, display products can be bought directly while exploring the area or we can connect you directly with the maker.
