C. Giles Hunt Charitable Trust

About the Foundation C. Giles Hunt was born December 28, 1883, the youngest son of three children of Jeptha and Nancy Hunt, who came to the Fair Oaks area near Sutherlin in Douglas County, Oregon from Indiana in 1870. They settled on what was the old Hoskins Donation Land Claim. Reports indicate that Jeptha Hunt traveled a great deal and reportedly made his fortune in construction and gold mining in California. The three Hunt children lived their entire lives in Douglas County, Oregon and none of them ever married. In 1905 Giles and his brother bought the old Prairie Kilburn ranch where Gassy Creek meets Calapooya Creek in Douglas County. In addition to the three thousand acres there, the Hunt estate also included three hundred acres near Oakland which was owned by Giles’ sister. The two brothers operated the ranch as a partnership raising sheep until coyotes discouraged that, and in later years, running a few cattle. In addition to their sheep, the Hunt brothers supplemented their income by occasionally harvesting portions of the eight million board feet of timber growing on the ranch. The two brothers lived on the ranch from 1906 until their deaths. The log house they had built together 50 years earlier was destroyed by fire in 1972. Giles lived alone in a new house, more modern, but equally modest, built on the log cabin foundation. It’s interesting to note that for the last 45 years of his life, Mr. Hunt usually slept outdoors on his front porch. He was apparently advised many years before, after a tuberculosis scare, to get plenty of fresh air. At the time of his death, his bed was located on the unenclosed porch, covered only by blankets and a canvas tarp. C. Giles Hunt died on July 30, 1973. Mission To carry out Mr. Hunt’s wish to support charities operating within or benefiting residents of Douglas County, Oregon. The trust may also provide more general charitable support, in the trustee’s discretion.