Native Americans lived in Central Oregon for thousands of years before the arrival of Euro-American settlers.

The high desert animals, birds, and plants provided food for these early inhabitants.

While low annual rainfall limited farming, the area's open grasslands were ideal for grazing cattle and sheep.

During the spring and summer, cattle and sheep herds used high elevation pastures in the Ochoco and Blue mountains.

Lured by the opportunity to acquire a Homestead Act land grant, Roba moved to Central Oregon in 1888.

By 1889, George had accumulated a small herd of sheep and earned enough money to send for his family.

The conflict ended in 1906, when the United States Government began issuing grazing permit to control the use of Oregon's public lands.

In 1910, Roba and his sons, Joseph and George Jr. constructed a new ranch house from stone they cut from a quarry on their property.

In the 1980s, a new barn, machine shop, and a vehicle and equipment storage building were constructed at the ranch.

It is mostly grasslands surrounded by rim rocks and gently rolling hills covered in Western juniper and Ponderosa pine trees.

[2][5][10] The undeveloped parts of the Roba Ranch are dominated by native vegetation, predominately sagebrush and desert grasses.

Common shrubs and wild flowers include bitterbrush, bitterroot, larkspur, and Indian Paintbrush.

[2][11][12] The ranch supports a wide variety of wildlife including mule deer, pronghorn antelope, coyote, American badger, jackrabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks.

All of the structures on the ranch except the original barn were built by the Roba family using logs, lumber, hand-cut shingles, bricks, and locally quarried tuff stone.

The new barn is a long, gable-roof building with a wood-frame, vertical wooden siding, and corrugated metal roof.

The nearest town is the small unincorporated community of Paulina, Oregon, 10 miles (16 km) south of the ranch property.