Native Americans were present in the Warner Valley for thousands of years before European explorers arrived in the 19th century.

The Warner Valley offers a number of recreational opportunities including hunting, fishing, bird watching, and wildlife viewing.

[1][3][4][5] The country to the north and east of the Warner Valley is a high volcanic plateau which has undergone considerable erosion.

In that area, the valley floor is bounded on three sides by perpendicular cliffs from 1,500 to 2,000 feet (460 to 610 m) high, the result of numerous fault events.

The mountain mass forming the western border of the South Warner Valley is a steep fault scarp.

[9] Air movements brought about by the uneven temperatures in the valley and on the surrounding higher plateaus and mountains give rise to local winds.

These include lake, marsh, riparian, grasslands, sage steppe, dry forest, and rimrock.

Much of the North Warner Valley is semi-desert, where dwarf sagebrush, greasewood, and Western Juniper are the dominant vegetation.

[1][3][10] The valley’s wildlife includes common high desert mammal species, resident birds, and migrant waterfowl.

These include pronghorn, bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, cougar, bobcat, and coyotes.

[3] Species that nest in the areas around Crump Lake and Hart Lake include American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, willets, Wilson's phalaropes, Canada geese, gadwalls, northern shovelers, black-crowned night herons, and numerous varieties of ducks and terns.

In addition, sandhill cranes, white-faced ibis, great white egrets, and American avocets are found in the marshes and along the lake shores.

At the Warner Wetlands Area of Critical Environmental Concern, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, there are observation blinds where American bitterns, black-necked stilts, cinnamon teal, tundra swans, Brewer's blackbirds, western meadowlarks, swallows, and nighthawks are commonly seen.

The Greaser Petroglyph Site, in the South Warner Valley, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[12][13][14] The first European explorer to enter the valley was probably John Work, who headed a Hudson's Bay Company trapping expedition in 1832.

In 1864, Lieutenant Colonel C. S. Drew of the 1st Oregon Cavalry visited the valley while on a long-range reconnaissance patrol.

[5] In 1865, the Army decided it needed a fort in the Warner Valley to facilitate the interdiction of Indian raiding parties passing through the area.

Army scouts selected a site along Honey Creek on the west side of the Warner Lakes.

The Stone Bridge was completed that summer and the soldiers moved into the new camp, which was named Fort Warner.

Congress allowed the construction company to claim three sections of land for every mile of road built.

As a result, road surveyors laid out a route designed to pass through as much well-watered, desirable land as possible.

Nevertheless, the construction company was able to secure thousands of acres of valuable grazing land in the Warner Valley.

Because of the short growing season, the valley’s principal crops are wild hay, alfalfa, clover, and timothy-grass.

These public lands offer numerous recreational opportunities including hunting, fishing, bird watching, wildlife viewing, boating, and camping.

There are public restrooms, sheltered picnic tables, and hiking trails at the Bureau of Land Management's Warner Wetlands Interpretive Site at Hart Bar.