Frenchglen provides services (but no gas) for Steens Mountain visitors and is the point of departure for the Steens Loop Tour Route (number 5). You may also access the Donner und Blitzen River from here which offers excellent angling for redband trout, a species of rainbow trout indigenous to the high desert region. Outdoor activities within the area include hiking, horseback riding, camping, birding, fishing and winter recreation. One of the focal points of Frenchglen is the historic Frenchglen Hotel which was built in the mid-1920s and remodeled in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It's an excellent example of American Foursquare architecture and is still open today, providing lodging and family-style meals.

Mr. French and Mr. Glen:

In the 1850s, word of the lush grassland around current day Frenchglen attracted stockmen, who moved their cattle to the region. Among them was John W. "Peter" French, who arrived from California in 1872 with 1000 head under the auspices of Hugh Glen, a wealthy California stock owner and his father-in- law. French soon fenced the entire Blitzen River Valley for his herd numbering over 40,000. Some valley residents resented French and his empire. In 1897, he was allegedly shot and killed by a homesteader named Ed Oliver over a fencing dispute; Oliver was acquitted.