Enthusiast III
June 2017
9 days- 13 ghost towns, a geyser, and a museum. Itinerary is based on leaving from Bay Area
Anybody want to go
Eastern Oregon Ghost Towns
Summer 2017
We will leave the bay area on Saturday June 17thand be back home on Sunday June 25th.I hope to camp most of it with a motel or a KOA on Wednesdayto wash off a bit. I anticapate having my camp trailer which would be the community camp kitchen, meaning that you would need to bring shelter, sleeping bags, personels, and a camera.
This is a rough schedule and rough ideas, and am hoping for some feedback and ideas from you. My proposed itinerary and a little about the places we'll see.
354 miles (5-1/2 hours) Klamath Falls. We will start off by seeing the Favell museum. http://www.favellmuseum.org
Sunday 217 miles (4hours) Shaniko. The town's heyday was the first decade of the 20th century, when Shaniko served as a transportation hub spurred by the presence of the Columbia Southern Railway, a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad, which built a branch from Biggs Junction to a terminus in Shaniko. That branch was completed in May 1900. At the time, the city was known as the "Wool Capital of the World", and it was the center of 20,000 square miles of wool, wheat, cattle and sheep production, with no other such center east of the Cascade Range in Oregon. The region served by the city even stretched into Idaho, south to Klamath Falls, Oregon, and beyond, because of rail connections to the main line.
81 miles (1-1/2 hours). Condon was the southern terminus of the Condon Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1883, a local homesteader named Potter platted the land around a spring on his property. The spring, which emerged from a bed of black basalt, was known to pioneer ranchers in the area as Summit Springs. Experiencing financial difficulty, Potter surrendered the site to the legal firm Condon and Cornish from Arlington. Harvey C. Condon, a member of the firm, was a nephew of Oregon geologist Thomas Condon. Condon and Cornish sold lots in the townsite and in 1884, resident David B. Trimble applied for a post office and became its first postmaster. He named the post office Condon after Harvey C. Condon.
21 miles (40 minutes). Lonerock was founded in 1881 as a service center for the surrounding ranches. It was named for an unusual, 35-foot high lone rock which still stands in the town near the old Methodist church. The city's population grew from 68 in 1900 to 70 in 1910, 73 in 1920 and then to a high of 82 in 1930. By the 1940 census, Lonerock's population dwindled to 46, and continued to drop to 38 in 1950, 31 in 1960, and then bottomed out to 12 residents in 1970. The city grew to 26 citizens in 1980, before falling to 11 in the 1990.
Monday 21 miles (1-1/2 hour) Hardman. The first settlers in the area were John F. Royse and his brother. Royse started a school in 1879 at a place called Dairyville, which locals referred to as "Rawdog". At the same time, David N. Hardman, who arrived in the county in 1878, started a settlement a mile to the southeast. A post office named Hardman was established there in 1881 with Hardman as postmaster. A mile to the northwest of Dairyville was the community of Adamsville, known to the locals as "Yallerdog". In 1882, the Hardman post office was moved to Dairyville but retained the Hardman name. Adamsville post office was established in 1884 and closed in 1885, and thereafter, all activity centered on what is now Hardman, where the post office ran intermittently until 1968. Locals called the place "Dogtown" after its two predecessors. Why the locals named these communities after dogs is unknown
110 miles (2-1/2 hours) Galena. The locale was settled in 1865 as a mining community on the Middle Fork John Day River near its confluence with Elk Creek. The town was named Susanville after one of the earliest inhabitants, Susan Ward. Galena post office was established in 1901 when a group of miners were able to get the Susanville post office moved from the current site of Galena two miles up Elk Creek to their mine. The new post office was named for a body of galena ore in the area, and the town was renamed as well. The mines were worked extensively in the 1860s and were still active in 1940.
30 miles (1-1/2 hours). Greenhorn was first populated in the 1860s as miners prospected for gold in the area. It was platted in 1904, though it lost two-thirds of its population between 1900 and 1910. The mining district was composed first of placer mines, but soon many lode gold mines developed. The city was incorporated in 1903. It continued as a viable community until 1942 when gold mining was made illegal by Federal Public Law 208 during World War II. In later years, the old Greenhorn Jail (dating to 1910) was removed to Canyon City under suspicious circumstances. A court case ensued for its return, but because the city straddles the Blue Mountain ridge, the district attorneys of Baker County and Grant County could not even agree in which court house it should be held. The case was eventually heard by the Circuit Court for Grant County in Canyon City. The jail remains in Canyon City.[citation needed.
Tuesday 14 miles (35 minutes) Granite. First established by miners after the discovery of gold along Granite Creek on July 4, 1862, the area was originally called Granite Creek Mines. During the following year, a settlement called Granite City was established about 1.5 miles downstream of where Granite City is now. It was moved to its current location in 1867 and renamed Independence after the date—July 4, or Independence Day—of the earlier gold discovery. However, when the community's post office was established in 1878, it could not use the name Independence because that name was already taken by another Oregon city. Instead, the name Granite was chosen. The post office closed in 1957, but the city retained the name. The creek takes it name from the granite rocks that are common to the area.
17 miles (27 minutes). A narrow gauge railway reached Sumpter in 1897. Built by David C. Eccles, the Sumpter Valley Railway (SVR) ran 80 miles from Baker City through Sumpter and on to Prairie City, which it reached in 1907. Until the line shut down in the 1930s, ranchers, mining interests, and timber companies used it to move freight. Shortly after the SVR arrived, the city expanded near a set of deep-shaft gold mines with a combined total of 12 miles of tunnels. The population grew to more than 2,000. Sumpter had electric lights, churches, saloons, a brewery, sidewalks, three newspapers, and an opera house. However, as the mines played out, the city declined even before a devastating fire in 1917. Dynamite was used to help put out the fire, which destroyed 12 blocks of the town's buildings. A few of the surviving structures remain in the 21st century and are occupied by retail shops.
7 miles (20 minutes) Bourne. Origanally named "Cracker City",[3] Bourne is named after Senator Jonathan Bourne, Jr., who was interested in Eastern Oregon mines for a time. Bourne post office was established in 1895 and closed in 1927
35 miles (1 hour) Baker City. An RV park with shower amenities for the evening
Wednesday will be an option day of hanging out and relaxing or going for a 1 day rafting trip down the Hell Hole canyon of the Snake River. Its about a 1-1/2 hour drive to raft facility and at writting, about $200 per person.
Thursday 100 miles (2-1/2 hours). Cornucopia is a ghost town of the gold mining boom of the 1880s in Eastern Oregon, United States. The name of the town was chosen since it meant "Horn of Plenty".Gold was discovered in Cornucopia in 1884. The town was platted in 1886.It is located east of Baker City high in the mountains of Pine Valley almost due north of Halfway, Oregon, on Oregon Route 86.
Friday to Winimucca NV. We will go cross country (desert) to 7 troughs ghost town and the Fly Geyser
Saturday we will explore the region of Lovelock, Unionville, and the black desert. Sunday will be a travel day home via Highway 80.
9 days- 13 ghost towns, a geyser, and a museum. Itinerary is based on leaving from Bay Area
Anybody want to go
Eastern Oregon Ghost Towns
Summer 2017
We will leave the bay area on Saturday June 17thand be back home on Sunday June 25th.I hope to camp most of it with a motel or a KOA on Wednesdayto wash off a bit. I anticapate having my camp trailer which would be the community camp kitchen, meaning that you would need to bring shelter, sleeping bags, personels, and a camera.
This is a rough schedule and rough ideas, and am hoping for some feedback and ideas from you. My proposed itinerary and a little about the places we'll see.
354 miles (5-1/2 hours) Klamath Falls. We will start off by seeing the Favell museum. http://www.favellmuseum.org
Sunday 217 miles (4hours) Shaniko. The town's heyday was the first decade of the 20th century, when Shaniko served as a transportation hub spurred by the presence of the Columbia Southern Railway, a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad, which built a branch from Biggs Junction to a terminus in Shaniko. That branch was completed in May 1900. At the time, the city was known as the "Wool Capital of the World", and it was the center of 20,000 square miles of wool, wheat, cattle and sheep production, with no other such center east of the Cascade Range in Oregon. The region served by the city even stretched into Idaho, south to Klamath Falls, Oregon, and beyond, because of rail connections to the main line.
81 miles (1-1/2 hours). Condon was the southern terminus of the Condon Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1883, a local homesteader named Potter platted the land around a spring on his property. The spring, which emerged from a bed of black basalt, was known to pioneer ranchers in the area as Summit Springs. Experiencing financial difficulty, Potter surrendered the site to the legal firm Condon and Cornish from Arlington. Harvey C. Condon, a member of the firm, was a nephew of Oregon geologist Thomas Condon. Condon and Cornish sold lots in the townsite and in 1884, resident David B. Trimble applied for a post office and became its first postmaster. He named the post office Condon after Harvey C. Condon.
21 miles (40 minutes). Lonerock was founded in 1881 as a service center for the surrounding ranches. It was named for an unusual, 35-foot high lone rock which still stands in the town near the old Methodist church. The city's population grew from 68 in 1900 to 70 in 1910, 73 in 1920 and then to a high of 82 in 1930. By the 1940 census, Lonerock's population dwindled to 46, and continued to drop to 38 in 1950, 31 in 1960, and then bottomed out to 12 residents in 1970. The city grew to 26 citizens in 1980, before falling to 11 in the 1990.
Monday 21 miles (1-1/2 hour) Hardman. The first settlers in the area were John F. Royse and his brother. Royse started a school in 1879 at a place called Dairyville, which locals referred to as "Rawdog". At the same time, David N. Hardman, who arrived in the county in 1878, started a settlement a mile to the southeast. A post office named Hardman was established there in 1881 with Hardman as postmaster. A mile to the northwest of Dairyville was the community of Adamsville, known to the locals as "Yallerdog". In 1882, the Hardman post office was moved to Dairyville but retained the Hardman name. Adamsville post office was established in 1884 and closed in 1885, and thereafter, all activity centered on what is now Hardman, where the post office ran intermittently until 1968. Locals called the place "Dogtown" after its two predecessors. Why the locals named these communities after dogs is unknown
110 miles (2-1/2 hours) Galena. The locale was settled in 1865 as a mining community on the Middle Fork John Day River near its confluence with Elk Creek. The town was named Susanville after one of the earliest inhabitants, Susan Ward. Galena post office was established in 1901 when a group of miners were able to get the Susanville post office moved from the current site of Galena two miles up Elk Creek to their mine. The new post office was named for a body of galena ore in the area, and the town was renamed as well. The mines were worked extensively in the 1860s and were still active in 1940.
30 miles (1-1/2 hours). Greenhorn was first populated in the 1860s as miners prospected for gold in the area. It was platted in 1904, though it lost two-thirds of its population between 1900 and 1910. The mining district was composed first of placer mines, but soon many lode gold mines developed. The city was incorporated in 1903. It continued as a viable community until 1942 when gold mining was made illegal by Federal Public Law 208 during World War II. In later years, the old Greenhorn Jail (dating to 1910) was removed to Canyon City under suspicious circumstances. A court case ensued for its return, but because the city straddles the Blue Mountain ridge, the district attorneys of Baker County and Grant County could not even agree in which court house it should be held. The case was eventually heard by the Circuit Court for Grant County in Canyon City. The jail remains in Canyon City.[citation needed.
Tuesday 14 miles (35 minutes) Granite. First established by miners after the discovery of gold along Granite Creek on July 4, 1862, the area was originally called Granite Creek Mines. During the following year, a settlement called Granite City was established about 1.5 miles downstream of where Granite City is now. It was moved to its current location in 1867 and renamed Independence after the date—July 4, or Independence Day—of the earlier gold discovery. However, when the community's post office was established in 1878, it could not use the name Independence because that name was already taken by another Oregon city. Instead, the name Granite was chosen. The post office closed in 1957, but the city retained the name. The creek takes it name from the granite rocks that are common to the area.
17 miles (27 minutes). A narrow gauge railway reached Sumpter in 1897. Built by David C. Eccles, the Sumpter Valley Railway (SVR) ran 80 miles from Baker City through Sumpter and on to Prairie City, which it reached in 1907. Until the line shut down in the 1930s, ranchers, mining interests, and timber companies used it to move freight. Shortly after the SVR arrived, the city expanded near a set of deep-shaft gold mines with a combined total of 12 miles of tunnels. The population grew to more than 2,000. Sumpter had electric lights, churches, saloons, a brewery, sidewalks, three newspapers, and an opera house. However, as the mines played out, the city declined even before a devastating fire in 1917. Dynamite was used to help put out the fire, which destroyed 12 blocks of the town's buildings. A few of the surviving structures remain in the 21st century and are occupied by retail shops.
7 miles (20 minutes) Bourne. Origanally named "Cracker City",[3] Bourne is named after Senator Jonathan Bourne, Jr., who was interested in Eastern Oregon mines for a time. Bourne post office was established in 1895 and closed in 1927
35 miles (1 hour) Baker City. An RV park with shower amenities for the evening
Wednesday will be an option day of hanging out and relaxing or going for a 1 day rafting trip down the Hell Hole canyon of the Snake River. Its about a 1-1/2 hour drive to raft facility and at writting, about $200 per person.
Thursday 100 miles (2-1/2 hours). Cornucopia is a ghost town of the gold mining boom of the 1880s in Eastern Oregon, United States. The name of the town was chosen since it meant "Horn of Plenty".Gold was discovered in Cornucopia in 1884. The town was platted in 1886.It is located east of Baker City high in the mountains of Pine Valley almost due north of Halfway, Oregon, on Oregon Route 86.
Friday to Winimucca NV. We will go cross country (desert) to 7 troughs ghost town and the Fly Geyser
Saturday we will explore the region of Lovelock, Unionville, and the black desert. Sunday will be a travel day home via Highway 80.
