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Greenhorn
Greenhorn would be the next mining
site. It is at the 6,270-foot elevation in Greenhorn Mountains ( named for
a particularly shaped peak.) Greenhorn is Oregon’s highest (7,780-ft.
elev.) and smallest incorporated town but lost its post office in 1919.
In the 1900 era, Greenhorn made a little national history. It was
thriving as a gold center but was restricted because its site was
surrounded by forest land. Greenhorn needed space to expand so it could
build a school. Schools could not be built with one-quarter mile of a
saloon and there was just no space. But Mayor Sim Richardson appealed
directly to the President of the United States. In response, he received a
Charter and a land grant for school purposes. Regrettably, the “legal”
school building never materialized but some students were taught, perhaps
“illegally,” in the major hotel before the town began to fade.
Granite
Mining village of 1862 earlier called “Independence.” Name changed to
Granite in 1878 because of quantities of granite (rocks). Population of
several thousand reported but no record of a post office. A Grand Hotel
operated many years until it burned. (Granite is in Grant County.)
From Baker City, proceed
easterly to Keating Valley ( pretty
valley used for raising cattle) had one general store. Used to be a
pheasant hunter’s dream but not much now. From Keating proceed down the
Powder River toward Richland which is in Eagle Valley. Richland is a
cattle and farming area. It is also a few miles from where the Powder
River flows into the backwaters of Brownlee Dam. This was a fisherman's
dream before salmon biologists were afraid the still waters behind the
dams,( first dam is Brownlee, a few miles downstream is Oxbow dam and a
few mile further downstream is Hells Canyon dam.) It was thought to be a
good idea when the salmon had hatched and were of smolt size the dams
should release enough water to “flush” the salmon smolts downstream toward
the Columbia River and then to the Pacific Ocean. Problem was the favorite
fish to catch were crappie, when the crappie laid their eggs along the
shore banks, the water was drawn down to flush the salmon thereby leaving
the crappie eggs high and dry. Fisherman pretty much quit going to
Richland to fish because there were few crappies. Idaho Power now leaves
water behind Brownlee Dam and the crappie has revived and once again is a
popular fishing site.
From Richland, you travel about eleven-mile
over the hill and down into Halfway, Pine Valley, this valley is like
Richland’s, mostly cattle. In the winter Richland gets some snow but
Halfway and Pine Valley gets up to four feet of snow. Reason is Pine
Valley is at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains and as cold air flows down
like water, snow comes down like its in a chute. In the summer time it is
a beautiful valley.
From Halfway, one can proceed to
Cornucopia, the Cornucopia Gold mine came into production about 15
years after the Elkhorn gold rush (this would be Auburn) the town’s name
is from cornucopiae the horn of the goat Amalthaea placed in heaven
overflowing with fruit. Following the highway from Halfway will lead to
Hells Canyon Dam; this is the end of the road. There is a paved road a
ways from Halfway that follows the Imnaha River and over the mountain
leading to Wallowa County and the town of Joseph, Oregon.
Copperfield
A
rowdy mining and railroad village whose population eventually reached
about 1,000. Post office opened July 26, 1899, closed May 15, 1901 then
when railroad pushed its way up the Snake River, including burrowing two
tunnels through basalt to also serve an early power plant, town
re-established to house workers. Post office re-opened July 20, 1907. By
about 1910 rampant lawlessness prevailed. In 1914, Governor Oswald West
sent a dispatch by Miss Fern Hobbs, his secretary, with a squad of
National Guardsmen and a colonel in command, as enforcers, to close all
saloons, seize firearms, burn gambling equipment, clean up the town’s
morals, etc. Local officials refused compliance so Miss Hobbs, displaying
an order from the governor, declared martial law and within only 80
minutes closed the town’s bars, burned the gambling houses, collected
weapons then left her “army” as security while she departed on the waiting
train. After the guardsmen left, nearly all of the town suddenly burned.
Post office survived it all finally closing July 15, 1927. Some say the
town’s lawlessness was an excellent setting for the novel
The Oxbow incident.
Copperfield
Huntington:
Early in the
19th century, persons now of historical significance as Wilson Price Hunt,
Captain Bonmmevill (Bonneville ?) and John C. Fremont passed this way over
what later became known as the Oregon Trail. They camped on the bank of
the Snake River near today’s Farewell Bend State Park.
A little later, a number of trapping parties of the Hudson’s Bay
Company moved through the area following their trapping routes or on their
way to the annual rendezvous in Wyoming. These groups often included such
as Nathaniel Wyeth, Peter Skege Ogden, John Day and Joe Meek.
In 1836, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and Henry and Liza Spalding, and
other missionaries brought the first wagon over what became the Oregon
Trail into the Oregon country. In 1843, Marcus Whitman led the first large
emigrant wagon train through here.
In 1861, R. P. Olds and William Packwood constructed “olds Ferry” to
carry wagons, for a toll, across the Snake River; it was discontinued in
the early 1920’s.
In the late 1870’s, the Miller Stage Line’s station was set up near
the hill at the West End of the main street of the town. It operated until
about 1881 when the Millers sold out to A. H. and J. B. Huntington.
Huntington
Haines
Haines was just a
village by the Powder River with a grand view of timber within reach and
with a popular hot spring. The year was 1863.
This sleepy little place went unnamed for a long time but would cater
to miners, timber men and cattle farmers. With the news that the railroad
would pass through the village, it was founded as the town of Haines in
1883 being named for “Judge” I. D. Haines who owned the land upon which
the town had risen.
Sheep by the thousands would be driven to the Haines stockyards for
rail shipments to markets. Hay, general agricultural produce, cattle and
especially horses for the Army went through the town’s shipping facilities
on the way to their destinations. The town’s founding was open invitation
for entrepreneurs who put up a hotel, boarding houses, saloons, general
stores, blacksmith shops, several livery stables and of course,
bordellos.
Stories still abound about the “Wild West” mystic of Haines. There was
the McCarty gang (a bridge was named for them over I-84 freeway) hangings,
stories of shootouts and of horses being driven into saloons. In 1884 its
post office opened. There was a newspaper (now the Record Courier
of Baker City, a bank, popular hot springs, schools, churches and a jail.
The town was officially incorporated in 1902.
The Hot Springs became a sanitarium and its soothing warm waters
brought patrons from throughout the Northwest.
Like many of the settlements that got off with a kick-start, there
was a time for mellowing then dwindling. Just about everything in town
went on a downward trend. There was the antiquated water works, no sewer
and no money. Realizing that a turn-around had to be done for survival,
the town’s people grappled with dangling bootstraps and all pulled
together.
In latter years a new fire station was built then came a sewer system
through a federal grant. While constructing the system, contractors struck
gold while digging under the railroad tracks. This became a source of
funding for projects and the Chamber of Commerce clamored that Haines had
“gold in the streets.”
In a spirit of levity, Haines was proclaimed to have “whiskey in the
water and gold in the streets.”
The loss of the Baker Mill and Grain Company was a blow to the
community but the company gave the property to the city on which was
created a park.
For years, Dick Camp, who came to Haines and bought Haines commercial
Equipment was instrumental to the town. Dick was a long time mayor and
contributed a lot of his time promoting the town of Haines. Dick Camp was
a remarkable man; I had the pleasure of knowing him.
After Dick died, the city park was renamed Dick Camp Park
Haines
Baker City
Baker City, in
Northeast Oregon, has a truly remarkable past with its period business
buildings, houses and family histories that record its leadership in the
inter-mountain west. Thus , Baker City is not merely a name on a map, it
is “Historic Baker City on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Baker City may have its “antiques,” but Baker City is alive and well.
The City owes it early and dramatic leadership and growth to “gold,”
that magic word that excites the world. This all goes back to the Oregon
Trail that opened the gateway to the West.
For forty years, the Oregon Trail served the trappers, the
missionaries, the settlers, but during that time the isolated Lone Pine
Valley in Northeast Oregon was simply a remote, beautiful green valley
where they rested their animals, fed them and moved on. But in 1861, Henry
griffin changed that when he discovered gold in Griffin Gulch. As the
snows melted the next spring, gold seekers flocked to the Auburn Area and
scattered widely into the hills.
With the frantic search for gold, miners needed food, clothing,
supplies and every bit of civilization that they were used to back home
and wanted in the field. Baker City was in the right place at the right
time and became the major supplier for the opening of the west. The
location of the town was also related to gold.
Among the areas where gold could be found was the Virtue area about
eight miles east of present Baker City. Colonel J. S. Ruckles, the third
owner of the Virtue site, found that ore could be milled quite easily.
This was contrary to most early mining. Many miners seemed to know only
about working the streams for gold dust and few had any working knowledge
of hard rock mining. Ruckles looked for a place where he could have waterpower to crush
his ore. The nearest source was the Powder River, eight miles distant. By
1864, the town of Auburn was beginning to fade in importance but the new
settlement of Baker City was ready. Within one year there was a stage stop
and blacksmith. Soon this way stop grew into a village with a hotel,
livery, saloon and boarding house.
The village became a city because of amazing and rapid growth. Baker
City
Baker County |
