Eastern and Central Oregon Ghost town trip

[hamellr]

I visited 13 ghost town locations this weekend. A few were new locations to me with some interesting sights, a couple were old locations that I was revisiting to see changes. And some were rest breaks from the 90+ degree weather. In all I drove just under 900 miles, 200 at least were on dirt roads.

The first stop while not a Ghost Town per say is still interesting. Echo Oregon is located about twenty miles west of Pendleton. Signs on Highway 84 point towards it's historic downtown. This town could easily take a day to explore by itself, with over a dozen historic buildings (all labeled with history signs,) an nearly complete farm outside of town (13 more buildings,) and the remains of Fort Henrietta are all present. This doesn't include the multitude of old farm houses and barns in various states of repair in the immediate area.







http://www.1nova.com/photoblog/wp-co...7/Old-Barn.jpg

More pictures around town, including a few of the multiple history signs can be found here.

Unfortunately, even though this was my first day, I had several sites to seek out so didn't explore Echo anywhere near as much as it deserves.

[hamellr]

After fueling up in La Grande, and grabbing a few extra supplies, namely cold drinks (it was up to 95 by early afternoon,) I back tracked a few miles to the Ukiah-Hilgard Highway (244), then took the Grand Ronde River/Mt. Emily/National Forest Develop Road 51. I passed by Starky's Station, a grocery and fuel stop. If you look a Google Maps, the town of Starky is labeled several miles to the west of this location. As such it's on my list to check out in the future.

Here in the heart of the Wallowa mountains and the Whitman National Forest, evidence of early settlers is prevalent. I'm not sure if this old house and barn are maintained by the US Forest Service as an outpost for the area, or belongs to some local farmer, but it's in very good shape and looks lived in.

[hamellr]

Next stop was Cabell City, which is a new ghost town to me. I happened to find it as I was planning out my trip.

Cabell City is easily located on Google Maps but is behind a locked gate off of National Forest Develop Road 7335. There is a very faded sign on the gate that says "Please do not block gate," but nothing saying to stay out. But a few yards up the road there was a fairly new RV trailer sitting in a small well used clearing and signs of local wood cutting.

A few yards past that is a sign pointing to the cemetery. Oregon Geographic Names states that Fred Cabell, his wife Johanna and their eight year old daughter are buried in this plot. The Cemetery is obviously maintained by the US Forest Service.



Up the road a few more yards are several small outbuildings, a mine processing building and a house.




Another Ghost Towner found more buildings then I did, but it took me so long to find this location that I was worried about daylight and being able to find a place to camp the night so I didn't look around too much. But, there are several ATV trails in the area, and the other GTer reports rails, the mine shaft, and a couple of barns with equipment dating from the 1930's to 1940's (and possibly as late at 1970's) in the area. It's obvious the town has a caretaker as evidenced by the brand new RV trailer behind the locked gate, but again, there was not a single "No Trespassing" sign that I could find.

[hamellr]

Just a few miles down National Forest Service Develop 73 Road is an abandoned log cabin up on the left.





It's just a mile or so north of the Ah Hee Diggings Interpretive Site, so I assume it's related somehow. The site has been well visited. The sides of the road are worn down from parked vehicles, and a couple of 2x8s were laid across the small river to provide closer access.

Strewn about the area was a variety of scrap metal pieces, including the rear half body of a Ford Model T that had been folded in upon itself so that it was flat. The cabin windows were covered with canvas at one time, almost all of which has been ripped out. Inside sat a single chair, a 1960's futuristic stainless steel kitchen table chair.

I assumed at first that the building on the right was a shed to cover a saw mill as it looks similar to other saw mills that I’ve seen. Unfortunately it’s been so exposed to the elements that it’s impossible to tell. If there ever was a saw mill there, it’s long gone.

The cabin had an interesting layout. There was a small entrance area or porch about 6×10 feet. Windows seemed to surround it, you can see where they were boarded up at one point. There is an entrance into the larger room where the chair was sitting in the middle. The floor was wood, not dirt as I expected. On the far side of the larger room was another door to what looks like a small stable or storage area.

[hamellr]

I was not expecting the town of Granite. The location itself snuck up on me as I was busy looking for a camp site or camp ground. Granite was on my list of locations to visit though, so I swung in. Again, due to the time of day and a lack of time, I didn't have time to explore as much as I wanted.

But the town of Granite in 2011 is not the same as it was in 1990. In addition to the dozen plus original buildings are a dozen new houses, a hotel, a restaurant, and evidence of restoration. Each of the historic buildings has a numbered plaque and a one or two word description as to it's function. It's obvious the town is really working the tourist angle that has been so successful for places like Sumpter and Shaniko.









While a lot of these photos look like bad photography, most of the buildings are in fact not straight. The General Store has a definite bow in the middle, while the drug store leans precariously to the right.

[hamellr]

Just outside of Granite was a small camp ground, the name of which I failed to get. Mostly because it was full, and only an hour until dark. I ended up driving up an old logging road and found a wide spot to make camp. I was close enough to see a small part of the Bull Run to Baker Road 2400 below me. As I was making dinner, I heard a couple of motor cycles pull over and guys yelling. The next thing I know, three does are running up the hill directly towards me. Two cut to the left, while the third one stopped in it's tracks and snorted at me before cutting to the right and disappearing into the brush. I half expected the voices to follow them up, but they left a few minutes later.

Despite that, the night was extremely pleasant. I didn't need a fire to keep warm and wore shorts and T-shirt before crawling into the tent. This was after a good hour of star gazing, as I always forget how beautiful the sky is when away from the city.

[bad bob]

Beautiful scenic photos of the towns and pine tree country Rick, my fav place to be. You and Barnbum are exploring up in the same vicinity of Oregon, though they actually live in the area, and I notice you are outta Portland. Anyway, thanks for posting them, especially for those of us that don't get around much these days. Course I'd always be interested to see photos of the remaining 13 GTs.

There are still a few others up there such as Flora, Joseph, etc that haven't been covered in quite some time. Are you planning to head back to the same general area, or try another section of OR sometime?

OK I didn't know you were still adding more pics, when I was writing this msg. The photos don't look a bit like "bad" photography to me, and I've been an amateur camerabug for about 40 years. "Good on ya mate", as Peg Leg Pete would say.

[hamellr]

Beautiful scenic photos of the towns and pine tree country Rick, my fav place to be. You and Barnbum are exploring up in the same vicinity of Oregon, though they actually live in the area, and I notice you are outta Portland. Anyway, thanks for posting them, especially for those of us that don't get around much these days. Course I'd always be interested to see photos of the remaining 13 GTs.

There are still a few others up there such as Flora, Joseph, etc that haven't been covered in quite some time. Are you planning to head back to the same general area, or try another section of OR sometime?

OK I didn't know you were still adding more pics, when I was writing this msg. The photos don't look a bit like "bad" photography to me, and I've been an amateur camerabug for about 40 years. "Good on ya mate", as Peg Leg Pete would say.

Rest of the pictures are on the way. I'm posting them as I edit them. I will be hitting up this area again. This trip was meant to maximize my exposure to as many sites as possible so that I could narrow those that needed more exploration in the future and not waste my time on places that had nothing interesting to see.

[hamellr]

After a LONG night spent listening to deer thundering their way around my campsite (seriously - I thought they were supposed to be quite critters,) I woke up to birds singing at about 4:30. I was on the road by a quarter after 5, and headed towards Sumpter. Bull Run to Baker Road 2400 is a gorgeous piece of driving, but unfortunately too dangerous, windey and narrow to stop for pictures.

My next "stop" was the town of Bourne. I expected Bourne to be an empty location with nothing interesting to see. I was extremely surprised to find that "main street" was lined by at least a dozen houses on each side. Only a few dated from the beginning of the 20th century, but the small number of houses represented styles from every decade since, including one that was obviously brand new.







Unfortunately it was extremely early so I didn't want to get out of the car to explore on foot, and interrupt people sleeping too much. Only two of the houses were abandoned (picture 1 and 2.) #1 looked like it had been locked up, and the owner just never came back. But a lot of the houses, such as the one in picture 3, show that they've been kept habitable. My guess is that there are very few year round residents here, and that most everyone here comes up to work their gold claims along the river.

[Darin]

Sounds and looks as though you had a wonderful time there and I really like the town of Granite from the photos you took.

Is that a cemetary behind Allen Hall there? Trying to get a perspective of the town before more houses were built around the cemetary is all.

And fantastic pics of the cabins too...got my heart rate up a bit!!!

Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend...thanks for posting these.