In 1863, some work was done on a ditch which had been surveyed from Clarks Creek mines to Burnt River, and the next year a company was incorporated to prosecute the work, under the name of the Burnt River Ditch company, W. H. Packwood, Jasper Hall, Robert Kitchen and Lamar stockholders. There was not much […]
About two thousand claims on quartz lodes have been recorded in Baker County since 1862. More or less development work has been done on most of them, perhaps one half of them having been worked to the extent which the law requires in order to make the claim secure. Nineteen quartz mills have been built,
A little more than thirty-one years have passed away since the first discovery of gold on Griffin’s Gulch an event which led to the first permanent settlement in Eastern Oregon southwest of the blue mountains. Many of the pioneers of thirty years ago are still living, but their number is growing less year after year,
Baker City In the month of August 1864, R. A. Pierce laid claim to the SE ¼ of Sec. 17, Tp. 9. S. 40, east of the Willamette meridian, and proceeded in 1865 to get a title to the same from the state. He built a house west of where the court house now stands,
Sydney Abell, Justice of the Peace opened the first legally constituted court in Baker County, October 29th 1862. The first case was that of the people vs. D. Scott, action to bind defendant to keep the peace, entered on complaint of Thomas Ricketts. The prosecuting witness failed to appear and the case was dismissed. Of
People who come to the Pacific States in palace cars, making the trip in four or five days, can have but a faint conception of the toils and hardships endured by those who crossed the plains with teams before the advent of railroads. Experience would also be necessary, perhaps, to enable one to fully appreciate
Incidents in Pioneer Days in Baker County, Oregon Read More »
Joseph Benoit and Charles Van Clay discovered gold in Rye Valley in the spring of 1863 and laid a claim on the waters of Dixie creek and begun digging a ditch. They went over to Mormon Basin and offered Mr. Ingraham an interest in their discovery which he declined, thinking he had a better prospect
A cemetery was started in Wingville in 1878 after a diphtheria epidemic made a cemetery a necessity. The Wingville Grange No. 150 purchased ten acres from Thomas Bailey and his wife for a two dollar gold piece on 8 April 1878. On 8 December 1883 the trustees of the Wingville Grange 150 for fifty dollars
One of the richest sections of Oregon is what is known as the Panhandle. Extending from the Blue Mountains west of North Powder to the Wallows county line, beyond Cornucopia. And whilst this fertile and productive area belongs to Union county, it should be a part of Baker County, as Baker City is its natural
This substantial and capable gentleman is one of the real builders of the county of Harney, and it is quite proper that he should be accorded representation in its history, being a man greatly respected and worthy of the high esteem given to him. He was born in the city of New York, on May
