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Baker City
"Baker
City,the capital of Baker county, which is also a place
of five or six thousand inhabitants. This is the center
of the largest mining interest of eastern Oregon.
Indeed, while Baker county has considerable agricultural
and pastoral interests, its placer and quartz mines have
always been is pride and boast. Undoubtedly many of the
richest mining properties of the coast are in this
county, and Baker City is the center of their trade.
This has made it what was considered the best business
point in eastern Oregon.
The city is on a level plain, on both sides of
Powder river, and very near the upper end of the
Powder river valley. Near by are the mountains, within
whose rock ribs the precious ores are hid. It is
well-built, prosperous, and energetic city."
-An illustrated
history of the state of Oregon, 1893
Baker City, Oregon.—Baker
City, the seat of Baker county, is situated at the head of
Powder River valley, on the stream of the same name. Baker
City is also on the main line of the Union Pacific
railroad, 357 miles east of Portland, and it is today one
of the leading centers of population and wealth in Eastern
Oregon. The present population of Baker City is about
3,000. The city is well laid out, the streets being wide
and well kept, the principal buildings used for business
purposes are handsome brick and stone structures, and a
number of the private residences of the city will compare
very favorably with some of the elegant residences of
Portland.
Powder River valley, in which Baker City is located, is
about 25 miles long by 12 miles in width. It is well
watered by the Powder river and its tributaries, and is
highly fertile. The Powder river furnishes a large
available water power at Baker City, which has not been
utilized to any extent up to the present time. Baker
City's manufacturing enterprises, at the present writing,
are limited to an iron foundry and three planing mills.
Within two miles of the city, however, are the mills of
the Oregon Lumber Company, which have a daily capacity of
from 50,000 to 75,000 feet of lumber. Another sawmill in
the district immediately tributary to Baker City saws
about 25,000 feet of lumber a day. Timber is one of the
valuable products of Baker county, and the supply of fine
merchantable timber here is practicably inexhaustible. A
short line of railroad, 25 miles in length, now runs out
from Baker City into the great Blue Mountain timber belt,
in the Sumpter valley district. The mountain terminus of
the road is at McCune, which is a logging camp of
considerable importance. This road dots a large and
constantly increasing business, and its construction has
done much to develop the fine timber belt immediately
tributary to Baker City.
The climate of this part of the state is exceedingly
healthful, the excessive moisture of the western part of
the state being altogether avoided here. Baker City has
one of the best public school systems of the state. The
public schools here are conducted in a large brick
building, and are taught by a force of 12 teachers. The
courses of study run from the primary to the high school.
The average daily attendance of scholars is about 500. In
addition to the public schools, a Catholic institution of
learning provides an academic course of study. The
Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal and Catholic
organizations own church buildings at Baker City.
The water supply of Baker City is obtained from artesian
wells. A large reservoir occupies an eminence sufficiently
high to afford a pressure that will throw a stream of
water from the city's mains a distance of 180 feet. The
water-works plant was completed at a cost of $80,000, and
it is unnecessary to state that it is more than ample to
meet the demands of the city for water for many years in
the future. The city is afforded every protection against
fire in a well drilled fire department. In addition to the
efficient water-works plant, Baker City boasts of a fine
electric light plant, gas works, a street line of railway,
a fine brick court house, and an opera house with a
seating capacity of 800. A good race track is maintained
in connection with the county fair grounds, on the
outskirts of the city, and the gatherings here yearly are
largely attended.
The Baker City Democrat, run by Messrs. Bowen & Small,
is an ably edited daily and weekly newspaper. In addition
to The Democrat, The Weekly Oregon Blade is also published
at Baker City. The city contains two large hotels and a
number of well-stocked livery stables. The mining,
stock-raising and lumbering interests of the country
tributary to Baker City are heavy, and constitute a large
part of the revenues which regularly flow to this point.
The business men of the city are wide-awake, and it is to
the efforts of these men that Baker City's prosperity has
been chiefly due. Tributary to the city are also some of
the finest mines on the coast. During 1892 the output of
the mines tributary to this point amounted to $300,000.
During the same year the two banks of Baker City handled
about $400,000 in gold taken out of this mineral belt, but
a part of this gold was from the rich placer mines of this
district. New and valuable discoveries of gold are
constantly being made in this section, and an increased
amount of development work is done with each successive
year. The mines now tributary to Baker City promise to
continue to be a great source of revenue to the city, and
the development of these mining properties will do much to
encourage the growth and prosperity of all Eastern Oregon.
At the head of the municipal government of Baker City is
Mayor C. A. Johns, who is also a prominent attorney of the
latter place. Mr. Johns is a graduate of the Willamette
University, which institution conferred on him the degree
of A. M. At the age of 21 Mr. Johns held the office of
deputy sheriff of Marion county. Later he moved to Polk
county, where he was appointed to the office of county
judge. Six years ago Mr. Johns was attracted by the rapid
growth and development of Eastern Oregon and located in
Baker City. From the fact that Johns & Rand are now
considered one of the most successful law firms in Eastern
Oregon, it is hut natural that Mr. Johns should have
unlimited confidence in the future prosperity of Baker
City, which is the most central point of supply for a vast
mining and agricultural district.
The First National Bank of Baker City was organized in
1893, with a capital of $75,000. Its officers are Levi
Ankeny, president; Walter Fernald, vice-president; J. H.
Parker, cashier, and T. W. Downing, assistant cashier. The
business success of the First National Bank has been
somewhat remarkable, as is shown by the fact that its
present surplus and undivided profits reach the handsome
sum of $111,000. During the past year this bank handled
more than $225,000 in gold obtained from the Elkhorn,
Bonanza, Virtue and other quartz mines and placer mines,
which are directly tributary to Baker City.
One of the most imposing structures in Eastern Oregon is
the large three-story brick Hotel Warshauer, erected at a
cost of $70,000 and located at Baker City. Louis F. Cook
is the successful proprietor of this fine hotel. The house
contains 80 rooms elegantly fitted up, several of which
are arranged in suites, and all are provided with electric
lights. Mr. Cook is a hotel man of long experience and he
has succeeded in making the Hotel Warshauer one of the
most popular caravansaries in Eastern Oregon. Commercial
travelers and mining men make the Hotel Warshauer their
headquarters while doing business either in Baker City or
in the neighboring towns. The Hotel Warshauer is strictly
modern in each of its appointments, and the courtesies and
attention shown its many patrons make the hotel a source
of much pride to Baker City.
The recent mining developments in the country tributary to
Baker City are attracting such wide-spread attention that
the Eastern Oregon Mining Bureau has been formed at Baker
City. Mr. James F. Ferguson is secretary of this
organization and is prepared to furnish information
regarding the mines of Eastern Oregon. Mr. Ferguson is
also a mining and real estate broker and, having lived in
Baker City for more than 24 years, is thoroughly posted on
mining and realty values.
The Oregonian's
Handbook of the Pacific Northwest
Edward Gardner Jones, Editor
1894, The Oregonian Publishing Co.
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Sumpter
"The visitor to the thriving little city
of Sumpter is impressed as soon as he alights from the
train by the spirit of progress which everywhere
pervades the place. Hardly will he have reached the
nearest hotel before he will have mentally observed how
thoroughly the people believe in their town; at least
such was the experience of the writer. No sooner had he
entered the hotel door than he was handed a glass of
water with the injunction: "Sample this water; you have
no such water as that in Baker City." The genial host
then called attention to his healthy looking person,
supplied with an abundance of adipose tissue, remarking
that he felt ten years younger than he did four years
ago when he first came to Sumpter and attributed this
remarkable rejuvenation to the purity of the air
and water and the general salubrity of the climate.
Sumpter certainly has pure water and a healthy climate;
it also has a beautiful location at the head of the fine
mountain valley whose name it bears, while the mineral
wealth of the surrounding country gives earnest of the
continuance of its material prosperity and forms the
foundation of its present hopefulness and courage.
The town is old and yet new. The first settlement in its
vicinity, we are told, was made by a party of five
southerners in the fall of 1862. They named the
primitive cabin which they built in a gulch near by,
Fort Sumpter, to manifest their pleasure at the fall of
the famous stronghold of that name in South Carolina.
From this circumstance the valley and the little city
which later sprang into existence came to be known by
the names they now bear.
Though Sumpter began to be several decades ago, it
remained for many years a mere hamlet, containing,
perhaps, not more than a dozen houses. The timber in its
vicinity could not be utilized owning to the lack of
transportation facilities. Only a very vague idea of the
mineral wealth hidden in the depths of the Blue
mountains contiguous to the town existed in the minds of
men, and there was nothing to keep it up but the places
mines, which, after the first few years, were worked
only by Chinese. Chinamen may yet be seen in large
numbers during the mining season on a hillside near
town, industriously digging for the precious metal, but
no estimate can be made of the amount of gold which
rewards their labors, as inquiry into this delicate
matter of private business invariable elicits the same
reply: "Some days belly well, some days no good at all."
"Gold bearing quartz ledges were discovered in Sumpter
district before the close of the 'sixties, and even at
that early date some few local miners had a general idea
of the existence of mineral wealth, but time alone and
the general development which it brings could render
this wealth available. In 1896 came the much needed
railroad, the Sumpter Valley narrow gauge being that
year extended from McEwen. Naturally the advent of
modern means of transportation infused new life into the
town, but it was not until 1898 that it began to forge
ahead at a rapid rate. Four years ago last January, the
town consisted of two small general merchandise stores,
a blacksmith shop, two hotels, a meat market, a small
hardware store and a few other business establishments,
a public school and a limited number of residences. It
covered an area of about thirty acres, had a population
of a few hundreds of improvements worth perhaps
twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars.
Such was Sumpter when the boom came. In 1901, according
to the Blue Mountain American, it covered an area of
fourteen hundred acres, had eighty-one business houses
with stocks of foods aggregating $420,000 in value;
improvements worth in the vicinity of $500,000, eight
brick buildings with a combined frontage of 351 feet,
all the brick and lumber for which were manufactured at
Sumpter; a fine gravity system of water works, the
reservoir having a capacity of 1,200,000 gallons and the
mains measuring five and a half miles; a thirty-thousand
dollar electric light plant; an efficient fire
department, equipped with two hose carts, a drying
tower, a well equipped hook and ladder truck, a
three-hundred-dollar fire bell and tower, rubber coats,
rubber boots, service hats, etc.; 1,850 feet of graded
and paved streets; five and a half miles of sidewalk;
twelve and a half miles of local telephone wire, and ten
long distance telephones; an efficient city government,
and almost everything else that an up-to-date town of
more than three thousand inhabitants might be expected
to have.
While the boom is now over no demoralizing reaction has
yet come to the town, but progress continues and the
evidences of commercial health are everywhere to be
seen. Though the marks of Sumpter's rapid growth are
plainly visible, and the vices which go wherever
prosperity reigns are well represented, the forces which
make for morality; culture and the highest enlightenment
are also here. The churchman may have his choice of four
denominations, the Methodist Episcopal, Protestant
Episcopal, Presbyterian or Catholic. Of these, one
society, the Presbyterian, already has a neat church
building, and the Methodists and Catholic have taken the
initial steps toward erecting suitable temples of
worship. It is expected that the last-mentioned
denomination will also build a school and a hospital.
The town has a fine public school building, in which
four teachers are at work, but it is not large enough to
accommodate all who seek its benefits, so another room
has to be rented and a fifth teacher employed. Among the
educational forces of the community, the newspapers may
also be classed. Of these there are three, the Blue
Mountain American, the Sumpter Miner and the Sumpter
Reporter, the last named being a daily. The papers are
in an unusually healthy financial condition, and are
surprisingly well equipped with machinery, presses, type
and everything needful to well regulated modern plants.
Editorially they are conducted on broad, liberal
principles, and no effort is spared to make them
faithfully portray the life of the community. The
fraternal organizations are quite generally represented
in the town.
To give a full and complete resume of all the business
establishments of Sumpter would not be an easy task, but
so far as could be learned in a brief space of time, the
principle ones are as follows: Five general merchandise
stores, one large hardware, two meat markets, two
groceries, a racket store, two bakeries, one candy and
cigar store, fourteen or fifteen saloons, four of five
general blacksmith and repair shops, two millinery and
fancy goods stores, two banks, four hotels, two
restaurants, a large number of boarding and lodging
houses, a large saw and planing mill, several mining
offices, two assayers, three newspapers, three
warehouses, two feed stores, two clothing stores,
carrying shoes, etc., two plumbing establishments, four
barber shops, two tailor shops, a photograph gallery, a
second hand store, a dance hall, an opera house, three
physicians and four lawyers.
Such is the Sumpter of to-day. Of its future it is
not the province of the historian to speak, but all will
readily see that it depends almost entirely upon the
development of the mining region contiguous. Lumbering
is still an industry of great importance and hay raising
and some other forms of the hardier farming are carried
on successfully in the valley, but these are subsidiary
to mining and without the main source of wealth
production would not support the town. The future of the
mining district is, of course, more or less uncertain,
but all indications point toward an indefinite
development both in the number of properties and the
average output. The opinions of some noted experts have
been obtained and they are all to the effect that, if
the experiences of mineralogists in California and
elsewhere are to be confirmed here, the district must
long continue one of the largest producers in the world.
If the best mining science of the present is to prove
trustworthy in Sumpter district, the future of the
active, energetic little city which forms its central
gem must be a bright one indeed. "
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An Illustrated History of Baker, Grant, Malheur and
Harney Counties, 1902
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