John Day Fossil Beds Historic Resources Study

Chapter Five:
TRANSPORTATION (continued)

The Advent of Railroads

The advent of railroads in the Pacific Northwest had little direct effect upon settlers in the John Day country until after the turn of the nineteenth century. Although none of the major lines ever entered Grant or Wheeler counties, nearby railheads stimulated horse-drawn stage and freight connections throughout the region. The developing sheep industry particularly profited from the construction of feeder lines running south from the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company's primary railroad. Located along the south bank of the Columbia River, that railroad was completed in 1882 (Fussner 1975: 108; Elliott 1914:170).

First among the "stub lines," built in 1889, was a connection between Heppner Junction on the Columbia to Heppner, some forty-five miles to the south. Separated by a western spur of the Blue Mountains from the John Day basin, Heppner was especially difficult to access. Nonetheless, some stock from valley ranches was driven over the rough terrain to railhead (Fussner 1975: 108).

Of greater import to John Day settlers was the completion in 1900 of the Columbia Southern Railroad line, which ran for seventy miles from Biggs on the Columbia south to Shaniko on the high plateau. Developers planned for the line to extend all the way to Prineville, but the plans failed to achieve fruition.

Shaniko was strategically situated on The Dalles-Boise Military Road, and it boomed as the terminus of the line. The town briefly claimed distinction as the busiest wool shipping center in the world. Freighters from the John Day country hauled in wagons filled with heavy sacks of wool for export to scouring plants and mills. Connecting stages ran daily from Shaniko east to Mitchell, Dayville, and Canyon City. (Culp 1972: 100-102; Brogan 1977; 129).

Fig. 30. Columbia Southern Railway time table — Biggs to Shaniclo — noting stage connections to towns in the John Day valley (Culp 1972).

The Union Pacific (formerly the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co.) extended another feeder line south from Arlington on the Columbia River to Condon in Gilliam County in 1905. Its arrival prompted a small building boom. There was much excitement about the prospect of the railroad being continued south another twenty miles to Fossil, the county seat of Wheeler County, but this did not occur (Gilliam County Historical Society n.d.).

One of the most colorful railroad building episodes in central Oregon — one which ultimately spelled the demise of Shaniko as an important terminus — was the race up the Deschutes Gorge. W. F. Nelson, R. A. Ballinger, and L. I. Gregory on February 24,1906, incorporated a company which came to be known as the Oregon Trunk Railroad (Gaertner 1992: 97-121). Crews initiated surveys along the banks of the Deschutes River and began preliminary grading during the summer of 1906. The plan was to build a line from Wishram, Washington, across the Columbia River and up the Deschutes River to tap the vast pine forests of the eastern flank of the Cascades and the forests on the upper Crooked River and Ochoco Creek in central Oregon. Capital shortages curtailed construction after laying one and a half miles of track. In August, 1908, unable to meet the continuing financial burdens facing the Oregon Trunk, Nelson, the company president, sold out to V. D. Williamson.

A competing line, the Deschutes Railroad (a subsidiary of the Union Pacific), began grading its right-of-way up the river in July, 1909, when the Oregon Trunk resumed construction. On February 15, 1911, the Oregon Trunk track crew reached Madras with the Deschutes Railroad only six weeks out of the town. Finally, investors in both the lines — James J. Hill and E. H. Harriman — gave up the battle and merged their efforts at Madras. The Oregon Trunk reached Bend on September 30, 1911; the first passengers arrived on October 30 (Gaertner 1992: 97-121).

Settlers in the upper John Day basin were especially well-served a few years later by a more easily accessed railhead at Prairie City, thirteen miles east of the town of John Day in eastern Grant County. The Sumpter Valley Railroad, a narrow gauge line, was built from Baker City to Sumpter between 1890 and 1897, and completed west in 1909 to Prairie City. The little train was slow, but much appreciated by locals who dubbed it the "puddle jumper," "teakettle," and "stump dodger." The Sumpter Valley Railroad hauled cattle, logs, gold ore, sheep, passengers and supplies from Prairie City to the main line of the Union Pacific at Baker City until 1933 (Culp 1972: 91-94; Oliver 1961: 194-195).

In later decades, Wheeler County acquired its own small passenger line. Built in 1929 by the Kinzua Pine Mills Co., the Kinzua & Southern Railroad operated from Condon thirty miles south to the sawmill community of Kinzua. Passengers and mail were delivered via a Mack rail bus. (Culp 1972: 97).