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Wednesday, July 5, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
Working on the railroad
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
Earlier this month, on
a tour with Steve Lent
of Prineville’s Bowman
Museum, I took a step back
in time to the development of
railroads in Central Oregon.
The battle between two
railroad giants, James J. Hill
and Edward H. Harriman, to
complete the first rail line
from the Columbia River to
Bend, resulted in a duplica-
tion of effort, time, and mate-
rials, with two separate rail
lines, one on either side of the
Deschutes River.
The tour focused mainly
on the route of the Oregon
Trunk Railroad in Central
Oregon. We visited old
remaining railroad depots in
Redmond and Madras, and
various points of interest
along the old rail bed.
We started at the now-
vacant Redmond depot
located right off Highway
97 and Veterans Way. From
there, the tour headed north
to Prineville Junction where
the Oregon Trunk and City
of Prineville Railroads con-
nected. We worked our way
north to Terrebonne, Crooked
River Gorge, Opal City,
Culver, Metolius, Madras,
Venora, Pelton, Rattlesnake
Canyon, Mecca and Gateway
with the last stop at Trout
Creek.
Lent has an encyclopedic
grasp of Central Oregon his-
tory and truly brought that
history alive with his stories
and anecdotes. The story
of Hillman and Harriman’s
unbending egos that drove
them to complete competing
railroads seems unbeliev-
able when viewed through
present-day lenses.
In 1909, the Harriman
lines had almost a monopoly
on railway transportation in
Oregon. In that year, James
Hill decided to extend his
Northern Pacific and Great
Northern lines into and south
through Central Oregon. The
Oregon Trunk Railroad had
a charter to construct a line
up the Deschutes Valley but
lacked the funds to complete
the project, so Hill secretly
purchased the Oregon Trunk
charter.
Harriman had already
located a line of railway
south from their line through
the Columbia Gorge. The line
occupied in part the lower
section of the valley and
conflicted in places with the
Oregon Trunk line purchased
by Hill. Legal battles ensued,
with both lines receiving the
green light.
The two railroads utilized
large wooden trestles to cross
canyons and gorges, as well
as blasted out 11 tunnels to
go through steep hillsides.
Throughout the construction
of both lines, the companies
repeatedly sabotaged each
other’s efforts. Some years
after both lines were com-
pleted, a joint line made up of
different sections of the two
competitors was established.
The race between the
Oregon Trunk R.R. and
Union Pacific R.R. up the
Deschutes River ended at
Metolius on February 15,
1911. The Oregon Trunk
won. The Metolius Depot still
stands, and efforts are under-
way to establish a museum in
the depot.
On September 21,
1911, the railroad arrived
in Redmond, to the depot
constructed by Hill in the
same style as his depots in
other Central Oregon loca-
tions – made of hewn stone
quarried near the Deschutes
River. A major “Railroad
Day” was celebrated by 1,000
people who had gathered to
greet the train. Later the same
day, a similar celebration was
held in Bend.
It was the immense pon-
derosa forests that brought
the railroad to Bend. The for-
ests in Minnesota had been
logged out, so the timber
companies turned their eyes
to the West. Shevlin-Hixon
and Brooks-Scanlon both
had their roots in the East and
came to Bend to start new
mills. With no railroads, there
was no way to get the lum-
ber from the Central Oregon
mills to far-off markets. The
arrival of the rail lines in
1911 enhanced the fortunes
of the timber companies.
Some of the points on the
tour still have railroad tracks,
a few have depots, while oth-
ers have only the old sign
along the tracks denoting the
name of the long-ago stop.
Prineville Junction is
located four miles north
of Redmond. Believing
Prineville would become a
ghost town since the rail-
road bypassed the county
seat, several bond issues
were approved by the local
citizens. In 1918 the 19-mile
rail line connecting Prineville
with the Oregon Trunk line
began operations, carrying
both passengers and freight,
mainly livestock, on four
trains a day. In the late 1930s,
when large sawmills came to
Prineville, the line prospered
until many years later when
the mills began to close.
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PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD
Cantilevered arch bridge over the Crooked River Gorge built in 1911.
Trucking and the automo-
bile began to take a heavy toll
on rail traffic, and the only
city-owned and-operated
railway in the U.S. faced hard
times. The Crooked River
Dinner Train operated out
of Prineville Junction from
1987-2012, complete with a
train robbery on board.
Hillman town site was
established in 1910, as the
rail lines approached the area.
Originally named in honor of
Hill and Harriman, an unscru-
pulous developer in the area
by the name of Hillman gave
cause to change the name to
Terrebonne (good earth) to
avoid connection with the
land fraud scandal.
The old depot at
Terrebonne is now a restau-
rant, with tables and a bar
made out of the wood from
the old foundation of the
depot. Patrons who happen to
See RAILROAD on page 17
DON’T
MISS OUT
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Bi-Mart: All Summer Sandals
are now 30% off ! That includes
kids’, women’s, and men’s fl ip-fl ops,
water sandals, and water shoes!
(Note: subject to stock on hand.)
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