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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2017)
G H O S T I N G O R E G O N OUR FAMILY'S EXPERIENCE EXPLORING ABANDONED TOWNS IN EASTERN OREGON W hat is it about our fascination with those abandoned places known as ghost towns? Are we hoping to find some long lost treasures? Are we bearing witness to the impermanence of humanity and the overwhelming, timeless power of Mother Earth? Or, is it that deep down we are hoping to see an actual ghost? My toddler was rooting for this last option: the slimier (a la Ghostbusters), the better. Our trip was inspired by a ghost town road-trip map on the website “That Oregon Life” that we were pretty sure no one else had actually driven. We printed out the directions because where we went there is no wi-fi or cell service. My wife, two sons (ages 3 and 14), and I made the trip on the cheap: camping, packing food and driving a Prius. The three-day trip cost us $150. CORNUCOPIA As with many of the towns on our trip, the hopeful pavement gave way to a single lane of dirt along the Cornucopia Highway. Cornucopia was once the sixth largest mining operation in the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century. There were several waves of gold strikes in the town with the population fluctuating from 700 men at its peak, down to about a dozen at its low. The nail in the coffin for Cornucopia, and many of the easternmost Oregon ghost towns, was the closing of all gold mining operations in the United States by Limitation Order Number 208 of the War Production Board in 1942. They wanted miners to focus on producing metals for World War II. The main attraction in Cornucopia is the old jail. Several 14 October 26, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com jailhouses seemed to survive in the ghost towns. Because they were built to last? Or, did someone think they might need them again? BOURNE Originally known as Cracker City, Bourne is another former gold mining town. In 2013, Bourne was the site of a reality TV show called Ghost Mine, which involved people looking for ghosts and gold. We found neither. Today, Bourne is still home to 10 or so pleasant people. We found about as many abandoned structures as inhabited places. A couple of the folks offered us a jolly “hello” as they sat around their morning fire. SUMPTER About six miles south of Bourne is Sumpter. Labeled a ghost town, it is very much alive and ready for tourists. Sumpter holds the record (by my unofficial count) for most pot shops in a “ghost town.” There were two. Sumpter’s heyday as a gold mining boomtown was in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Founded by a few Confederate soldiers and named, with bad spelling, after Fort Sumter, you’ll find a different kind of ghost — the Confederacy — alive and well in this little hamlet. The Stars and Bars flew near one of the saloons. To be fair, even though everyone we saw was white, all the residents were incredibly nice to our interracial family. The centerpiece of Sumpter is its historic dredge. Before it was forced into retirement, this device scooped up buckets of gold-bearing earth into its bowels, where it kept the gold and “pooped out” the waste, or tailings. In its lifetime, it collected about $180 million in gold (by today’s value). by James Brains With the 90-degree sun beating down, the kids needed ice cream. Unfortunately, Sumpter was not the kind of tourist trap that had ice cream. Unfortunate, because ice cream became our toddler’s fixation for the next 24 plus hours as we traveled the lone, desolate, ice cream-less roads on Oregon’s east side. GRANITE With a population of 38, Granite is considered the fourth smallest incorporated city in Oregon behind our next stop, Greenhorn, and the final stops of Lonerock and Shaniko. Founded in the 1860s during a gold boom, it also died unceremoniously with the introduction of Order No. L-208. The population dipped to two in 1960. These days, there are two employers in Granite: The Lodge and The Outback, which sell fuel, supplies and food. Both were closed. Granite also has a museum that is housed in a former schoolhouse. As in other ghost towns, newer homes in Granite were clearly designed to match the aesthetic of the older derelict structures. GREENHORN We didn’t see a single car on the 13-mile, one-lane, axle-breaking road to Greenhorn. With no phone reception or any signs of help nearby, I experienced endless anxiety thinking about what would happen if the boulders in the road left our Prius inoperable. Greenhorn was yet another gold boomtown abandoned by Order No. L-208, and it felt like a true ghost town. The latest census numbers (2010) put its population at zero, but the Baker City Herald recently reported there
