EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, July 2, 2025
A community of sheep ranchers and
wheat farmers emerges
Ione, Oregon, fell on hard times during the Great Depression.
COURTESY PHOTO: Bowman Museum
-Continued from PAGE ONE ther was working for him at
attracted early settlers to
raise sheep and cattle. John
Jordan arrived to settle
along Willow Creek in
1859. He built a log cabin
not far from present-day
Ione. Columbus Rhea built
the first home on what is
now known as Rhea Creek
in 1864. A number of Irish
settlers came to the region.
Edward Cluff was
among the first to settle at
the present site of Ione in
1872. Nearby, Elisha Sper-
ry acquired land that had
earlier been homesteaded
by George Emerick. Sperry
recognized the need for a
trading center and decided
to establish one on his prop-
erty. He hired a surveyor
and prepared a town plat of
four blocks. Sperry named
the town Ione for a young
girl, Ione Arthur, whose fa-
the time. Sperry persuaded
Aaron Royce to establish
a merchandise store in the
newly platted site.
A post office was es-
tablished with the name
of Ione on May 26, 1884,
with Royce being the first
postmaster. The office was
located inside his store.
Other businesses soon fol-
lowed, including a saloon
and a blacksmith shop.
These did not last long.
About 1885, Robert Wills
homesteaded near the Sper-
ry plots and established his
own plats. Soon, farmers
were attracted to the area to
grow winter wheat, barley
and other grains. Most of
the harvested grains had to
be hauled over rugged roads
to Arlington for shipment.
A branch line of the
Oregon Railroad and Nav-
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igation Company was
completed from Heppner
Junction up Willow Creek
through Ione and on to Hep-
pner in 1888. The railroad
opened up rapid develop-
ment and wheat became a
major cash crop and Ione
prospered. The small com-
munity expanded with more
homes and businesses.
It was incorporated in
1903. It became a bustling
community. Ordinances
were passed that banned
sheep, goats and hogs from
the town. A bank was es-
tablished, but the onset of
the Great Depression led
to failure of the bank and
the community fell on hard
times like the rest of the
nation. Today, it remains
an active community and
the 2020 census listed a
population of 337.
LaRue honored as grand marshal
-Continued from PAGE ONE says. “This sewer is a huge, several committees,” she
she says.
She hasn’t limited her
involvement to the Inde-
pendence Day celebration,
though. She carried her love
of horses—along with three
family horses—to Ione and
led a horse 4-H club at one
time. She says her former
members are grandparents
themselves now.
She served nearly 20
years on the county budget
committee, this year being
the first she hasn’t been on
the committee in a long
time. She also has insight
into current county events,
having served on the Pi-
oneer Memorial Hospital
Board and the Ione City
Council—with five stints
as Ione Mayor.
When she first joined
the city council, she was the
only female on the board.
She also joined at a time
when Ione was already
attempting to resolve its
sewer problems. While the
city council managed to get
space for the Ione school to
have a septic tank and drain
field, they never gained
much traction getting city
sewer.
“We’d only get so far
because of high cost, or it
wasn’t in the right spot,”
she says.
She’s happy about the
current progress and hopes
it will open space for more
building in the city.
“In order for us to grow
and be healthy, we need to
use all of our property,” she
huge thing for Ione.”
Now, she’s happy to
step back and let someone
else take the reins.
“I kind of like being
able to go and just give my
opinion,” she says.
She also remembers
serving with the late Larry
Mills on several boards, in-
cluding the hospital board.
“We had some of the
same thought processes…
which maybe wasn’t always
good,” she jokes.
The hospital board had
issues of its own back then,
though she says it was not
quite as contentious as the
recent health district uproar.
The hospital was in danger
of shutting down due to lack
of money, and North End
communities weren’t very
supportive of something
they didn’t see as benefiting
them.
That was when the
county-wide taxing district
was formed. The new taxes
weren’t very popular, espe-
cially in Boardman.
“It was a really difficult
time,” says LaRue. “That
one was very challenging,
but I felt good about the
outcome, and so did Larry.”
LaRue says she is grad-
ually weeding out boards
and committees with heavy
commitment, but she still
likes to stay involved.
“I still have things to
do,” she says. “I need to be
active mentally and phys-
ically.
“I stay very active on
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adds. “I try to have my
fingers in most of the pies.”
With fingers in all
those pies, LaRue says she
doesn’t’ have time to pur-
sue the hobbies she used
to have. For instance, she
doesn’t find time to quilt or
sew, although she used to.
“I made my husband
a red leisure suit to wear
to basketball games,” she
remembers.
Now, her top prior-
ity is her family, which
is scattered from Ione to
Hermiston and as far away
as the Oregon Coast. She
makes a point of traveling
to visit her grandkids and
great-grandchildren often.
Sophie, who she says is a
good traveler, is her com-
panion on her trips.
When speaking about
Ione’s Fourth of July cele-
brations, LaRue says she is
impressed by the unspoken
cooperation of the commu-
nities on the south side of
the county.
“We honor each other’s
special celebrations,” she
says. “That’s one of the
things I feel so good about.
That’s what it should be
about.”
“I appreciate the hon-
or,” she concludes. “I love
it here and I love the people.
This is home, for sure.”
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