Ghost towns in Oregon

[jim lee]

My wife ran across this link looking for ghost towns to visit. Possibly interesting?

Oregon Ghost town link

Are these fun to see? Or is it just a list of tourist traps?

-jim lee

 

[WareWolf MoonWall]

My wife ran across this link looking for ghost towns to visit. Possibly interesting?

Oregon Ghost town link

Are these fun to see? Or is it just a list of tourist traps?

-jim lee

I can't speak to ghost towns here in Oregon, but I can recommend visiting the Shanghai Tunnels in Portland.

Wonderful history to be learned, and they have a bit of Ghost talk to keep things interesting if you care to participate in that side of the conversation.

 

[RainGoat]

I can’t speak to these, though I copied it as my wife loves ghost towns. Here are my notes to date:

Atlas Obscura
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/all-places-in-the-atlas-on-one-map

http://www.ghosttowns.com

http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/home.html


WA

North Bend-Lester
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lester-ghost-town

Bordeaux, WA - W of Mina Mounds, S of Olympia
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bordeaux,+WA+98512/@46.8932495,-123.0868607,3a,75y,349.5h,93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOhPUMrxHNnuWIBRnI2fePs_7a_DYTwWJWR1Iq_!2e10!3e11!6shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOhPUMrxHNnuWIBRnI2fePs_7a_DYTwWJWR1Iq_=w203-h100-k-no-pi-0.5393359-ya56.95119-ro-0.6667751-fo100!7i5376!8i2688!4m5!3m4!1s0x54917b9e18c3d7d1:0xd257296184aebf20!8m2!3d46.8948206!4d-123.0801424

Trinity

Mazama-
Barron, WA
http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/barron.html
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/barron-ghost-town
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/wa/barron.html

 

[Jedi]

Similar to the Shanghai Tunnels is the Pioneer Square Underground in Seattle.

As for checking out the ghost towns, I know my wife and I would be up for that!

 

[Luinil Explorations]

Halloween seems like a good day to be asking this questions. The term ghost town is a bit misleading. Many of them have one or more people living in them.

Of the six lists in the link above I have only been to Shaniko. It is an interesting place to walk around. We were there after a snow storm so it was cold, windy, and sunny. A good day for photographs. At that time there were about a dozen people living three.

You may want to stop by the Oregon Ghost Town website or Wikipedia for a list of Oregon ghost towns.

 

[stevenboise]

Bordeaux, WA - W of Mina Mounds, S of Olympia
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bordeaux,+WA+98512/@46.8932495,-123.0868607,3a,75y,349.5h,93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOhPUMrxHNnuWIBRnI2fePs_7a_DYTwWJWR1Iq_!2e10!3e11!6shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOhPUMrxHNnuWIBRnI2fePs_7a_DYTwWJWR1Iq_=w203-h100-k-no-pi-0.5393359-ya56.95119-ro-0.6667751-fo100!7i5376!8i2688!4m5!3m4!1s0x54917b9e18c3d7d1:0xd257296184aebf20!8m2!3d46.8948206!4d-123.0801424

Thanks for all these links and ideas! Great sources here.

Regarding this specific url. That seems to drop me on a private driveway to a residence. Am I seeing something wrong on the map?

 

[RainGoat]

I no longer remember where I grabbed that link from. I think it was just supposed to be Bordeaux but I agree, that looks like someone’s drive West of town.

 

[madcratebuilder]

The Orygun ghost town site sure missed it with the info on Zena. I went to Zena school and then Lincoln school in the 50's. Nothing of the old Zena was there, the Zena church was and still is active. The old Lincoln store burned down in the early 70's and was rebuilt, owned by Bill Byers. The old Zena school was sold in the early 60's and is a private home and the Lincoln school has been the local Grange Hall for years. The area was milk cows, sheep and fruit trees.

 

[NWNavigator]

My wife ran across this link looking for ghost towns to visit. Possibly interesting?

Oregon Ghost town link

Are these fun to see? Or is it just a list of tourist traps?

-jim lee

I've been poking around back roads in Oregon tracing family history. Central Oregon has a lot of abandoned homesteads and "towns" to explore. Shaniko is probably the easiest to get to and it tried to be a tourist town, but the guy that owns the hotel (wealthy newspaper guy that came in and wanted to run the whole thing) pulled the plug on the operation. The hotel sits empty and is slowly falling apart. I did a commercial shoot for a truck company with a "ghost cowboy" back in the day when the hotel was still open. It's pretty quiet there these days, although they have a few summer events and there are full-time residents. The post office is still open and the ice cream shop caters to tourists in the summer months. Shaniko has a lot of history as it was the railhead to get goods to market from the Madras, Prineville, and Bend area pre-1911ish. Still has the jail, hotel and lot of rusty stuff laying around. When the railroad was completed up the Deschutes River, Shaniko became a ghost town.

If you just picked a backroad in Central Oregon you would come across all sorts of cool historical buildings if you just followed your nose. When exploring in the summer months, just watch out for rattlesnakes. They love the shade in these old buildings. I do have some cool tracks I've recorded.

 

[jim lee]

That piano still work?

We have one about the same vintage.

-jim lee

 

[Roy & Kristin Zirpoli]

I think this would be great to do.

 

[Kent R]

My wife ran across this link looking for ghost towns to visit. Possibly interesting?

Oregon Ghost town link

Are these fun to see? Or is it just a list of tourist traps?

-jim lee

Thanks for the link! I have only been to one of them but next year we are planing on the east side of OR so this helps.

 

[NWNavigator]

That piano still work?

We have one about the same vintage.

-jim lee

Weather has taken its toll I'm afraid... I found another one in the old abandoned school house in Friend, Oregon...

 

[whiskey7backroads]

I have been to Sumpter and it's worth looking at and seeing. The surrounding area is also beautiful. Also cornicoupia by halfway Oregon has a lot of history