While the Oregon Coast, Portland, and Central Oregon tend to steal the spotlight, Eastern Oregon can be a bit of a No Man's Land. In this part of the state, mountains and valleys seem to go on endlessly, with remnants of the Gold Rush found in many abandoned mines and ghost towns. Sumpter, Oregon is one of these places. Home to just 245 residents, this ghost town in Eastern Oregon is the kind of place where you can see tumbleweeds slowly moving through the quiet downtown, but what does remain -- a historic railroad, bed and breakfast, and massive mining monolith -- is well-worth making the trip to discover.
Eastern Oregon has a haunting kind of beauty, with scenic mountains, grassy plains, and abandoned totems of times passed. The Oregon Trail, Gold Rush, Western Expansion; this area has seen it all, and the sad thing is, not many remain to tell its tales.
But Sumpter, Oregon is a place that's dedicated to not only preserving history, but celebrating it. But let's take a few steps back.
Gold was discovered here in the late 1800s, making Sumpter a bonafide boomtown in less than a decade.
This thriving town was also a major railway hub. The Sumpter Valley Railway moved people and goods from Baker City through Sumpter and on to Prairie City, with commerce and travel bustling in Eastern Oregon during this time.
After the railroad arrived, the city expanded nearby deep shaft gold mines into a combined 12 miles of tunnels; this waterway was the vein of life during the Oregon mining boom.
The Sumpter Valley Dredge was constructed in 1935 and ran until 1954. It was one of the largest gold dredges in the U.S. and responsible for uncovering an estimated $4.5 million dollars' worth of subterranean treasure.
But, this house of cards could never stand; the gold dried up, folks up and left, and Sumpter's fate was all but sealed. Until.
In 1971, the Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Two decades later, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department purchased the dredge, tailings, and nearby property, transforming this park to a place for exploration and discovery.
The nearby Sumpter Valley Railroad was also given some much-needed TLC. Because the original track was scrapped in 1947 and nearly all of the original road bed had eroded, the station had to essentially be rebuilt. In 1991, the railroad arrived back in Sumpter; and in 2007, it moved into a reproduction of the original station. Today, visitors can watch historical reenactments,
take rides, peruse the gift shop, and learn all about Sumpter's intriguing history.
There's even a beguiling little B&B in town that's located in the former Sumpter Hospital!
While there are only about 250 full-time residents of Sumpter, this "ghost town" in Oregon is anything but spooky... or abandoned.
Come and immerse yourself in Oregon's captivating history; the story of Sumpter is still unfolding!
Have you visited Sumpter before? Did you know about this beguiling little ghost town in Eastern Oregon? It really is a place worth discovering!
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