The next leg of our trip would take us from Pendleton, up over the Blue Mountains, down through La Grande and Baker City and along the Snake River to Boise. Geologically, the range is a part of the larger rugged Columbia River Plateau, located in the dry area of Oregon east of the Cascade Range. The river valleys and lower levels of the range were occupied by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Historic tribes of the region included the Walla Walla, Cayuse people and Umatilla, now acting together as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, located mostly in Umatilla County, Oregon. In the middle 19th century, the Blue Mountains were a formidable obstacle to settlers traveling on the Oregon Trail and were often the last mountain range American pioneers had to cross before reaching either southeast Washington near Walla Walla or passing down the Columbia River Gorge to the end of the Oregon Trail in the Willamette Valley near Oregon City.
After Pendleton, Route I-84 dips through a valley before entering the mountains.
A couple miles later views back to the west show off the agricultural wealth at the base of the mountains that is a key part of Eastern Oregon’s economy.
This view gives a sense of how the grade of the road has to cut into the grades of the land.
And here you get a sense of how the road sweeps up into the ‘Blues’.
Eventually we passed up and over, entering Baker County and the town of La Grande.
The picture below shows settlement and mother nature working together. Small valleys, emerging from the hills, captured the water that was available from a dry climate. Settlers put down roots where there was water but eventually dug wells and planted trees for shade, expanding the contrast of the greenery against the adjacent hills.
The Grande Ronde Valley had long been a waypoint along the Oregon Trail. The first permanent settler in the La Grande area was Benjamin Brown in 1861. Not long after, the Leasey family and about twenty others settled there. It was decided to name it “La Grande”, a phrase used by a Frenchman, Charles Dause, to describe the area’s scenic splendor. Before the post office was established, William Currey charged 50 cents a letter to carry the mail on horseback to and from the nearest post office, in Walla Walla, Washington. La Grande was incorporated as a city in 1865, and platted in 1868.
La Grande grew rapidly during the late 1860s and early 1870s, partially because of the many gold mines in the region and the valley’s agricultural capabilities. In 1884, the railroad came to the flat slightly east of “Old Town”. This helped the town to grow, and support the gold rush that started in the 1860’s, at the end of the Oregon Trail movement. La Grande also sits at the edge of the Grand Ronde valley that leads to Baker City.
At the same time, while in this placid agricultural valley you’re never far from the Elkhorn mountains (part of the Blue Mountains) that define its limits.
Baker City, efficiently located in the center of the valley, along the Powder River and between the Elkhorn mountains to the west and the Wallowa mountains to the east, became a trading center for the area, especially after the extension of the Oregon Short Line Railroad in 1884. By 1900 it was the largest city between Salt Lake City and Portland.
Baker City Tower, a nine-story structure in the historic district, is the tallest building east of the Cascade Range in Oregon. Opening in 1929 as the Baker Community Hotel, it was converted to other uses after financial setbacks during the Great Depression.
The concrete Art Deco structure features terracotta eagles at each ground-floor entrance
and is topped by an octagonal observation center with an eight-sided hip roof and a flagpole. Nice portrayal of our national bird – and we enjoyed the contrast between it and current glass art efforts seen in a shop along main street.
Also in the historic district is the Geiser Grand Hotel, a three-story, stucco-clad, brick structure that at the time of its opening in 1889 had plate glass windows, electric lights, baths, an elevator, and a dining room that seated 200. Originally called the Washauer Hotel, it became the Geiser Grand in about 1895 after its purchase by the John Geiser family, which had large mining investments in Baker County and elsewhere.
We actually stayed here on an earlier trip – a bit of a find in Eastern Oregon. Here are a few views of the interior court/dining room. The first one looks up to the skylight and the hallway leading to the rooms.
This gives a sense of the upper level – a daylit courtyard, what a concept.
And here’s a look at the skylight
Also on that trip we visited the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, designed by the Portico group, about the Oregon Trail. It’s located 6 miles northeast of Baker City, Oregon on Oregon Route 86 atop Flagstaff Hill. http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/ .
It includes both exterior exhibits of the wagons and trail conditions,
and interior exhibits that help create a sense of what life on the trail was like.
On that visit we stayed for an excellent talk by a native american about the role that the tribes played in assisting the settlers, especially in the creative use they made of buffalo. This is worth a visit if you’re in the area.
Leaving Baker City, the landscape continues the agriculture/mountain contrasts.
Green sage bushes dot the landscape. It has to be well adapted to this climate since in grows effortlessly everywhere, even on the dry mountainsides where water is scarce.
Just so that you don’t think that everything is totally placid here, it’s obvious that natural resources have made extraction businesses profitable.
But in all fairness, we didn’t see a lot of this sort of thing along this part of the trip; and when we arrived at the Snake River (and took a by-road instead of the interstate) the natural setting really came to life – here with a view back to the northwest.
Here with a view along our route to the southeast.
Here with a detail of an island in the river – great bird habitat (ducks in the foreground).
and finally, a sense of the way in which you can reflect on the whole experience.
Next stop: Boise
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