Aumsville to Baker City: A Backroad Journey to 1A schools

A friend of mine recently took a trip from Aumsville to Baker City through the state highways and backrouds of Central Oregon and Eastern Oregon. Along the way, he stopped at various schools and sites along the way to snap photos, check out the local scenery and let his two young kids burn off some energy.

I’ve already posted his photos of the Haines gymnasium.

But he’s taken it one step further; he has agreed to write a “guest column” about his trip. Many thanks still to Heath and his family for taking the time to do this and submit this little report.

To read about his trip, click the “Read More” link below. Click on the photos to view a larger version of the image.



By Heath Merriman


We live in Aumsville, so that's where the journey began on Friday, July
3rd.

We took Highway 22/20 over the Cascades, stopping at the Gingerbread House in Mehama for lunch with a rest stop in Gates (with many rest stops being required with small children, as I'm sure you know) and picture taking at the school in Detroit.

The school in Detroit, population 265, is completely boarded up and has a For Sale sign out front. From the impact of the ever changing timber industry, what used to be a thriving K-12 school, then for several years was still operating as a K-8 Charter School, has sadly lost an important element of it’s history as well as the high school sports that are so integral and binding to other small communities. Now, the remaining population has no choice but to send their children 20 miles through the
treacherous Santiam Canyon to Mill City for their education and athletics.

From Detroit we continued over the pass to Sisters, where after a rest stop we took Highway 126 through Redmond to Prineville, where we stopped to fuel up and replenish our refreshments.

From Prineville we took Highway 26 East through the Ochoco National Forest, with a brief stop at a rest area 15 miles before Mitchell.

Mitchell, population 170, is located on a by-way just off the main highway. If you haven't been through there is it truly startling how far back in time you go when you enter the town. Most of the buildings are from the late 1800s to early 1900s era. Many are certainly run-down but in some ways that aspect adds to the old-town experience. The residential area, school, and gym are actually located off the main street up the side of a fairly steep hill, although the school and gym are located on different
sites. The school itself looks relatively new, while the gym looks quite old and I'm guessing is on the site adjacent to where the old school was located. It seems as if they tore down the old school, built a new school down the road, but decided to not to build a new gym, leaving the old one for continued use.

From Mitchell we continued down Highway 26 through the famous “fossil bed” region to Dayville. This portion of the drive, from just before Mitchell to John Day, may well be the most beautiful section of driving the entire trip with the highway snaking through canyons and along hillsides beside the John Day River.

Dayville, population 175, doesn't have quite as much of the "old town" feel as Mitchell, but is "kept up" a little better, probably due to being located right on the main highway. It has a nice little park on the east end of town that is a great place to stop for a picnic/rest on a long trek. The school is located, like Mitchell, on a steep hill on the South side of town. The school is a pair of beautiful old stone buildings (one the grade school, the other the high school), with the gym located between them.

After an extended rest stop in Dayville, we moved on through Mount Vernon and John Day, where we grabbed a quick drive-thru dinner and continued on down the highway toward Prairie City.

Prairie City, population 1,080, is a beautiful little town. Its old-town buildings are well kept and it just strikes me, being from a relatively small town, as a great little community. As a token example, as I was
driving down a side street searching for the school, I came across some people out in front of their house. Instead of the “who are you” look I typically expect, and receive, in those instances, I got a smile and wave as I drove by. The school and gym in Prairie City, however, do lack the definite charm and character of the hillside schools in Mitchell and Dayville.

About 20 miles past Prairie City we turned onto Highway 7, which cuts through the Malheur and Umatilla National Forests directly to the South end of Baker City where we stayed and spent the Fourth of July holiday with my Dad.

Upon leaving Baker City on Sunday morning, July 5th, on our way to spend time with my Grandmother in Pendleton, we decided to take the back highways to LaGrande to check out more small towns and scenery off the main freeway.

We took Highway 30 through Haines, population 426, where we stopped just long enough to snap the shots of the old school and former gym, then up to Highway 237 where we stopped in North Powder, population 489, just long enough to grab some drinks from a small store and snap some more gym photos.

North Powder also has some charismatic old buildings in it’s downtown, but probably due to their proximity to Baker City and LaGrande the town seems to have largely become a bedroom community and many of the buildings sit empty.

The drive up Highway 237 between North Powder and Union is a beautiful, curvy ride through hills and valleys dotted with the huge white wind turbines that have come to dominate the skyline of eastern Oregon. The drive makes you feel so much as though you are heading out into the wilderness that it is actually surprising when you suddenly come into the town of Union, population 1,926, which is a small town (2A) but significantly more substantial than the other communities along the route to LaGrande (Haines, North Powder, and Cove).

Union has probably the single most beautiful high school that we visited on our trip. It is an old two-story brick structure with white pillars that give it the effect of towering over you. Unfortunately, from a photographic point-of-view, the
school is surrounded by large trees that make it extremely difficult to take a quality picture. The gym, on the other hand, is a much more plain, and clearly a newer structure than the school.

Continuing North on Highway 237 we came into the aptly named town of Cove, population 594. The town is located in an absolutely gorgeous valley just on the foothills of the Wallowa Mountains. There aren’t many commercial buildings in Cove, with LaGrande being less than 20 miles away, but it is a pleasant little community with a beautiful school that is clearly new and modern compared to the many “old” schools we had come across.

We found, tucked back into the residential section of the town, a beautiful park with play equipment and the town’s community pool, which was being well used by many families on this hot day. We took an extended rest in that park and let our daughter get out and run around to play while I bought some cold snacks from an ice cream stand beside the pool.

Upon leaving Cove we took Highway 237 to LaGrande where we jumped on I-84 and went over the famously treacherous “Dead Man’s Pass” through the Blue Mountains where we came into Pendleton and stayed until Tuesday, July 7th. I had thoughts of making a small excursion while I was there and getting pictures of Nixya’awi and Griswold schools, and maybe even Echo, but unfortunately it never came about. I make the trip to Pendleton two or three times a year, so I’ll get those on another outing.

The drive home on July 7th was just the standard I-84 to I-5 trip that I’ve done a hundred times. The only key stop we made was in Arlington, which has a great little river side park with play equipment again for my daughter.

Most Oregonians have driven past Arlington, population 524, and know that it’s located basically in a canyon that runs off the river with houses dotting the hills on both sides and the commercial town in between and its small blue and white school located on top of the western hill. In terms of this photography project, Arlington was the most rewarding since the doors to the gym were wide open and some of the lights were on, giving me great shots of the interior gym. It appears to be a great little basketball arena that is well kept up and I imagine had some packed houses a few years ago when Jeremy Rosenbalm, the 6th all-time leading scorer in Oregon high school history (all classifications) with 2,314 points, was lighting up the scoreboard.

The rest of the trip was a standard straight freeway shot back home to Aumsville. I had intended to make one final stop in Cascade Locks, but when we got there it was clear there was to be no more stopping, but just time to return home. It was a fun trip through rural, small town Oregon and I hope to make many more like it in the future.