Travels with The Original Easyrider®
2022
Images by
Easyrider In The Wind Photography
Travels with The Original Easyrider® |
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These images were made with my Nikon D7000 beater crop sensor camera and my
Fancy, schmancy Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AIS manual focus lens.
GETTING THERE: I-84 to The Dalles.
SR 197 to Maupin (there's one gas station here).
There is now gasoline (regular and diesel only) in Shaniko
Bakeoven Road to Shaniko.
SR 97 to Biggs Junction.
Pictures of past rides to Shaniko:
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
2014,
2014,
2014,
2014,
2015,
2015,
2016,
2016
April, 2017,
May, 2017,
Sept, 2017,
April, 2018,
Aug, 2018,
April, 2019,
March, 2020
Sept, 2020.
Nov, 2020,
July, 2021,
May, 2022,
Oct, 2022.
Pictures of the inside of the
Shaniko Hotel Guest Rooms
Pictures of the inside of the
Shaniko Hotel Lobby and Cafe
Pictures of past rides to Kent:
2012,
2013,
2015.
2016,
2018.
Pictures of past rides to
Grass Valley in 2018,
2017,
2016,
Summer, 2014,
Spring, 2014,
2013
Pictures of past rides to Antelope:
2014,
2014,
2016,
2016,
2020
Pictures of past rides along
Bakeoven Road
Shaniko, located 38 miles northeast of Madras on U.S. Highway 97, is the nearest
real ghost town to Bend. It was named (and mispronounced) for early settler August
Scherneckau, who owned a stage stop in the earlier community of Cross Hollows.
For just over a decade, beginning in 1900, Shaniko was the largest wool-shipping
depot in the world. As the southern terminus of the Columbia Southern Railroad, a
subsidiary of the Union Pacific, it was the hub of a 20,000-square-mile territory
that extended through most of Eastern Oregon. Ranchers and farmers brought their
sheep, cattle and wheat to be shipped north to Biggs Junction, on the Columbia River.
In 1903, more than 1.1 million bushels of wheat were sold. Wool sales topped $3 million
in 1903 and $5 million in 1904. But when the Oregon Trunk Railroad was completed to
Bend in 1911, Shaniko was reduced to being the mere terminus of a dead-end railroad.
When Australia and New Zealand began producing less expensive wool for the world
market after World War I, Shaniko's importance faded further. The Columbia Southern
was finally abandoned in the 1960s.
The Shaniko Hotel, originally the Columbia Southern Hotel, has been the town's
anchor from the moment it was completed in 1900. Now owned by Portland financier
Robert Pamplin Jr., the two-story brick hotel remains in fine repair - although it
is presently closed, with no current plans for reopening.
But the entire downtown of Shaniko is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places, and plenty of other century-old buildings remain open. The largest of them
is a wool shed - the largest in Oregon - on the east side of town. "SHANIKO" is
spelled out on its tin roof in letters large enough to be read by any passing
aircraft. The Columbia Southern train station, long since destroyed, stood immediately
north of the shed.
A row of historic false-front structures - including the Shaniko post office - stands
opposite the hotel on the south side of the street. Among them is the 1901 Gold
Nugget Saloon, now an antiques store. Across from the hotel to the east is the 1901
city hall, where historical photos are displayed in an anteroom, open even when
offices are locked. On the back side of the building is a three-cell jail, which
visitors can explore, as well as the Shaniko firehouse. More old structures, including
a small museum, are across a secondary lane behind city hall.
The town's most prominent building, after the hotel, is the Shaniko School, also
built in 1901. Lime green, the three-room school features a unique octagonal bell
tower. As one of its rooms serves as a wool fabric shop, it is frequently open to
the public.
Shaniko's imposing 1901 water tower, 70 feet high, is just west. Built of sturdy wood,
it held a pair of 10,000-gallon tanks that contained water pumped from a nearby spring.
A truck (I'm assuming a semi) missed the turn on SR97 and plowed
through the line of stores where the ice cream shop of many years
operated. The exterior walls of the building block are still intact
but the insides of the buildings are gutted. The ice cream shop
is temporarily operating out of the Shaniko Hotel Cafe although they
were closed when we showed up on a Saturday.
Investments are being made in repairing structures and cleaning up
the area in anticipation of reopening the Shaniko Hotel, likely
in Spring, 2023 although we were told December, 2022.
Always stop by to pay my respects to the old Korean War Vet who's
name I never can remember. One of the Daughters, her husband and
several of the clan were there on my last visit. Had a nice chat
and got some good pictures of her old T-bucket and a couple of other
vintage vehicles here. Ada Ruth over in Bickleton is about the last
of the lovely older folks we always enjoy visiting with when we travel.
I suppose one day it will be someone at one of these old towns saying
how they used to enjoy chatting with me after I'm gone.... hopefully
in the not-so-distant future. Brandon has completely worn me out.
I'd love to see what Trump does when he's back in the White House
but I don't know if I can take two more years of this senile, corrupt
imbecile Biden.
I'm happy to be riding regularly again. All four bikes are roadworthy
again. Lesson learned, right? To thine own self be true.
Nice to have companionship on some of these rides. Senor
Dilligaf came along. We're feeling pretty good health-wise
and both scooters seem to be running very well. Nice, warm,
sunny but very windy day out on the Gorge and high plains
desert.
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