Boardman, Oregon
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Boardman is a city in Morrow County,
Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
, United States on the Columbia River and Interstate 84. As of the 2010 census the population was 3,220. It is currently the largest town in Morrow County, Oregon.


History

Boardman was homesteaded in 1903 by Samuel H. Boardman, the first superintendent of the Oregon State Parks System. Boardman and his wife worked for 13 years to develop irrigation for their land; during those years his wife taught school, and Boardman at times worked on railroad construction projects. The
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
passed through Boardman, where it had a station. The community was
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...
ted in 1916 at about the same time Samuel Boardman went to work for the
Oregon State Highway Department The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depa ...
and became involved in the development of roadside parks. The Boardman post office opened in 1916. The city was incorporated in 1921. During construction of the
John Day Dam The John Day Dam is a concrete gravity run-of-the-river dam spanning the Columbia River in the northwestern United States. The dam features a navigation lock plus fish ladders on both sides. The John Day Lock has the highest lift (at ) of any U.S ...
on the Columbia River in the 1960s, the city had to be moved south, further from the water. Lake Umatilla, behind the dam, covered much of the original city. South of Boardman, the
U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
established a training range in 1941. The
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
transferred ownership of the range in 1960 to the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
and it is now known as the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman. The range is largely used by
NAS Whidbey Island Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI) is a naval air station of the United States Navy located on two pieces of land near Oak Harbor, on Whidbey Island, in Island County, Washington. The main portion of the base, Ault Field, is about t ...
and the Oregon National Guard.


Geography

Boardman is in northeastern Oregon, along Interstate 84 south of the Columbia River. The city is above sea level. It is west of Hermiston and east of Portland. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


Climate

Boardman has a steppe climate (
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''BSk'').


Demographics

Boardman is part of the PendletonHermiston Micropolitan Statistical Area.


2010 census

As of the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
of 2010, there were 3,220 people, 964 households, and 759 families residing in the city. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...
was . There were 1,017 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 60.1%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, 0.7%
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.9% Native American, 2.4% Asian, 0.3%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 33.0% from
other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 2.6% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
or
Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...
of any race were 61.7% of the population. There were 964 households, of which 53.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.9% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 9.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 21.3% were non-families. 14.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34, and the average family size was 3.70. The median age in the city was 27.5 years. 35.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 11.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 28.9% were from 25 to 44; 18.8% were from 45 to 64; and 5.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 53.3% male and 46.7% female.


2000 census

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,855 people, 853 households, and 686 families residing in the town. The population density was 798.2 people per square mile (307.9/km2). There were 947 housing units at an average density of 264.8 per square mile (102.1/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 55.24% White,1.93% Native American, 0.70% Asian, 0.39% African American, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 38.74% from other races, and 2.91% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 50.12% of the population. There were 853 households, out of which 53.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.4% were married couples living together, 14.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.5% were non-families. 14.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.33, and the average family size was 3.66. In the town the population was spread out, with 38.1% under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 15.0% from 45 to 64, and 5.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females, there were 109.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 114.8 males. The median household income was $32,105, and the median income for a family was $32,543. Males had a median income of $30,000 versus $21,765 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...
for the town was $12,297. About 16.3% of families and 20.1% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, including 26.2% of those under age 18 and 6.7% of those age 65 or over.


Economy

As of 2013, the six largest employers in Boardman are Lamb Weston (potato products) (370 employees); Oregon Potato Company (125);
Portland General Electric Portland General Electric (PGE) is a Fortune 1000 public utility based in Portland, Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - 44% of the inhabitants ...
(PGE) (113); the Morrow County School District (106), Boardman Foods, (100) and
Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its ...
. The Port of Morrow, Oregon's second-largest port, is adjacent to the city and located on the Columbia Riverfront. The port property also includes two (PGE) gas-fired power plants. PGE also has a
coal-fired power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
in the Boardman area; opened in 1980, it had shut down in October, 2020 marking the closure of the last coal fired power plant in Oregon after 40 years of service. This 550MW power plant was the largest single point of emission of greenhouse gases in Oregon. The
Umatilla Chemical Depot The Umatilla Chemical Depot, (UMCD) based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U.S. Army installation in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons originally stored at the depot consisted of various live munitions and storage co ...
, which includes the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, is east of the city, northwest of the intersection of I-84 and
Interstate 82 Interstate 82 (I-82) is an Interstate Highway in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States that travels through parts of Washington and Oregon. It runs from its northwestern terminus at I-90 in Ellensburg, Washington, to its southeaste ...
. Seven miles east of Boardman is the Irrigon Fish Hatchery. Threemile Canyon Farms is the largest farm located In Boardman. According to a November 2008 article in ''
The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...
'', a "huge data center linked to Amazon.com asunder construction" at the Port of Morrow. The data center was to have a dedicated 10-
megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
electrical substation. A website focused on data centers suggested the Boardman site was created in response to the rapid growth of
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide d ...
; earlier in 2008, Amazon had announced that
Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its ...
was storing 29 billion objects (such as
IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
tables). The project made Boardman the second Oregon city along the Columbia River to host a power-hungry data center for web services:
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
has a similar center in
The Dalles The Dalles is the largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,010 at the 2020 census, and it is the largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River between the Portland Metropolitan Area, and Hermiston ...
. By 2012,
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
had announced plans for a
server farm A server farm or server cluster is a collection of computer servers, usually maintained by an organization to supply server functionality far beyond the capability of a single machine. They often consist of thousands of computers which require ...
south of The Dalles in
Prineville Prineville is a city in and the seat of Crook County, Oregon, United States. It was named for the first merchant located in the present location, Barney Prine. The population was 9,253 at the 2010 census. History Prineville was founded in 187 ...
, where
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
already had a similar farm.
Rackspace Rackspace Technology, Inc. is an American cloud computing company based in Windcrest, Texas, an inner suburb of San Antonio, Texas. The company also has offices in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Austin, Texas, as well as in Australia, Canada, United ...
was said to be considering a data center at the Port of Morrow. According to an August 2018 article in the
East Oregonian The ''East Oregonian'' (''EO'') is a daily newspaper published in Pendleton, Oregon, United States and covering Umatilla and Morrow counties. The ''EO'' was the first-place winner of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association General Excellence ...
, Amazon has two data centers in Boardman and one in Umatilla and is proposing to build four more data centers in the region. The three data centers in Boardman and Umatilla correspond to the three availability zones in AWS US-West-2 (Oregon) region. Since 2007, Alto Ingredients, formerly known as Pacific Ethanol, has operated an ethanol plant in Boardman.It can produce up to of ethanol a year from grains. ZeaChem has built a demonstration biorefinery at the Port of Morrow with a capacity of up to of ethanol a year from wood waste. The company hopes to build a much larger commercial refinery with a capacity of annually. However, in April 2013, less than a month after start-up at the demonstration plant, ZeaChem halted production, citing funding problems. The company plans to resume production if financial backing can be found.


Coal export

Ambre Energy, a company based in Australia, has proposed using the Port of Morrow as a transfer point for shipping U.S. coal to Asia. Ambre wants to export up to of coal per year from the
Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very s ...
in Wyoming and Montana. It would ship the coal by train to Boardman, where it would be loaded on barges and hauled down the Columbia River to the Port of St. Helens. There it would be transferred to ocean-going ships headed for China, South Korea, Japan, and other Asian countries. The Ambre plan has generated controversy among proponents touting economic benefits and opponents fearing environmental damage. After the public-comment period ends on August 12, 2013, the
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is the chief regulatory agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for protecting and enhancing the state's natural resources and managing sanitary and toxic waste disposal ...
will decide whether to grant Ambre's request for permits to proceed. To export coal across Oregon in the way Ambre proposes, the company will also need approval from the Oregon Department of State Lands and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
.


Transportation

Boardman Airport, owned by the Port of Morrow, is southwest of the city. It is a public airport used mainly for transient and local general aviation. Midcolumbia Bus Company are also in the Boardman area.


References


External links

*
City of Boardman

Entry for Boardman
in the ''
Oregon Blue Book The ''Oregon Blue Book'' is the official directory and fact book for the U.S. state of Oregon prepared by the Oregon Secretary of State and published by the Office of the Secretary's Archives Division. The ''Blue Book'' comes in both print and on ...
'' * {{Authority control Cities in Oregon Cities in Morrow County, Oregon Oregon populated places on the Columbia River Port cities in Oregon Pendleton–Hermiston Micropolitan Statistical Area Populated places established in 1927 1927 establishments in Oregon