Gilchrist is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Klamath 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 U.S. Route 97 between Bend and

Klamath Falls Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city was ...

Demographics

History

Gilchrist was the last lumber company town in Oregon. The town was founded in 1938 by the family-owned Gilchrist Timber Company, with Frank and Mary Gilchrist as the owners and town founders. The mill moved there from

Jasper County, Mississippi Jasper County is located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. At the 2010 census, the population was 17,062. In 1906, the state legislature established two county courts, one at the first county seat of Paulding in the eastern part of the county ...

, in search of lumber and lower taxes, building a dam on the Little Deschutes River to create the mill pond. In 1939, Gilchrist School was built by the Public Works Administration. The Gilchrist Mall was built in 1939. It was the first mall opened east of the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, a ...

. The mall included grocery store, post office, drugstore, barbershop, beauty parlor, liquor store, bowling alley, and a library. The mall also housed a club for Gilchrist Lumber Company employees. The club had a bar and lounge area, dance floor, pool tables, and a large meeting hall. While some of the businesses have changed over time, as of 2019 the mall buildings remain essentially unchanged. The company was sold to Crown Pacific Partners in 1991, which subsequently fired all its employees. The 120 homes and other facilities in the town were subsequently sold to residents and others in 1997, with Crown Pacific retaining the sawmill and timberland. Prior to this sale, all houses in the town were painted in Gilchrist brown (with the exception of a small area on the north end of town called Rainbow Circle by its residents). The timberland and the town's

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

, upgraded to handle smaller logs in 2000, were among the last remaining assets of Crown Pacific, which declared bankruptcy in 2003 and was taken over by creditors at the end of 2004, and again bought by Canadian company Interfor Pacific in 2006. As of 2009, the kindergarten through twelfth grade school had an enrollment of 238 students.

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Gilchrist has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Gilchrist, Oregon
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References

* {{authority control Company towns in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Klamath County, Oregon Populated places established in 1938 1938 establishments in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon