Hilgard 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 Union County,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, at the

junction Junction may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Junction'' (film), a 2012 American film * Jjunction, a 2002 Indian film * Junction (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille * Junction (EP), by Basement Jaxx, 2002 * Junction (manga), or ''Hot ...

Oregon Route 244 Oregon Route 244 (OR 244) is an Oregon state highway running from Ukiah in Umatilla County to Hilgard in Union County. OR 244 is known as the Ukiah-Hilgard Highway No. 341 (see Oregon highways and routes). It is long and runs east–w ...

with Interstate 84/ U.S. Route 30, near the Grande Ronde River. It is also the site of a

( wye) of 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 ...

. Hilgard Junction State Recreation Area is across the river from the community. The

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what ...

passed through this location, where the covered wagons had to maneuver downhill from La Grande. Most emigrants camped at Hilgard before continuing back uphill towards Emigrant Springs or Meacham. Hilgard was named for both

Eugene W. Hilgard Eugene Woldemar Hilgard (January 5, 1833, Zweibrücken, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany – January 8, 1916, Berkeley, California, United States) was a German-American expert on pedology (the study of soil resources). An authority on climate as a pe ...

, dean of the College of Agriculture at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, and for Henry Villard, whose name prior to immigrating to the United States was Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard. Villard was Hilgard's cousin, and when he built the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company railroad line over the Blue Mountains, he enlisted Hilgard to make an agricultural survey of the area. In July 1883, a post office named "Dan" was established. The name was changed to "Hilgard" in August of that year when the well-known Eugene Hilgard was in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. The office closed in 1943. In the early 20th century, the Hilgard vicinity had several

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 ...

s. The Mount Emily Lumber Company had a mill there in the 1920s.

References

External links

Oral history of Union County, Oregon
(PDF) from the

Oregon Historical Society The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preser ...

Unincorporated communities in Union County, Oregon 1883 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1883 Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{UnionCountyOR-geo-stub