Olene 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 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. It is southeast of

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 ...

Oregon Route 140 Oregon Route 140 (OR 140) is a state highway in southern Oregon, United States. It is the longest state highway in Oregon, running from the community of White City, Oregon (just north of Medford), through Klamath Falls and on to Lakeview. It ...

. Olene currently has a general store and at one time it had a school. In 1940 Olene had a population of 62 and was considered a suburb of Klamath Falls. Olene was the center of a prosperous dairy and potato farming district. According to

William Gladstone Steel William Gladstone Steel (September 7, 1854 – October 21, 1934) was an American journalist who was known for campaigning for 17 years for the United States Congress to designate Crater Lake as a National Park. Steel is from Ohio, and worked in th ...

, ''Olene'' is a

Klamath Klamath may refer to: Ethnic groups *Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon **Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon *Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people Places in the United States * ...

word meaning "eddy place" or "place of drift." O. C. Applegate adopted the word for the site in 1884 when the post office was established. The original Olene post office was up the Lost River from the current townsite. When the post office closed in 1966, it was near The Gap, a restriction in the Lost River. This gap is also known as Olene Gap, and the Olene Hot Springs are nearby. The community was along a rail line operated jointly by

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

and

Burlington Northern The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroadin ...

. Today the

OC&E Woods Line State Trail The OC&E Woods Line State Trail is a rail trail in Klamath and Lake counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is Oregon's longest state park. The trail follows the old OC&E ( Oregon, California and Eastern) and Weyerhaeuser railroads from Klamat ...

, a

rails to trails A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

conversion, passes through Olene. Originally built by the

Oregon, California and Eastern Railway The Oregon, California and Eastern Railway (OC&E) was a rail line between Klamath Falls and Bly in the U.S. state of Oregon. After 70 years of bringing logs from nearby forests to local sawmills, the former railroad right of way was converted t ...

, the railroad line reached Olene in 1918. A geothermal drilling project near Olene was completed in early 2013, and the temperature produced by that well was in excess of .
"Second Geothermal Well in the Works in Olene Area". Global Geothermal News. Retrieved October 14, 2013. Plans include drilling two or three more wells for a commercial-scale power plant, with a planned electrical capacity of 21 MWe.

References

External links

Historic image of Olene Store
from

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professional ...

Unincorporated communities in Klamath County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon Oregon placenames of Native American origin {{KlamathCountyOR-geo-stub