Ritter 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 ...

Grant County, Oregon Grant County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,233, making it Oregon's fourth-least populous county. The county seat is Canyon City. It is named for President Ulysses S. Grant ...

, United States, ten miles down the

Middle Fork John Day River The Middle Fork John Day River is a tributary of the North Fork John Day River in the U.S. state of Oregon. It originates in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon in the Malheur National Forest near Austin and flows generally west to the North ...

from

U.S. Route 395 U.S. Route 395 (US 395) is a U.S. Route in the western United States. The southern terminus of the route is in the Mojave Desert at Interstate 15 near Hesperia. The northern terminus is at the Canada–US border near Laurier, where the road be ...

, between Dale and Long Creek. At one time the locale was also known as Ritter Hot Springs. When a post office was established in this locale, it was named for the Rev. Joseph Ritter, a

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

Baptist minister of the John Day Valley, on whose ranch it was situated. The post office was originally near the mineral

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

s there, formerly known as McDuffee Hot Springs but now known as Ritter Hot Springs. In 1988, the post office had moved to the old schoolhouse across the river. As of 2009, Ritter no longer has its own post office; Ritter's mail is addressed to Long Creek.United States Postal Service ZIP Code Lookup
/ref> The springs were discovered by William Neal McDuffee, an early-day packer who traveled between Umatilla and the John Day Valley mines.

References

External links

Ritter Hot Springs
current hot springs resort business in Ritter

reprint of November 23, 1972 '' Blue Mountain Eagle'' article by Jo Southworth Unincorporated communities in Grant County, Oregon Spa towns in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{GrantCountyOR-geo-stub