Whitney 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 ...

, also considered a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

, in Baker 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, on

Oregon Route 7 Oregon Route 7 is an Oregon state highway which runs from Interstate 84 at Baker City to U.S. Route 26 at Austin Junction. OR 7 traverses several highways of the Oregon state highway system: Whitney Highway No. 71, part of the La G ...

southwest of Sumpter. It is on the

North Fork Burnt River The Burnt River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 3, 2011 tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon, United States. It enters the Snake near Huntington, Ore ...

, near the Blue Mountains and Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Whitney was named for 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 de ...

in the county, C.H. Whitney. The community of Whitney had a post office from 1901 to 1943. Founded as a logging town and

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 bear ...

ted in 1900, Whitney was the primary station on the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Sumpter Valley Railway. The

Oregon Lumber Company The Oregon Lumber Company was a company west of Portland, Oregon, that claimed extensive land via the Homestead Act of 1862. The company was formed by Charles W. Nibley together with David Eccles and George Stoddard in 1889. The company had it ...

built the first sawmill. It burned down in 1918, causing the town to severely decline. It was rebuilt in 1939 by the Oregon Lumber Company to harvest some nearby newly purchased timber stands. The Nibley Lumber Company built a second sawmill in 1910–11 on the south side of town. It was a picturesque ruin well into the 21st century, but as of 2008 was completely gone. Logging declined in the area in the 1940s, which caused the town and the railroad to fade. The Antlers Guard Station, which is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, is in the Whitney area.

References

Company towns in Oregon Ghost towns in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Baker County, Oregon Populated places established in 1900 1900 establishments in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{BakerCountyOR-geo-stub

See also

References