Meacham is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Umatilla County Umatilla County () is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. The population of 81,826 ranks it as the 14th largest in Oregon, and largest in Eastern Oregon. Hermiston is the largest city in Umatilla County, but Pendleton remain ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. It is located on the old alignment of

U.S. Route 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of , it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, afte ...

off Interstate 84, in the

Umatilla National Forest The Umatilla National Forest, in the Blue Mountains (Oregon), Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington (U.S. state), Washington, covers an area of 1.4 million acres (5,700 km2). In descending order of land area the forest ...

, near Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area and the route of the

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

. It is part of the Pendleton–

Hermiston Hermiston () is a city in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. Its population of 20,322 makes it the largest city in Eastern Oregon. Hermiston is the largest and fastest-growing city in the Hermiston-Pendleton Micropolitan Statistical Area, t ...

Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Demographics

History

Meacham was a station on the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

, near the summit of the Blue Mountains. Major

Henry A. G. Lee Henry A. G. Lee (c. 1818 – 1851) was a soldier and politician in Oregon Country in the 1840s. A member of Virginia's Lee family, he was part of the John C. Frémont, Fremont Expedition and commanded troops during the Cayuse War in what became ...

established a troop encampment, called Lee's Encampment, there in 1844. Meacham was named for Harvey J. and Alfred B. Meacham, who operated Meacham Station, a

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

station, in the 1860s and 1870s. The first post office in the locality, established in 1862, was named "Encampment". The name was changed to "Meacham" in 1890. On July 3, 1923, Meacham was visited by President

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was one of the most ...

, who stopped for the day during his Voyage of Understanding and participated in the exercises commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the

. Harding gave a speech in Pendleton on July 4, commemorating the Oregon Trail, at which time his wife,

Florence Harding Florence Mabel Harding (née Kling; August 15, 1860 – November 21, 1924) was First Lady of the United States from 1921 until her husband's death in 1923 as the wife of President Warren G. Harding. Harding had initially studied to be a con ...

was presented with a Pendleton blanket shawl in a design that became popular as the "Harding design". According to local tradition, Harding in his speech said (or, as a historic marker tells it, "reporters noted") that the little town of Meacham was the nation's capital "all day long". However, the transcript of the event contains no such declaration.

Climate

Meacham has a dry-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dsb'') with cold snowy winters and mild summers. It was widely reported that Meacham set the state record for lowest recorded temperature in February 1933 at . Seneca, in

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States * Grant County, Arkansas * Grant County, Indiana * Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky Grant County is a county located in the northern pa ...

, however, was colder at .

References

External links

Historic photos of Meacham from Salem Public Library
{{Authority control Oregon Trail Pendleton–Hermiston Micropolitan Statistical Area Unincorporated communities in Umatilla County, Oregon 1862 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1862 Unincorporated communities in Oregon

Demographics

History

Climate

References

Further reading

External links