Sparta 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 ...
in
Baker County,
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 ...
, United States.
It was named for
Sparta, Illinois
Sparta is a city in Randolph County, Illinois, Randolph County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,095 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
The city was the principal filming location for the 1967 film ''In the Heat of the ...
, by
William H. Packwood, a prominent Oregon
pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a person who is among the first at something that is new to a community.
A pioneer as a settler is among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community. A historic example are American pioneers, perso ...
who visited the gold diggings at the
Powder River there in 1871.
By 1873, the population was 300 and the town had a general store, a hotel, a meat market, and a brewery; food came from the nearby
Eagle Valley.
The town was
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 Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
ted in 1872,
and the post office was established in 1872 and ran until 1952.
[ The post office was originally named "Gem" in 1871 and was moved about a mile east when it was renamed Sparta to match the established community.]
See also
*List of ghost towns in Oregon
According to several historians, the United States, U.S. state of Oregon contains over 200 ghost towns. Professor and historian Stephen Arndt has counted a total of 256 ghost towns in the state, some well known, others "really obscure." The hig ...
References
External links
Historic image of Sparta
from Salem Public Library
Unincorporated communities in Baker County, Oregon
1872 establishments in Oregon
Populated places established in 1872
Unincorporated communities in Oregon
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