Tumalo ( ) 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 ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in

Deschutes County Deschutes County ( ) is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 198,253. The county seat is Bend. The county was created in 1916 out of part of Crook County and was named for the Deschu ...

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. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 488. In the Klamath language, ''tumolo'' means "wild plum," a plentiful shrub in south central Oregon. ''Tumola'' means "ground fog," which may have described

Tumalo Creek Tumalo Creek is a tributary, about long, of the Deschutes River (Oregon), Deschutes River, located in Deschutes County, Oregon, Deschutes County in Central Oregon, United States. It rises in the Cascade Range at , where Middle Fork Tumalo Creek ...

. ''Tumallowa,'' the original name of Tumalo Creek, means "icy water."

History

The town was originally called "Laidlaw", after W. A. Laidlaw, the town promoter. The Tumalo Irrigation Project and Tumalo post office had been established in 1904. Although the project ended and the Tumalo post office closed in 1913, by 1915 residents of Laidlaw changed the town name to "Tumalo". Due to population growth in the Bend area a new zip code was added effective July 1, 2015. The new zip code, 97703, changed the zip code of Tumalo from 97701 to 97703.

Geography

Tumalo is in north-central Deschutes County on U.S. Route 20 between

Sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

, to the northwest, and Bend, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

to the south. Eagle Crest Resort is to the northeast. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, Tumalo has an area of , all of it land. The town lies along the

Deschutes River The Deschutes River ( ) in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many of the tributaries that descend from the drier, easte ...

. Tumalo Creek joins the Deschutes south of the town.

Demographics

Education

It is in the

Redmond School District 2J The Redmond School District is a school district in the U.S. state of Oregon that serves a area in Deschutes County, Oregon, Deschutes and Jefferson County, Oregon, Jefferson counties, including the city of Redmond, Oregon, Redmond and the uni ...

. The zoned schools are: Tumalo Elementary School, Obsidian Middle School, and Ridgeview High School. In previous eras, there was a Tumalo elementary school district. In 1966, the Tumalo district, among others, was to merge into the Redmond elementary school district. Deschutes County is in the boundary of

Central Oregon Community College Central Oregon Community College is a public community college in Bend, Oregon. It primarily serves residents of Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook Counties. Its service district also includes portions of Klamath, Lake, and Wasco counties. His ...

Notable residents

Ben Westlund Bernard John "Ben" Westlund II (September 3, 1949 – March 7, 2010) was an American politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. A Democrat, he was elected State Treasurer in 2008. Previously, Westlund served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative ...

, politician

References