Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Ghost Town of Richmond, Oregon



While doing online research before our trip to eastern/central Oregon I saw a couple things about a ghost town just east off the Service Creek highway and since that was near where we intended to camp and I had never seen a ghost town before, we made a quick stop there.
While it was not exactly what I had expected, there were quite a few old remains of a town that once stood there and in fairly good condition.
The town was founded by farmers and ranchers in 1890 because of the lack of a community in the area and was later abandoned after the automobile was invented and travel to the nearest big town became less expensive.



The schoolhouse still stands but is located on private property. It once held a teacher and 40 students and included a stable for the students horses.



The church also stands still on private property but easily viewed from the gravel road.



There were ruins scattered around including a general store that I wasn't able to snap a picture of. Not far off the road and definetly a interesting site if you have a few minutes to spare!
One mile east of highway 207, south of Service Creek.

Fairview Campground in Heppner, Oregon

While camping this week in eastern Oregon for the first time, we scouted out numerous campgrounds and attractions. On our way to Bull Prairie lake we found the Fairview campground.
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The campground was very private and nestled nicely in a beautiful forest. Very quite and also had fairly decent bathrooms for being porta potty!

The only downside was that there were no campfires allowed due to the fire season being in effect and the campground being surrounded by dry, very flammable grass. However the weather was so nice a fire was only desired for nostalgic reasons.
4300' - Fairview Campground is 34 miles south of Heppner, Oregon on State Highway 207.