Orodell, Oregon

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Orodell, also known as Oro Dell, is an unincorporated historic community in Union County, Oregon, United States, on the Grande Ronde River at the northwest edge of La Grande. [1] It is considered a ghost town. [2] Either Charles Fox or Stephen Coffin started the first sawmill in the Grande Ronde Valley there in the summer of 1862, after a joint-stock company between Coffin and other local settlers failed to materialize in 1861. [2] [3] [4] [5]

A townsite was platted in 1868. [2] [3] [6] Orodell post office was established in 1867 and named by taking part of the Greek word oros, meaning "a mountain", and combining it with the English word "dell". [2] The post office closed in 1878, and although the place is still known as Orodell, there has not been a community there for many years. [2]

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References

  1. "Orodell". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. May 22, 1986. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. p. 731. ISBN   978-0875952772.
  3. 1 2 Deumling, Dietrich (May 1972). The roles of the railroad in the development of the Grande Ronde Valley (masters thesis). Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona University. pp. 15–16. OCLC   4383986.
  4. An Illustrated history of Union and Wallowa counties. Western Historical Publishing Company. 1902. p. 138. OCLC   16675525.
  5. Evans, Elwood (1889). History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington: Embracing an Account of the Original Discoveries on the Pacific Coast of North America, and a Description of the Conquest, Settlement and Subjugation of the Original Territory of Oregon; Also Interesting Biographies of the Earliest Settlers and More Prominent Men and Women of the Pacific Northwest, Including a Description of the Climate, Soil, Productions of Oregon and Washington. Vol. 2. North Pacific history Company. p. 227. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  6. Bailey, Barbara Ruth (1982). Main Street: Northeastern Oregon. Oregon Historical Society. p. 25,46. ISBN   0-87595-073-6.

45°20′34″N118°06′49″W / 45.342910°N 118.113553°W / 45.342910; -118.113553