Powder Basin

“Draining south and east from the Blue Mountains, the Powder and Burnt Rivers flow to the middle Snake River. This ranching country contains remnants of the original Oregon Trail traveled by settlers in covered wagons. An interpretive center sits atop Flagstaff Hill and overlooks nearly seven miles of well-preserved Oregon Trail ruts that extend across Virtue Flat southeast of Flagstaff Hill.

In Baker City, a small rural community within the Powder River Basin, artists Fernanda D’Agostino and Valerie Otani have worked with architects, representatives from the Oregon Arts Commission, and local residents to develop a community vision for Baker City’s new linear park along the Powder River.

Powder River Valley was the site of the Powder River Gold Rush of 1861 culminating in the founding of Baker County in October of 1862, with the town of Auburn as the first county seat. As the gold petered out in one location, new bonanzas sprang up close by and in the far reaches of Eastern Oregon.

Auburn soon became a ghost town, while new mining camps and hamlets dotted the landscape wherever the land promised gold. Baker City, rising in the valley on the banks of the Powder River, became the new county seat and the crossroads of all future development and settlement in Eastern Oregon.

Mining is still important in this basin, but agriculture and ranching are the key elements of the economy. Bull trout in this basin are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The Baker Valley has been identified as a conservation opportunity area where riparian thickets and wetlands could be enhanced for native species.”

Content featured on the Oregon Explorer, "Learn about Places: Powder Basin" site, information compiled by science writing consultant John Ame.