![]() The ditch took over 10 years to build and at one point employed over 1,000 Chinese laborers. The Eldorado ditch is said to be the largest ditch of its kind in the West. Today the "Malheur City Convention Center", a modest building built to host an annual get together of area residents, is the only remaining structure. The USGS states "From 1932 through 1942, the district produced 36 ounces of lode gold and 2,277 ounces of placer gold."Ī brush fire burned the remaining buildings in 1957. Mining became a local industry again during the Depression years. Red White and Blue Mine south of Malheur CityĪ 1915 newspaper article calls Malheur City a "former mining center" that now survives on farming, but also states that seasonal placer mining still occurs and that active mines are found within eight miles of the town. A newspaper article indicates that and Odd Fellows hall was completed in 1875. The sign at the Malheur City cemetery states that it was established in 1870. ![]() ![]() The year the ditch was completed is another point of contention among sources, but it is likely that 1878 was the completion year as the establishment of a post office at Malheur City in 1879 indicates that a stable year-round population was finally possible.Īlthough the town's population seems to have stabilized in the late 1870s, it had at least some notable activity prior to that. This situation changed by the late 1870s with the completion of the Eldorado Ditch, the largest ditch system ever constructed in the West. How many people were at the town, or even whether there was a year-round population at all, is unknown. Malheur City was likely mined on very small scale for many years and only around the occasional availability of water. Extremely dry summer conditions idled most of these districts. Much of the mining at the time occurred in the spring and fall when there was enough rain to work the mines. It seems likely that the area was first settled in the early 1860s, about the same time that towns like Auburn and Clarksville were founded.Īll of these early northeast Oregon towns were founded at placer gold diggings, but similar to the mines of the Boise Basin in Idaho, suffered from lack of water. Although modern publications refer to this as the Malheur District, in the 1800s it was referred to as the Shasta district.ĭetails of the early key events at Malheur City vary between sources. Malheur City had a post office from 1879 to 1944.
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