Praying for Oregon Counties: Baker

Baker County, Oregon

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Psalm 23:1-3

 

In 1811 Wilson Price Hunt was sent by John Jacob Astor to lead a group overland to establish the fur trading post of Astoria. Another group had been sent by sea. Hunt was young, fit and capable as a leader, but he lacked experience and underestimated the time it would take to get to the Pacific. The Overland Party followed the trail blazed by Lewis and Clark just a few years earlier, but then decided to swing south into unknown territory to avoid the hostile Blackfeet. By mid-winter in icy, snowy conditions, they found themselves starving in rugged Hell’s Canyon with no way to go forward. They split the party, tragically lost a couple of men, and finally found their way to the friendlier Shoshone who led them over the Blue Mountains into a beautiful green valley.

 

When I read the description of the valley in Peter Starke’s Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, I realized I knew right where they were: Baker County, Oregon in the far eastern part of the state.

 

Thirty years later the first wagon trains into Oregon took the route Wilson Price Hunt had marked (with the help of the Shoshone). For twenty years the green valley and stunning Blue Mountains were only a rest stop for the immigrants. But in 1861 gold was discovered in that region, then called Wasco County. 

 The population grew as miners and settlers moved in, and in 1862 Baker County was split off from Wasco, named after a Senator from Oregon, Edward Dickinson Baker, who had been killed in a Civil War battle in Virginia. He was the only member of Congress to be killed in the Civil War.

 

Baker City is the largest city and the county seat. It was established in the late 1860’s during the gold rush. The heyday for Baker City was during the early nineteenth century when it was known as the “Queen of the Inland Empire.” The town and the county had a substantial Chinese population during those years. The Chinese, mostly men, came to work the mines and build ditches during the gold rush years and contributed a great deal to the settlement of the area. 

 

How to pray for Baker County?

 

Baker County is in the 30^thsenate district with Lynn P. Finley as state senator. The 60^thhouse district representative is Mark Owens, both Republicans. The county has three county commissioners. Baker City has a seven-member City Council, one of whom serves as mayor. 

 

Pray for the peace and prosperity of Baker County.