Standing in the Gap for Oregon

Mount Hood Your righteousness is like the highest  mountains, your justice like the great deep. You,  Lord , preserve both people and animals . Psalm 36:6 Traveling east from Portland on I-84 quickly puts you into the Columbia River Gorge. Hood River County is the first county going east, next door to Clackamas and Multnomah. This county lies in the transitional zone between the temperate rain forest of the Cascade Mountains and the high, dry desert of eastern Oregon. It is the second smallest county in the state in area, with only Multnomah being smaller.   It is a latecomer, the 34 th of 36 counties, established in 1908. The region itself was settled much earlier with pioneers taking up homesteads in the Hood River valley as early as 1854. Also, much of the Barlow Road lies in Hood River County, the first road - a toll road - built to give pioneers an alternative to floating rafts down the dangerous Columbia River to reach the Willamette Valley. Built by Sam Barlo...

Painted Hills, Oregon For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, expect our God? Psalm 18:31 Known as a “Geologic Wonderland,” Wheeler County is the least populated county in the state with only about 1500 residents. Three hours from Portland, in North Central Oregon, it is a popular tourist destination famous for the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument, the John Day River and two National Forests: the Ochoco and the Umatilla. About one-third of the county is BLM land. Wheeler County was created in 1899 from parts of Grant, Gilliam and Crook Counties. It’s three main communities are Mitchell, Spray, and Fossil, the county seat. The economy is based on tourism - which includes fossil digging, fishing, rafting, hiking, camping, photography and winter sports in the mountains - and ranching. From 1928 until 1978 the Kinzua Pine Mills Company which later became the Eastern Oregon Logging Company, was a major employer in the county. When it closed in 1978 the county populatio...