Continue to Stand in the Gap: Gilliam County

Windmills, Gilliam County, Oregon

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered with grain; they shout for joy, they also sing. Psalm 65:13

Leaving the North East Region of Oregon, we are moving into the North Central section which consists of the eight-county region along the northern border of the state. Gilliam, Sherman, Wasco, Hood River, Wheeler, Jefferson, Crook, and Deschutes counties make up this large section of Oregon that is bordered by the Columbia River on the north, and by the mid-south counties of Klamath and Lake just below.

We have looked at Gilliam County before, here, here, and here.

Gilliam County, created in 1885, was named after Cornelius Gilliam, a major participant in the Cayuse War after the Whitman Massacre. Arlington was the first county seat, but the county seat was later moved 38 miles south to Condon. Arlington is along the Columbia River and I-84, so it is a part of Gilliam with which many are familiar.

Gilliam County, OR

Gilliam is one of the counties in Oregon that still operates under the County Court system of government. The full-time County Judge is Elizabeth Farrar Campbell and the two part-time commissioners are Pat Shannon and Leah Watkins.

Gilliam County Sheriff is Sheriff Gary Bettencourt.

Governor Kotek recently appointed Kari Hayter as the Gilliam County Justice of the Peace beginning June 1^st.  She is currently the City Recorder for the GCity of Arlington and has been working in public service in Gilliam County for a while, mainly for the City of Arlington as Staff Accountant and Director of Operations in addition to being Board Chair for the Arlington School District. Pray for her as she takes on these new duties.

“Wheat, Wind, Waves,” is a slogan for Gilliam County, referring to its acres of wheat, the growing number of wind farms, and the Columbia River. Recently a Gilliam County business was instrumental in addressing an issue just to the east in Morrow and Umatilla Counties where Amazon has been, for the last decade, setting up huge data centers, drawn to this part of the state by lower property taxes and other incentives. While the presence of the data centers has boosted the economy in Eastern Oregon, a new issue has arisen concerning the overuse of energy. There isn’t enough energy produced by renewable sources, like the Columbia River dams, to run the centers and Amazon is forced to buy “dirty” energy produced by fossil fuel (natural gas) sources, setting Oregon back on their “green energy” goals.

Avangrid, a wind farm in Gilliam County, recently agreed to sell energy to Amazon. This only amounts to 4% of Amazon’s huge need for power. Some feel it is a step in the right direction, but the future is uncertain with the lack of clean energy resources and a problem with the distribution – the powerlines are not adequate to the task of providing enough energy to Amazon’s growing need. These are all challenges for the North Eastern and North Central regions of Oregon. God’s wisdom is needed.  

Condon, the county seat, has been in existence for over 125 years and was established as the region moved from a ranching area to a more settled agriculture and farming region. At one time 150 wheat farms were in the vicinity of Condon.

It has less than 1000 population, but has an interesting history and produced a couple of Nobel Prize winners, Linus Pauling and William P. Murphy.  Of the early architecture, the historic Hotel Condon is the last remaining structure.

Churches in the county include the Baptist Church, St. Johns Catholic Church, United Church of Christ, and Seventh-Day Adventist, all of Condon. The United Methodist Church is located in Arlington.

It is a sparsely populated county with an interesting history of ranching, wheat, and now wind farms with the mighty Columbia rolling along its northern boundary. Pray for the people of Gilliam County.