Hauling Boilers to the Mines - Sumpter Oregon

Sumpter is an historic mining and logging town. The first Post Office was established in 1874, with Joseph D. Young as the first postmaster. It was discontinued in 1878.

In December 1883, the Post Office was re-established and the spelling Sumter was changed to Sumpter to avoid confusion and repetition of names for mail delivery (Fort Sumter, South Carolina, which Sumpter was named for).

In 1899, the first of many brick buildings were appearing. Two blocks of Granite Street were paved with planks and Sumpter soon took on the title of The Queen City. The Sumpter Valley Railway delivered as much as six carloads of mining machinery each day and hauled six hundred car loads of timber each month to its mills in Sumpter and Baker City.

First Bank of Sumpter

There were seven daily stage lines, located in Sumpter, connecting the surrounding mining camps and towns. Millions of dollars in gold were extracted from the mines around the Queen City, with the going wage for miners at $4.00 per day for a twelve-hour shift. The peak came in 1900 with an output of $8,943,486 from thirty-five mines.

Growth came slowly to Sumpter; its only connection to the outside world was the wagon road winding over and through the hills to Baker City, nearly thirty miles away. This wagon road became the early stage route that connected all the boom towns and mines in the area.

A lot of these old wagon roads are now where people come to enjoy ATVing and snowmobiling.


Click here to read more about the history of Sumpter.


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