The population in the 2020 census was 11,645. The town had 200 residents in 1890, a number that has increased in almost every census since then. The Oregon legislature incorporated Ontario on February 11, 1899, and the town continued to grow and prosper throughout the twentieth century as a shipping and supply point for eastern Oregon. The question was presented to the electorate in multiple elections until 1913, when Ontario finally conceded defeat. Vale won over Ontario by popular vote in 1888. Malheur County was carved out of southern Baker County in 1887, and a fight ensued over where to locate the new county seat. Several stores opened in anticipation of the arrival of the Oregon Short Line, which was connected to Ontario in the winter of 1884-1885. Nearly all of the stock and wool shipments from eastern Oregon producers were shipped through Ontario, and its stockyard became the largest on the Short Line. By June 1899, the average daily value of shipments of cattle sent out of Ontario was $25,000, a strikingly high value (the equivalent of approximately $746,000 in 2016). A post office was also established that year, with Morfitt as the first postmaster. In 1884, William Morfitt built the first frame building in Ontario and drew up a contract with the Nevada Ditch Company to supply the town with irrigated water. Those five individuals developed the town site of Ontario, which Virtue named in honor of his home province of Ontario, Canada. Part of Virtue's claim was deeded to the Idaho-Oregon Land Improvement Company, headed by Abraham Caldwell, who had the authority to establish a train station for the Oregon Short Line Railway, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad that eventually ran from Granger, Wyoming, to Portland. Virtue, and Mary Richardson-claimed adjoining sections of desert land with the intention of platting a town. In 1883, four residents of Baker City-William Morfitt, Daniel Smith, James W. As the first city that people encounter when crossing into Oregon from Idaho on Interstate 84, Ontario has adopted the slogan "Where Oregon Begins."Īlthough Oregon Trail pioneers crossed the Snake River about fifteen miles south of Ontario (near present-day Nyssa), the town was not founded until 1883, when the area was still part of Baker County. Ontario, the largest city in Malheur County, is on the Snake River near the Oregon state line.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |