Granite, Oregon

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Coordinates: 44°48′32″N, 118°25′13″W
Granite, Oregon
Location in Oregon
County	Grant County
Incorporated	1901
Mayor	Patricia Fielding
Area
- City	1.0 km² (0.4 sq mi)
- Land	1.0 km² (0.4 sq mi)
- Water	0 km² (0 sq mi)
Elevation	1,420.37 m (4,660 ft)
Population
- City (2000)	24
- Density	23.2/km² (60.3/sq mi)
Time zone	Pacific (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	Pacific (UTC-7)

Granite is a city located in Grant County, Oregon, United States.

First established by miners after the discovery of gold July 4, 1862, the community was originally called Independence and was situated about a mile-and-half west-north-west of the present location. According to Oregon Geographic Names, the name Granite was chosen when its post office was established in 1878, the name “Independence” already being used in Polk County, Oregon. A. G. Tabor, who had staked the first mining claim on Granite Creek (the Independence) and was the only merchant in town at the time, served as the first postmaster. The city of Granite was incorporated in April 1900 with Grant Thornburg as mayor.

With more than eighty percent of the men in the area directly employed in the mining industry, the viability of the area's economy practically collapsed when gold mining was made illegal in 1942 by Federal Public Law L-208, under the authority of the War Labor Act. The city had a population of 45 in 1930, 86 in 1940, 40 in 1950, and two in 1960. The city has been (as still is by some standards) considered a "ghost town." Although electrical service, provided by a local power plant on Clear Creek, and telegraph and later telephone lines were operational in the early days, they fell out of use and were abandoned after World War II. Modern telephone service was extended to Granite in the year 2000.

As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 24, up from its population of 10 in 1990. It is the second-smallest (according to population) incorporated city in Oregon, after nearby Greenhorn, which has a population of zero.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 Occupational and social life
4 External links and sources

[edit] Geography

Granite is located at 44°48'32" North, 118°25'13" West (44.808774, -118.420162)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.0 km² (0.4 mi²), none of which is covered with water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there are 24 people in the city, organized into 15 households and 9 families. The population density is 23.2/km² (60.3/mi²). There are 74 housing units at an average density of 71.4/km² (185.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 100% White, with no African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and no people who consider themselves to be of other races or from two or more races. One person (4.17% of the population) is Hispanic or Latino of any race.

None of the 15 households have children under the age of 18 living with them. 60% of the households are married couples living together, 0.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 40.0% are non-families. 40.0% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 1.60 and the average family size is 2.00.

In the city the population is spread out with no one under the age of 24, 20.8% from 25 to 44, 66.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 57 years. The female to male ratio is 1:1.182.

The median income for a household in the city is $15,625, and the median income for a family is $20,625. Males have a median income of $11,250 versus $6,250 for females. The per capita income for the city is $8,024. 36% of the population and 20% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, all of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

[edit] Occupational and social life

A 1939 interview, recorded by William “Bill” Haight as part of the Federal Writers' Project, described the town and surroundings of Granite. The following are excerpts from that interview of Mrs. Neil Niven, Granite's school teacher and a co-editor of the town's newspaper, the Granite Siftings:

Granite was first named Independence. On July 4, 1862, the notorious Jack Long discovered gold here and this precipitated a rush. The town was named in honor of Independence Day; on which it was founded. Later, when the Granite townspeople petitioned the United States government for a post office the government insisted they change the name of Independence.* In accordance with the government edict the townspeople voted for the name Granite.

The little town is filled with rich, boisterous lore. Rollicking, rough, and ready, would best describe those townspeople.

Granite, or Independence, as it first was called, was built in the heart of the Blue Mountains. As you know, many creeks roar down from the mountain springs into the canyons. The mountains are rough, tower high into air and flatten out into rocky, almost impassable flats at other places. This rough country presents many obstacles hard to overcome. The roughness, coupled with the unfavorable climatic conditions are, at times, almost unbearable. The Granite country could be and usually is nature at its best and worst.

*Because there was already a community named Independence in Oregon with a U.S. Post Office.

[edit] Supplies

Supplies were brought in from Pendleton or the Umatilla Landing by freight wagons. The regular mail came through by pack train from John Day. The supplies brought by the wagons could only be wagoned in during the summer months. The rest of the year the roads and trails were impassable. Mail nearly always managed to get through, with the possible exception of the heavy snow season.

[edit] Seasons

Each season of the year presented peculiar problems. The fall was the best time for everyone. Then the days were warm and pleasant, fading into cool, brilliant, moonlit, starlit nights. The air brought a fresh, crisp, tang to your nostrils. The smell of the pine needles was always more sharp in the fall.

Winter covered the mountains with snow. As soon as the snow started falling the men began an almost never-ending shoveling of drifts from the walks we used in town. Ravines that during the summer harbored laboring miners were completely filled with snow. The houses we lived in looked rather like large Eskimo ice houses. The mountain streams were beautiful at this time of the year. They cut a sparkling, almost black line through the heavy crusted snow, they were about the only thing in that country that didn't look frozen. The high drifts, piled higher by changing winds, blocked the trails and entrances to the mines. Often operations were forced to shut down.

[edit] The men and their living quarters

The men in the mines wore a regulation miner's hat with a candle on the front bill. Overalls, with hip-boots, and a dark blue, heavy shirt completed his outfit. About the only concession they would make for social life would be a different hat, and smaller boots. They used picks and shovels for tools most of the time in the mines. Dynamite and all the paraphernalia that goes with its use was utilized whenever possible.

For living quarters the men chopped down trees, trimmed and seasoned them to use in building log cabins. Simplicity and utility were their chief characteristics. A few of the windows in the cabins were waxed paper, but in my time most of us had regular window panes. Furniture was made from rough lumber and produced by the men.

[edit] Young single women

When I first went to Granite as their schoolteacher, there were only two other single girls there. A little later another girl, too fat to make any difference moved into town. We three girls, and later the fat one, had a glorious time. Every bachelor there at one time or another asked us for a date.

At the Never Sweat Hotel we girls started a library. Every evening we would spend at the library encouraging the young men of the town to read books. Precious little reading was done, but many books were taken out of the library. Each girl had a special beau to see that she arrived home safely, but it did not hinder our entertaining the other bachelors at the library.

The library had the books for an excuse for the miners to come to the hotel, but an old organ helped provide the entertainment. We would dance and sing to the music of that old, out-of-tune organ, and have the best time.

[edit] Chinese

When Granite was at its height there were approximately 3000 Chinese working in the mines, or working mines of their own. These Chinese would buy mines after the white man was nearly finished with his operations. Usually the white man was convinced of the fact that he was selling slag dirt. However, the Chinese could still make a living from the tailings or slags. This always struck me as a peculiar but profitable quality.

The poor Chinese were socially ostracised from white society. However, they had their own lives and led them much as we do ours.

[edit] Local code of ethics

The men of Granite had a code of ethics that fulfilled the function of legal law. Oh! There were plenty of infractions of the code, but often these infractions were dealt with by lead logic, rather than by legal evasion. M-h-m, yes, I suppose it isn't right to stretch a horse thief with his boots on, or lead up a sift snitcher, but it served its purpose with remarkable finality to further trespassing.

[edit] Lincoln's election

Granite citizens, almost to a man were Southern Democrats. The ugliest name they could call a man was "Lincolnite". The worthless Jack Long was no exception. His hate for Lincoln was the most eloquent thing about him. When the dreaded news came that Lincoln had been elected bitterness burned deeply in all Democratic hearts. The few votes he received in Granite cast the finger of black Republican suspicion on many people.

Jack Long, on one of his glorious sprees, decided he had the courage to find the man who dared to vote for Lincoln. Arming himself with a revolver and knife, he set out on his self-appointed mission. Each man he met on the street he questioned boldly, threateningly. His voice could be heard booming up and down the street.

"Did you dare to vote for Abraham Lincoln?" Most everyone answered, "No." A man riding by on his horse reined in and said to Jack: "I dared to vote for Lincoln. What are you going to do about it?" Dead silence fell on the crowd that had quickly gathered. Jack Long broke the silence with "Well, that makes one. Where's another?" Someone in the crowd yelled, "thought you was gong to shoot the first black Republican you met, Jack?" "Well," he answered, "you can't shoot a man on his horse." Accused of being a coward, Jack countered, "I'd rather be called a coward than be dead." Republicans were safe after that.