Copperfield, Oregon

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Copperfield is a former town in Baker County, Oregon, United States, located on the west bank of the Snake River, near a place called The Oxbow.

Contents

[edit] Early history

According to the historian Lewis McArthur, the town was formed in the late 1890s as "Copper Camp", and was inhabited by prospectors of the local copper ore;[1] However, the Oregon writer Stewart Holbrook asserted that "there was no copper in Copperfield", and that the community "had one purpose; namely, to cater to the uninhibited appetites of more than two thousand men who were engaged on two nearby construction projects."[2] Soon the locality was known as "Copperfield" and a post office established in 1899.[1] The population grew to 1,000 by 1910 because two tunnels were being dug near The Oxbow by the local railroad company and by the predecessor of the Idaho Power Company.[1]

[edit] Martial law

As Holbrook describes it, "early in 1913 the construction jobs began to peter out. Fewer men were employed. Competition for the remaining trade became stiff. The saloonkeepers began feuding."[3] With stories of arson, the town acquired a reputation for being lawless. When the county authorities failed to get control of the situation, Governor Oswald West sent his secretary, Fern Hobbs, with a signed declaration of martial law to clean up the place.[1] A few months after Hobbs' intervention, a fire "of unknown origin destroyed a block or two of the jerry-built structures. No saloon ever reopened."[4]

[edit] Ghost town

There were two more fires, and then the post office closed in 1927, essentially turning Copperfield into a ghost town.[1] In 1965, however, the community of Oxbow was founded just south of the site of Copperfield when the Idaho Power Company was building the Oxbow Dam.[1] The former site of Copperfield is now a park run by Idaho Power.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur [1928] (2003). Oregon Geographic Names, Seventh Edition, Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press, 230. ISBN 0-87595-277-1. 
  2. ^ Holbrook, Stewart. "The Affair at Copperfield", reprinted in Wildmen, Wobblies and Whistle Punks (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1992), p. 74
  3. ^ Holbrook, p. 74
  4. ^ Holbrook, p. 81
  5. ^ Idaho Power: Copperfield Park

[edit] External links

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Municipalities and communities of
Baker County, Oregon
County seat: Baker City
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Copperfield | Cornucopia | Oxbow | Whitney
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