Oregon Town Falls By The Wayside

UMAPINE, Ore. - In the not-so distant past, Umapine was a small but bustling community where neighbors nodded at one another on the streets and the whole town gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July.

That was then. Today, Umapine is little more than a dot on the map.

"We were a real close-knit community," recalls farmer Marvin Key. "But when we lost the school, we lost our community."

Longtime residents believe this was the final blow to an already-struggling town. The consolidated school comprised kindergartners through high-school seniors.

Originally known as Vincent (after Joseph Vincent, who donated land for a church), the town had to have its name changed when a post office was proposed, since there was already another Vincent, Ore. It was renamed in 1914.

Why Umapine?

In 1961-62, the high-school class at the Umapine school wrote a history of the community. They found the town was named after Chief Umapine of the Cayuse Indians and that in the Cayuse language the word umapine means friend.

Chief Umapine killed Chief Eagen of the Bannocks, a tribe that had been harassing white settlers during the Piute-Bannock War of 1878, the students found. This act is said to have saved nearby Pendleton from attack.

Though historic accounts may differ, former and present Umapine residents agree the town was once quite a community.

Betty Benz, a resident for 68 years, says Umapine was bustling in the mid- to late 1930s - it had two grocery stores, two churches, two creameries, a train depot, a school and a hardware store.

"Everybody knew everybody," recalls Myrna Hoskins. "If someone came into town looking for someone, you could tell the stranger how to find the person they were looking for. Everyone knew where everyone lived and what they did."

Agriculture made up the bulk of the town's livelihood. Hay and grain crops were prevalent and dairy farms prosperous. At the town's peak, the annual marketing figures were 5,000 tons of hay, 50,000 bushels of grain, and milk and cream products exceeding 120,000 pounds.

The town is quiet today. The school that was completed in 1927 is now an art foundry, and the train depot is long since closed. Dances at the grange hall are only a memory.

Residents agree that two events prompted the decline: more cars and the closing of the school.

"With better transportation many people just left," says Benz. "The progress left us."

Key, the farmer, agrees.

"People were more interested in other areas," he says. "They were able to move to other places and that left just the old-timers."

"The town started as a town center," says Grant Beauchamp, a member of one of the oldest families in Umapine. "That was back when a horse and wagon was your transportation. But with the advent of cars, everything changed."

Because of the continued exodus, the school was forced to shut down in 1983. Children were bused to other schools in the Ferndale and Milton-Freewater districts.

"I could just cry when I look at the school," says Benz.

"Nothing happened here that hasn't happened somewhere else," says Key. "Seems like this is happening to a lot of small towns. Hopefully, it won't happen to all of them."