Day 191--Huntington

Highway 30 to Huntington

Huntington, Oregon, on Highway 30 near the Snake River, got its start in 1870 as Miller's Stagecoach Station. In 1884, the rails of the Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company line were joined in Huntington, and it became a regional rail hub.

Named for J.B. and J.M. Huntington, brothers who purchased Miller's holdings in 1882, the town became a shipping point for cattle.

It had a reputation as a wild frontier town, with its share of saloons, opium dens, and gunslingers. At the turn of the century, Huntington developed a reputation as "Sin City," and Governor Oswald West moved to clean it up, along with Copperfield, in 1912-1914.

In 1929, in part thanks to the railroad, the town's population was more than 4,000, but today it's less than 500.



We stopped for lunch at Howell's Cafe and the Streamliner Lounge in Huntington (yes, I know it says Clark's Cafe, but the window to the far left of the building says Howell's). I had the oysters that are, according to the cafe's MySpace page, brought in fresh from the Oregon Coast by the owner's friend, "Seafood Willy." I believe it; they were delicious.