Baker County County
Baker County was established from part of Wasco County and named after Colonel Edward D. Baker, a U.S. Senator from Oregon. A Union officer and close friend of President Lincoln, Colonel Baker was the only member of Congress to die in the Civil War. He was killed at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia. Auburn, which no longer exists, was the first county seat. Baker City became the county seat in 1868. It was incorporated in1874, and it is the 17th oldest city in Oregon.
Mapped Location
Baker County: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.
Information
General information on Baker County
- Feature Type: County
- County Seat: City of Baker City
- Established: Monday, September 22, 1862
Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Baker County
A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Baker County | Official |
Related Catalog Titles
A Bibliography for Baker County, County
Flagstaff Hill on the national historic Oregon Trail, Baker City, Oregon an interpretive guide by James R. Evans, Bert Webber
Published by historians James R. Evans and Bert Webber, Flagstaff Hill on the National Historic Oregon Trail, Baker City, Oregon: An interpretive guide serves as an informative companion to one of the most prominent overland trail sites in the American West. The book explores the dramatic geography and historic significance of Flagstaff Hill, which overlooks the historic ruts carved by thousands of covered wagons descending toward the Snake River valley. Utilizing archival photographs, maps, and trail diaries, the guide details the grueling final stretches of the Oregon Trail where pioneers faced exhaustion, disease, and the daunting transition from wilderness trekkers to exhausted settlers. A keen insight drawn from the work is how interpretive monuments freeze a complex historical tragedy into a romanticized pioneer narrative; by elevating Flagstaff Hill as a scenic monument to manifest destiny, the site risks reducing a violent process of indigenous displacement into a sanitized spectacle of rugged perseverance.
143 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm
CIRC [ 1 ]
Powerful rockey the Blue Mountains and the Oregon Trail, 1811-1883 by John W. Evans, Eastern Oregon State College
The History of Baker County, Oregon by Baker County Historical Society (Or)
Baker County sketch book by Gordon Stewart, Patricia Stewart
Nature rambles in the Wallowas sketches of the natural history of northeastern Oregon by Elmo Nall Stevenson
Sketches of the natural history of northeastern Oregon.
100 pages including plates : illustrations, map ; 23 cm
CIRC [ 1 ]
An Illustrated history of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney counties, with a brief outline of the early history of the state of Oregon by Western Historical Publishing Company
Published in 1902 by the Western Historical Publishing Company, this comprehensive volume documents the early settlement and economic foundation of eastern Oregon's vast frontier. Following a brief overview of the state's early years, the text provides detailed local histories and extensive biographical sketches of the pioneers who built communities across Baker, Grant, Malheur, and Harney counties. A keen insight drawn from the narrative is how the region's harsh, arid geography necessitated an economy based heavily on cattle ranching and mining, forging a rugged cultural identity that sharply contrasted with the agrarian settlements of the Willamette Valley. Ultimately, the book serves as both a valuable genealogical resource for these four counties and a historical testament to the sheer endurance required to establish industry in the high desert.
788 pages, 70 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, portraits
ONLINE CIRC [ 1 ]
Thirty-one years in Baker County. A history of the county from 1861 to 1893 by Isaac Hiatt
Published in 1893, Isaac Hiatt’s regional history chronicles the first three decades of pioneer settlement in Baker County, Oregon, beginning with the foundational 1861 gold strike at Griffin's Gulch. The narrative documents the rapid influx of prospectors, the establishment of the explosive boomtown of Auburn, and the region's subsequent economic transition toward permanent agriculture and civic development centered in Baker City. Hiatt provides valuable firsthand perspectives on frontier justice, early political organization, and the inevitable, often violent conflicts with indigenous populations as white settlers claimed the eastern Oregon landscape. A keen insight drawn from the text is how its granular account of Auburn's meteoric rise and subsequent total collapse vividly illustrates the fragile, transient nature of frontier mining booms, demonstrating that long-term regional stability relied entirely on the less glamorous pivot to agrarian permanence.
208 pages 22 cm
CIRC [ 1 ]
Baker County
- Auburn (historical)
- Audrey (historical)
- City of Baker City
- Bourne
- Bridgeport
- Brownlee
- Cableville (historical)
- Carroll (historical)
- Carson
- China Town
- Clarksville
- Conner Creek (historical)
- Cornucopia
- Cracker City (historical)
- Durkee
- Encina
- Erwin (historical)
- Estes (historical)
- City of Greenhorn
- City of Haines
- City of Halfway
- Hereford
- Homestead
- City of Huntington
- Hutchinson
- Jett (historical)
- Jimtown
- Keating
- Lime
- Little Alps
- McEwen
- New Bridge
- Oxbow
- Oxbow (historical)
- Parkersville (historical)
- Pine
- Pine Creek
- Pleasant Valley
- Pocahontas (historical)
- City of Richland
- Robinette
- Rock Creek
- Rye Valley
- Sparta
- City of Sumpter
- Sunset
- City of Unity
- Weatherby
- Whitney (historical)
- Wingville
Political Boundaries
Last updated: 2025-09-23