Where is umatilla county

To view a map of U. House districts in Oregon and find your representative, click here. The following is a list of the current state executive officials from Oregon :. To view a list of state legislators from Oregon , click here. As of November , Ballotpedia does not provide coverage for any cities in Umatilla County, Oregon. For a list of cities covered by Ballotpedia, click here. As of November , Ballotpedia does not provide coverage for any school districts in Umatilla County, Oregon.

The following courts are located in Umatilla County, Oregon. This list is not meant to be comprehensive:. To view a list of statewide measures in Oregon , click here. To view a list of local ballot measures in Umatilla County, Oregon, click here. City government Local courts School boards Local ballot measures Local recalls. Budgetary policy Election policy Education policy Energy policy Environmental policy Healthcare policy Pension policy. Ballotpedia wants to keep you in the know.

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Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Share this page Follow Ballotpedia. The county contains 3, square miles and is bounded by the Columbia River and Washington on the north, Morrow County on the west, Grant County on the south, and Union and Wallowa counties on the east.

The legislative act that created Umatilla County designated Marshall Station as the temporary county seat. Umatilla City was chosen the county seat in an election.

Population shifted to the north and east parts of the county due to the opening of the Pendleton area to wheat production. An election in resulted in the selection of Pendleton as the new county seat, supplanting both Marshall Station and Umatilla City. The first courthouse was completed in in Umatilla City. The next courthouse, and the first built in Pendleton, was a wooden, 2-story structure completed in In a 3-story brick courthouse and jail was erected.

A 4th courthouse was built on the site of the old courthouse in and is still in use today. The government of Umatilla County consisted originally of a county judge, two county commissioners, clerk, and sheriff. The offices of treasurer, assessor, coroner, and superintendent of schools were added a short time after formation of the county. The county judge position was abolished and a third commissioner was added in On the 27th of September, , the Legislature of the 3-year old State of Oregon carved out Baker and Umatilla Counties from Wasco County, which at that time encompassed all of Oregon east of the Cascades.

This was in response to the "gold rush" to the Powder River and North Fork John Day mining districts and the associated growth in settlement in northeastern Oregon. However, at that time, there were no "towns", as such, in the area of the new Umatilla County, which included all of what is now Morrow County, the north half of Grant County, and a part of Gilliam County. The governing body of the newly-created county took awhile to get organized, and it was not until the 6th of April , that the first term of the County Court was held, Judge Jasper W.

Johnson presiding. There was also a blacksmith shop, stage station, and post office at this little settlement on the north bank of the Umatilla River, which by was crossed at this point by a bridge. At the second session, on July 7th, the first liquor licenses were issued for the Meacham Brothers, 4 Mile House north of Hermiston , and two saloons each in Umatilla Landing and Lower Umatilla, which was the Meadows area west of Echo and Stanfield.

By , the location of the county seat had become an issue, particularly since Umatilla Landing, founded only the year before, had grown to a sizable town of some permanent inhabitants, and many more during the winter months.

In June of , new officers were elected, with R. Morford presiding as County Judge. However, the new Court tabled the issue as they were in the process of counting the "write-in" comments many folks had included on their June ballots. Commissioner Ninevah Ford protested this action, however, noting that the county seat location issue had never been officially presented on the ballots for a vote of the people. In January , the town of Middleton was formally platted by Welcome Mitchell, one of the new County Commissioners, as surveyed by Capt.

Thompson, U. Deputy Surveyor. Rueben Baskett, the County Clerk, taking matters into his own hands, bought Lot 2 in Block 7 of the new town site, and built a house to serve his residence and as the County Clerk's Office as well. This site was located only two lots west of the hotel where the County Court met, and was situated on the south side of the Oregon Trail, which passed through the middle of town.

This second "courthouse" for Umatilla County was undoubtedly a storefront or hotel building, and it faced directly out onto Front Street, the bustling Columbia River waterfront area.

Her function as transshipment point for the Boise and Baker mining districts began to dwindle as early as , and by , the extension of the transcontinental railroad into Nevada, seriously undermined this trade. With loss of trade came loss of population.

Meanwhile, settlement had progressed rapidly in the central and eastern parts of the county, and residents there resented the long distances they had to travel to conduct official business. So, advocates for relocating the County Seat effectively petitioned the State Legislature, which on 13 October , passed an Act authorizing a vote on the location of the County Seat at the November 3rd election.

The vote was cast, for Upper Umatilla, for Umatilla City. Therefore, the County Court, on November 16th appointed a committee of J. Main Street and S. Goodwin had obtained a license from the County in to build a toll bridge at what is now the Main Street bridge. He relocated his trading post there from a site near the 10th Street bridge where he had settled two years prior. During the winter, the Goodwins paid for the construction of a 2-story courthouse on the Courthouse Square they had donated in the middle of the new town.

On April 7th, , the County Court accepted the deed for the property, which had been signed on December 1st, , and ordered the County Officials to move their offices. The 3rd Courthouse of Umatilla County was thus established, in a new town that was created to be a centrally located county seat, at the direction of the voters. However, the citizens of Umatilla City were not going to let the county seat get away from them without a fight.

The very first business that the relocated Circuit Court took up at their 3rd of May, , session was a suit by David Simpson and others to prevent the removal of the county seat. The Supreme Court sustained the ruling of Judge Wilson, and the county seat remained at the new town of Pendleton. An oft-quoted story relates that Pendleton "stole" the County records from Umatilla City. The late Mrs.

Oscar F. Thompson, wife of the Sheriff at that time, related a slightly different story. She reported that one evening, three representatives of the new town brought teams and wagons to Umatilla City to move the County records. She cooked them breakfast, and with the help of her husband, they loaded the safes on the wagons and took the records back to Pendleton.

However, there was yet no suitable building for the courthouse, so citizens of Umatilla City obtained an injunction for the records to be returned. Soon, she recalled, a proper courthouse was built and the records were moved once again. Court and Dorian streets, comes as a big surprise to many folks.

However, the Courthouse itself was far from suitable for the rapidly-growing county. Vivid recollections note that jurors were confined overnight in the hot, upstairs Court Room, forced to sleep on hard benches placed in a sea of sawdust. Nevertheless, the building functioned for 20 years, together with the jailhouse that was built behind. The 4th Courthouse, built during is recounted elsewhere in this booklet, as was the novel funding mechanism for its construction.

It was in that effort to save the taxpayers money that Pendleton lost its original downtown green space. In the long run, was it worth the "savings"? In any case, the Courthouse was a dandy, fully embellished in the height of Victorian fashion.

But, progress dictated that in time its useful life also was surpassed. So, in , Umatilla County occupied its 5th Courthouse, built on the same site as the 4th and now in , joined by an elegant clock tower to house the year old clock that formerly graced the high tower of its predecessor.

Gilbert, Portland, Oregon, Umatilla County Commissioners Journal "A" A resurgence of interest in the old Courthouse clock followed the publishing of the interview with Roy Thurman in the East Oregonian in January of Several interested citizens and club representatives contacted the County Board of Commissioners suggesting that the clock be restored and housed appropriately.

Frances Bartron agreed to serve as Treasurer. Advised that the clock was in relatively good condition and that it was most feasible to restore it to working operation, the Committee voted to proceed with restoration of the clock and rehousing it in a new clock tower.

That evening they toured the Courthouse grounds and voted to build the new tower on the northwest corner of the block, at the site of the flagpole, on the corner of SE Court and SE 4th.

It was suggested at this meeting that the sale of name-inscribed bricks be a primary fund-raising effort, and a tentative dedication date was selected, 6 August , the th birthday of the clock. Thus began a two and one half year project that eventually led to restoration of the clockworks and the construction of a new clock tower on the Courthouse block in Pendleton.

Preliminary Design of Clock tower Roy Thurman had done a good job as unofficial keeper of the clock, and in spite of its having been stored for 33 years at the City Shops, very few parts were missing. The clock parts were removed from the County Shops to the old Union Pacific depot, the new home of the Historical Society. There, in the old freight room, the clock was reassembled to demonstrate that after all these years, it still could tick! Meanwhile, Jim Lynch, one of the principals at Lynch, Fitzgerald, sponsored an in-house design competition and presented the results to the Design Sub-committee.

They, in turn, brought two different schemes to the full Committee for final choice, one was rectilinear in format, the same as the Courthouse. The second was an open, arched design, to be built in brick, with the clockworks suspended in a glass house at the top of the tower. This design was chosen by the Committee, because it blended with the Courthouse architecture, yet the arches were reminiscent of the Victorian clock tower on the old, Courthouse.

Both designs also called for a courtyard and brick-paved pathway at the base. This news cast a shadow over the Committee, but soon the members rallied round unanimously voted to proceed. With the clock tower design selected and the restoration of the clockworks underway, the Committee turned towards fund-raising efforts. Two major projects were proposed. First, it was decided to market name-inscribed bricks to pave the pathway and courtyard at the base of the tower.

Kickoff of the fund-raising campaign began on 30 November with a media blitz, and a personal solicitation to some families and businesses. Within days, the first major donation was announced, the purchase by Smith Food Sales of an entire clock tower leg. Also sales of bricks went briskly, especially during the holiday season. Many bricks were purchased in memory of persons, as well as for gifts, so memorial and gift cards were produced for use by the purchasers.

Mugs with the Committee logo were also for sale, and within months, two additional designs were added. Also, a limited edition porcelain plate, featuring a drawing of the Courthouse, arrived in late spring Hats and visors, key rings, and balloons rounded out the assortment of wares available.

On Thursday evening, 2 June , the restored clockworks were unveiled. The dirty, grimy, gray clockworks that the Committee had first witnessed in operation that November evening, had been transformed into the green, black, and polished brass finery of Victorian machinery used for display.

So impressed were they with the restored clockworks, that it was agreed to send it around the County that summer for display. The beauty of the restored clockworks together with the fascination of watching a mechanical clock at work led to the only major design change in the project.

In November of , the Committee voted to move the clockworks from the top of the tower to the base, where it could be displayed in a bullet-proof glass or lexan box. This would allow close observation of the workings of a year old mechanical clock. During the summer of , several new fund-raising efforts were made. Also, a special crew of volunteers from Fred Meyer Inc.

Fred Meyer opened a store in Pendleton that summer. Committee members took tables of wares and brick order forms around to most of the community festivals held in the County that summer and staffed a booth at the County Fair. Committee members and friends served as staff.