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Former community in Oregon, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blalock was an unincorporated community located in the Columbia River Gorge in Gilliam County, Oregon, United States.[2] The town displaced a Native American settlement originally named Táwash.[3] Blalock was located about 7 miles (11 km) west of Arlington on Interstate 84/U.S. Route 30 at the mouth of Blalock Canyon.[4][5] Blalock is still the name of a station on the Union Pacific Railroad (originally the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, or OR&N).[5][6]
The community was named for the farm of Dr. Nelson G. Blalock, a Civil War veteran who had pioneered in the Walla Walla area.[5][7] He established an agricultural operation of several thousand acres on the flat land here along the Columbia River.[5][7] The area was first settled in 1879, and Blalock post office was established in 1881.[5][6] The town was platted in 1881 by the Blalock Wheat Growing Company.[7] The first two buildings, a railroad station and a warehouse, were built by A. J. McLellan, OR&N superintendent of the construction of bridges and buildings.[7] By 1884, the community was shipping wheat and there were daily stagecoaches to Heppner; the population was 50.[6] People and businesses listed in the Polk Directory at that time included two clergymen, a saloon, a wagonmaker, a ferryman, a hotel, a general store, a lawyer, and a dealer in lumber, coal, and feed.[6] In 1904, the town handled about 750,000 bushels of wheat.[7] By 1905, the town had two grain warehouses, a hotel, a general store, a livery and stage stable, a real estate office and an agricultural implement factory.[7] In 1940, Blalock had a population of 19.[8] The post office closed in 1959.[5] In 1968, the community was inundated by the backwaters from the John Day Dam.[5]
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