Wasco County, Oregon

When Wasco County was designated in 1854 it included all of Oregon east of the Cascade Range, most of Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming.  It was the largest county ever created in the United States at 130,000 square miles.  Seventeen other counties were developed from Wasco County and it now contains 2,387 square miles with a population of nearly 25,000.

The county seat of The Dalles is steeped in history, as it was known as the End of the Oregon Trail.  It was a major gathering place and trading center for the Paiute, Warm Springs and Wascopam Indian tribes, for whom the county is named.  Wasco County was a transportation center for river and inland traffic with the construction of a road over the Cascades in 1845, which brought settlers to the area.  Wasco County residents experienced an invasion of sorts in the early 1980s when the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers built a commune on 64,000 acres of land near the John Day River.  They took over the town of Antelope and tried to control the county government by registering homeless people to vote that had been imported from outside the county and the state. That chapter in the history of Wasco County ended with the Bhagwan’s indictment on immigration violations and his subsequent deportation to India.

The economy of Wasco County is thriving and diverse with agriculture in the form of fruit growing, wheat farming, and livestock.  Lumber manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and tourism also contribute.

Points of interest include the Fort Dalles Museum, Kah-Nee-Ta Resort on the Warm Springs Reservation, and the Columbia River Discovery Center.

Oregon Blue Book

http://bluebook.state.or.us/local/counties/counties33.htm

Zip Codes