Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/140

134 Another fertile valley in Union County is the Wallowe, separated from Grand Ronde by a spur of the Blue Mountains. It contains about 6,000 acres of land similar to that in the larger valley. Eagle Creek Valley, of about the same extent as the Wallowe, contains also considerable good land; but is more celebrated for its mines than its agricultural advantages. The mineral resources of Union County are, in fact, important. Besides the gold mines, which have been profitably worked, there are indications of iron, copper, lead, and coal. Very few locations combine a greater number of advantages than this portion of Union County. Its mountains afford the precious and base metals, besides timber; its plains inexhaustible pasture; and its bottom-lands the most fertile farms. There are several hundred miners at work on Eagle Creek; and thirty or forty families settled in the valley.

La Grande is the county-seat of Union County, and contains 640 inhabitants. There are several smaller settlements, and altogether a population of 2,555. The grain product for 1870 was: Wheat, 250,000 bushels; oats, 200,000 bushels; barley, 150,000 bushels. It is estimated that its taxable property for 1871 is about $1,000,000. Four saw-mills supply the demand for lumber; as also do the flouring-mills the demand for flour. The stage-road from Umatilla to Boise City and the Central Pacific Railroad passes through La Grande, making communication easy with the Columbia River and the cast.

Baker County, named for Col. E. D. Baker, who fell in battle at Ball's Bluff, embraces the valleys of Powder, Burnt, Malheur, and Owyhee rivers. Settled, like Union County, on account of its mines, it soon became well known for the productive character of its