Where Sasha Went

Moro Hotel – Moro, Oregon

I have been researching for a while and unfortunately cannot find much on the history of the Moro Hotel in Moro Oregon. It was constructed in 1921 and had roughly 50 rooms, a lobby, a dining room and numerous facility rooms like laundry, kitchen, back office and storage areas.
Local newspapers have written up articles on things to do in the area and none seem to mention the old hotel or the antique store that now occupies the building. The women who owns the place now, Lisa, was kind enough to show us around after we had poked around in the lobby area for quite a while. The three floors above the lobby are in various stages of renovation.

The first an eerily jumble of rooms, most stuffed to the brim with odd collections of things from Christmas decor, to baskets, to floor to ceiling lamps.  A few rooms have been renovated and she offers them up to friends and family who make their way out to Sherman County for a visit.

The second floor having been mostly untouched. It still has remnants of the old rooms, which were Jack and Jill style with shared toilet rooms on one side and shower on the other.

The original floors, trim, heaters and kitchenettes still standing in most rooms, however many of the windows were blown out. In all the rooms the plaster was peeling away from the wall planks in various layers.

The top floor which I did not get a good picture of because it wasn’t lit was the original attic and where most of the renovation has taken place so far. All the old broken and weather damaged plaster has been removed as well as wood planking fully replaced. What remained was an eerie open poorly lit attic with exposed brick. On the bricks you could see the hand-prints of the people who layed the bricks still slightly wet nearly 100 years ago.
To experience the Moro Hotel for yourself, Moro Oregon can be found in north central Oregon in Sherman County. The hotel is on the main street, the only four story building on the block.

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Cecil, Oregon

Cecil Oregon today is no more than a few grain silos, a couple of houses and a store front that hasn’t been operational since the mid 90s. It was up until 1994 a stop on the Heppner branch of the Union Pacific Railroad, but in 1993 the company filed for abandonment and by 1994 all traces of the tracks on the line were gone. As such many of the towns that were serviced by the line are now also abandoned.

The site sits on a narrow stretch of the Willow Creek and before the town was established it was a crossing for the Oregon Trail and an important stagecoach route. The town was established officially in the late 1800s and with a operational post office from 1902 to 1974 as well as a gas station and store (pictured above) serviced the small town of 15 for a number of years.
The store, the only thing we could find still standing of what would have been the original town appeared to occupied by someone who has made it their home. As such we chose not to poke around the area too much for fear of bothering the residents. But the store still stands as cute as ever with its painted facade and wide porch.

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Friend, Oregon

Friend Oregon is by most writes a relatively intact ghost town. It has a graveyard, a school and a store. However, it is also on or near someone’s property! When we drove down to take pictures and explore the little town we were greeted by a pack of dogs. Farm dogs and likely very nice but we weren’t willing to test the theory by exploring on foot. So all we saw while there was the store front.

A very cool building and an excellent example of early 20th century architecture which is so common here in Oregon. My favorite part always being the use of large windows. My dream house would probably look similar. Large wall to wall windows and a big porch for reading outdoors.

Friend was named after George J Friend, the post office which was established in 1903 was done so on his old homestead site. The town was the end terminal of the Great Southern Railroad so at the time it was a very busy spot. But the railroad stopped operation in 1936 and with it the town slowly died.

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Antelope, Oregon

Antelope like a lot of small rural towns in central Oregon, is just that small and rural. Mostly unknown these days, its heyday having long since passed since the railroad stopped running, buildings mostly left empty save for the few  souls who enjoy the solitude and low-cost of living.
But unlike most towns, Antelope was the center of a large federal investigation in the 1980s when a group purchased a large plot of land just outside town and little by little things got very out of hand.

Antelope was originally a wagon route connecting the Columbia River shipping route with Canyon City in Central Oregon. The town continued to grow until 1900 due to increased traffic thanks to the railroad. In 1981 the Rajneesh group purchased a ranch outside town, continued pressures between the group and the locals escalated until 1985 which ended in the group vacating and the town being left again to the locals. Sadly because of the conflict many people had moved away. So what was once a small but busy down with a opperating school and a cafe. Is now just a handful of houses and a post office.

When we visited it was very quiet, we poked around a few of the old buildings. Being mostly interested because we had been watching the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country. We also wanted to make sure we weren’t disturbing any locals so we mostly just picked our way around the school and drove through town a couple of times snapping pictures.

It is a very cute little town. It is sad that because of that conflict it has turned to ruin. It would have been nice to see more life returning to it. I hope next time I get a chance to drive through this part of the state, which is gorgeous and I highly recommend the road trip, that it has a little more pep in its step so to speak.

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