Morrow County History

Morrow County is located in Oregon and was created on February 15, 1884 . This county is named after on e of the first white settlers in the area, Jackson L. Morrow. The Umatilla Chemical Depot, including Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is located in the county, northeast of intersections I-82 and I-84. The population as of 2000 is 10,996.

            This county is located in the north central part of the state and east of the Cascade Mountains. The county is bounded by the Columbia River on the north, Umatilla County on the east, Grant County on the south and Gilliam County on the west. Overall, the total square mileage of the county is 2,049.

             The main industries in the county today are agriculture, food processing, lumber, livestock, and recreation. Early cattleman in the area found an abundance of rye in the creek bottoms in the area. So they drove their herds of cattle to eat of the natural pastures. Farming was the main industry in the county for many years. But, do to increased settlement, the enclosure of the free grazing lands and diminished pastures due to overgrazing, resulted in the decline of ranching during the 19th century, and farming became predominant. The installing of railroad lines in 1883 increased the access to markets and this increased wheat production. Increase of technology has helped the area immensely

            The city of Heppner was made the temporary county seat at the time the county was created and narrowly defeated Lexington in the election held in 1886 to determine which town would be permanent county seat. Heppner was originally named Standsbury Flat for George W. Standsbury, one of the first white settlers in the area. The settlement's name was changed to Heppner in 1873, in honor of Henry Heppner who in partnership with Jackson Morrow made a store in the town a year earlier.

Websites Cited

www.wikipedia.org

www.arcweb.sos.state.or.us