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Blalock, Oregon

A.J. McLellan of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company built a train station and commodity warehouse at Blalock in January 1881, and the town was platted by the Blalock Wheat Growing Company a few months later. By the early twentieth century, the community included a hotel, a general store, two grain warehouses, and a farming tools factory, among other businesses. Wheat growing was central to Blalock’s economy: 750,000 bushels passed through the town in 1904. Blalock also produced cattle, horses, and hogs. The community was displaced by John Day Dam in the 1960s. Blalock was established at the site of Táwash, an Indigenous village, which persisted into the twentieth century despite settler incursion.