You've heard the term "they gave up the ghost"?
They just abandoned,
they've abandoned, the place is gone.
It's vacated.
Ghost towns are places that
once were economically viable
and are no longer economically viable.
This, the cover shot here is Whitney.
And Whitney is a unique ghost town.
Whitney is a mining community without
being a mining community.
They didn't mine for gold in Whitney.
They provided services for the miners in the area.
So Whitney was known for its lumber mills,
horses would be raised and cared for in Whitney.
So I call Whitney the eight to five workers
because they provided all the services
and the needs for the miners.
So this valley is Whitney Valley. 
It was where Whitney was settled in 1901.
I'm just jazzed right now, honestly.
I feel almost, like, overwhelmed by natural beauty.
I'm a young city man, and so I don't get to see
this kind of, like, flora 
and this kind of, like, undisturbed nature.
To see the remains of human activity, but to know
that like people lived and thrived here
once upon a time
A lot of the town isn't
here anymore
but what is preserved, is preserved quite well.
Are those horses?
I was like, I peep livestock. 
I think so.
It looks like we may have an actual human friend
The general store in Whitney is now the
caretaker's summer home,
and so if you're very kind to this man
he will let you walk around the buildings
and he will even take you through what is the old general store today.
We just got to talk with our friend, 
who we actually saw the
smokestack for.
His name was Harold.
Harold was just absolutely great people
He lives up here in this town and
he actually told us this road we're
walking on right now
at one point in
time was Main Street.
Harold is like, 
exactly what we were hoping,
like the person we were hoping 
to run into out here.
Someone to really help us bring
these old buildings to life.
That collapsed building we saw on our way in
was actually rumored to be where the
school teacher lived 
while she was in town.
Sparsely-populated does not mean
dead, and this idea that 
this is a ghost
town and it's been a ghost town
but he said that he more or less 
grew up around here.
His dad worked on a ranch here,
people have been here, there's been
like active individuals living their lives
in this space.
And that's something that I feel like 
that's really important for us to note
and really that's like
very fulfilling to know.
So what is rural? I mean I guess that's a
place to start.
And rural, by definition,
is small, remote and sparsely settled.
And those characteristics of rural
places really define their economic role.
In Eastern Oregon we still see 
a lot of employment is 
driven by good producing industries.
construction, logging,
manufacturing, and mining.
And these are more of the traditional rural employment. 
So, we started with a natural resource
base, and then a lot of rural areas were
able to be competitive in the
manufacturing,
much of that manufacturing
based on those natural resources.
Or, rural areas became attractive places
because of low cost of labor and land.
In 1860, Sumpter was the largest city in
state of Oregon.
There were over 10,000
miners in that community.
There have been
three fires 
that have devastated most of
the town.
You probably saw the the old
bank vault and the mineshaft that still stand.
The old hospital which is now a
bed-and-breakfast still stands
but most of the buildings are newer,
made to look old,
but didn't survive the three fires.
For about eight years, until
the gold played out
it was a huge community
and, slowly, people left,
fires took their toll,
and Sumpter is now the size that it is.
I, in my head kind of had
this preconceived notion of the
spookiness that is a ghost town
and, so far, this experience has very much 
opened my eyes 
to the life that surrounds 
these communities.
Sumpter is really hard to define.
Sumpter is history.
It's mountains,
it's trees,
it's the quiet.
You have to really mean it to be here. 
You don't just accidentally 
drive through
on your way to somewhere
unless you're really super duper lost.
I moved here when I was one 
and I went to college
away from here when I was 19.
I was in Air Force ROTC
I was studying engineering
and I moved back in 2010.
I just was not a small-town
girl who was getting away from the small town.
I was a small-town girl who was
going out to serve the world at large.
We grew up saying our parents were
professional volunteers.
That's what our
family did for entertainment
We volunteered together.
I was in 4H, I was in Girl Scouts.
You see, I'd already already gotten myself
into the whole mess of
trying to do things.
We have a group called Sumpter
Valley community volunteers.
Actually one of the our big projects,
Volunteer Park
was built all with volunteer labor.
Yeah the passion started here,
the passion went with me,
Yeah the passion started here,
the passion went with me,
the passion came back.
the passion came back.
I think of people a bit like e.coli. 
We're here to serve the gut of
Sumpter.
And then we pass.
We just keep Sumpter running and then we pass 
and if we're bad e.coli we pass faster.
People land in Sumpter.
And if you stay long term, 
you're never gonna define it.
If you stay short term,
you're never gonna define it. 
Sumpter's special.
And it's ephemeral
and you can't 
put your finger on it.
And it suits you or it doesn't.
It has mountains and it has trees,
and so does Montana
but there's just something about Sumpter.
In Eastern Oregon,
we have several counties that are
frontier counties
they're the most
isolated in the US.
Extremely high distances to markets, which really
impacts the economic viability of
businesses in those communities and the
lifestyles of the people
who live in those places, it's challenging.
Which, for people in Western Oregon and in Portland,
that's sort of hard to fathom.
You know, why would people endure these conditions?
You have people who are really committed
to that lifestyle
and the isolation is
actually a huge advantage.
What's interesting about those places is they
all have interesting histories
most of them still have a couple of people who
are still living in those places and who
loved those places and that actually is
one of the things about rural places
that is I think unique, is people
tend to develop strong attachments
that is I think unique, is people
tend to develop strong attachments
to the land and to the and to the
environment of the places that they live.
to the land and to the and to the
environment of the places that they live.
Everybody has what I call 
their unicorn dream.
You know something,
they're never gonna see their unicorn
but they have
this unicorn dream out there.
And for us, when we left here, 
you know, 
we always said that 
our unicorn dream was if
you know, we could return 
as managers of both
the pack station 
and the lodge here.
And one day our unicorn called.
We met on a guest ranch in Montana.
We met on a guest ranch in Montana.
He was already working there and I went to
work as a wrangler there and he was my boss
He was already working there and I went to
work as a wrangler there and he was my boss
and so that was where we met,
wrangling dudes.
We came for the backcountry,
We came for the backcountry,
we came for the Eagle Cap wilderness,
and for its horseback activities
we came for the Eagle Cap wilderness,
and for its horseback activities
and the wilderness and the guiding.
We actually didn't know anything about
Old Town Cornucopia as it is now.
Cornucopia has the deepest most
expansive underground tunnel system
of any mine in state of Oregon.
It's hard to imagine, but some of those mines
went back 4,000 feet in the ground.
They say there is as much gold yet to be found
as there has been found.
It's very very
difficult to find and get to.
Forty years ago there were probably 
forty buildings that stood.
Today, I want to say, there's
five or six that are all that's left
from the original building.
There are several old cabins that are
interesting to see 
and kinda know a little bit of the history on
the jail
the boarding house
So a lot of Cornucopia was moved, 
like I said 
When the town shut down,
they actually took the buildings down,
there's some in Carson and Jim Town and Halfway,
all have buildings from Cornucopia 
down there.
They actually would cut them in
half and transport them down the hill
and replace them, so, a lot of the
buildings have been pulled out of there
so anything that's left standing is kind
of interesting
just 'cause it sticks out.
People ask all the time, what do you do
for fun?
What's your recreation? 
What are you--
and it's probably the only job,
for me anyway, 
where I can say that my
vocation is my recreation.
That's, to me, what it feels like, is that I don't get
up every morning to go to work.
For me, it's not it's not having it's not having
a job, if you will
where I got a punch in
punch out
but it's get up and hmm 
you know, something's going to happen today that
I didn't expect to happen when I
went to bed last night.
Northeast Oregon, as I kind of shared already, is
kind of a little undiscovered
chunk of wilderness
in a lot of ways, that most
of us don't-- didn't even know about.
If your idea of roughing it
is only spend a night in a cabin 
that has a shower
and all the things you want 
we'll cook your meals, you can still--
we'll cook your meals, you can still--
I mean, that's, that's the tip, you know
I mean, that's, that's the tip, you know
put your toes in the water sort of a thing.
You may still have to drive all the way over here.
We've had many people who were like, 
wow, I was out on the porch this morning
and we saw a fox came by
or we saw a bear wandered right by our lodge
which happens here, no troubles 
just wandering through.
That's adventure for that person,
that's good enough.
Education-wise, how do you get people-- 
how do you get them to take that first step
to coming to Eastern Oregon, period.
As soon as you come over the hill from Richland, 
you realize, oh my gosh
we're coming back.
We need to see these communities
continue to adapt.
It can be very hard
for a single business to
stay on top of market trends
to look around and see
what's happening nationally
and also internationally within my field.
Some places, that's a real role for the local
government to do that
especially when small businesses, you know, just are
really challenged.
But in rural areas, local governments 
are also very challenged.
I think rural people appreciate urban places
because that, they get a lot of
the things
that they can't get in their
own hometown in urban places.
Medical services, legal services, some shopping
goods that they can't get locally.
Urban people often under-appreciate their, really
dependence on rural places,
and it isn't just for food
it's more, the opportunities to, to get out of the city.
Urban people really have a stake in
the future of rural places.
My job educate people 
on the crazy weird wacky stuff
that they bypass
because people
are going too fast.
People do come in and try to change it.
Oh, we need to be more
like Sisters.
Or, oh we need to be more like Portland.
It's a very slow process
to make changes
and
the people tend to be a bit reticent about
changing why they're here.
I came for the quiet
I came because this is a healing place
I came because I want the slower pace.
If you haven't gotten out and 
explored and experienced the rural
just, rural areas where there's ranching and
agriculture--
and yet it's the people on the
eastern side of the state that make
the decisions--
that ultimately affect a lot of those-- 
western side
western side
--the western side of the state, that ultimately affect
those on the eastern side
--the western side of the state, that ultimately affect
those on the eastern side
that are providing your food.
I need the people from the west side to be as in
love with eastern Oregon as I am,
even if they choose not to live here
or to quote-unquote contribute 
to the economy, if you will.
The benefits to--
to society as a whole 
of wild areas and rural areas
is really being
less and less understood.
We cannot view these places as separate.
If you care about rural America, you have
to care about urban America,
and you have to look for
the connections
and you have to look for
the connections
and ways to strengthen connections 
and ways to strengthen connections 
that are equitable 
to rural people and rural places
and you often see those communities in
you know, less of a
bargaining position,
lower resources, so the existing 
linkages that are there now
don't always come out favorably for
rural people
but we need to work together.
Just because we're really comfortable
out in the wild,
doesn't mean we're
comfortable other places
and so, for us,
it's simply
kind of looking at it from
the other side
you know, just because
they're not comfortable here
doesn't mean there's something
wrong with them
or, because we're not comfortable 
other places where they are 
and so it's simply an education,
and remembering, you know,
that we all had to start somewhere.
What really makes a difference in the town
is the will of the town to thrive.
and the leadership,
the existence of leaders in the town
who look for opportunities.
The prospect of exploring
the parts of the state that I'm led to believe 
are just, like desolate
the middle of nowhere
which I think is a, kind of a
pretentious mindset.
This idea that because there are
less people here
that it is somehow less
relevant or less important
or less culturally prominent.
That's when Sumpter
becomes forgotten,
is when there aren't
people here anymore
who care.
