Arlington, OR

Arlington sits on the Columbia River at the mouth of Alkali Canyon, where the river, wheat country, and old shipping routes meet. In the early 1870s, settlers used corrals here to hold cattle and sheep before sending them downriver. A rail station arrived in 1881, the town was platted as Alkali in 1882, and the name changed to Arlington in 1885. That is why the place has always been more river port and transportation stop than isolated inland town. Today I-84 and Oregon 19 carry the through traffic, while the port and Lake Umatilla put the Columbia right at the edge of town.

Arlington had to move uphill in the 1960s when John Day Dam raised the river. Much of the original town was relocated, and a new business district was built on fill above the old site. The surrounding Gilliam County economy still runs on wheat, barley, and cattle, with Columbia Ridge Landfill also a major area employer. Arlington’s local story is a mix of adaptation and scale: a small town with a rebuilt center, a big river at its doorstep, and an agricultural landscape stretching inland.