Maupin, OR

Maupin is a Wasco County city on the Lower Deschutes River, where U.S. 197 crosses the river at one of the few crossings north of Madras. The 2020 census counted 427 residents. The highway bridge, City Park, and South Wasco County School District give the compact city several distinct working pieces: school buildings, a route through the high desert, and a river economy tied to fishing and rafting. South Wasco's grade school and junior/senior high school are both in town, serving students from a 600,000-acre district.

The settlement began around a ferry and farm. Howard Maupin had a farm and ferry here in the late nineteenth century, after the place was first known as Hunts Ferry. W. H. Hunt's ferry washed away in 1911, and the first bridge followed in 1912. Maupin incorporated in 1922 after a 1921 fire destroyed nearly every business. Today, the U.S. 197 bridge and river access still connect civic life to the transportation history that put the city on the map.