Metolius, OR

Metolius is a Jefferson County city named for the nearby Metolius River, a spring-fed river that flows toward the Deschutes. The Oregon Trunk Railway made the town a division point, and the 1911 passenger-and-freight station is one of the few railroad buildings left from that period. The city later bought the station for a museum, keeping the rail story in town even after the roundhouse and repair facilities disappeared. Irrigation from the Deschutes helped farming expand again, so Metolius carries two kinds of water history: a river name from the Warm Springs country and canals that opened more ground to agriculture. It is a small central Oregon city with rails, springs, and farm country all meeting in the same few blocks.