Ghost Town: Antelope, Oregon

I’ve always been fascinated by ghost towns. I grew up about 4 miles from the little ghost town of Goforth in central Texas. I remember as a kid, riding my bike on the little country road that passed through what was left of the town. There was an old bank safe that lay on its side across the fence that bordered the road and just a little further from that, an old shack.

The Pacific Northwest has its share of ghost towns too. Just east of Portland in Wasco county lies the town of Antelope, Oregon. It was named for the many antelope that grazed in the area in the mid-1800s. The first post office opened in 1871 and the majority of the town was destroyed by fire in 1898 save for one building. The town was rebuilt but soon became a ghost town when a new town called Shaniko became the terminus of a railroad.