Baker City questions (Portland, La Grande, Ontario: houses, purchase, schools)

[GregW]

OP - If you want information on any city I suggest you just look on this site. Go to the first page and enter Baker City. More information will show up than you want to know.


We visited Baker City to see the eclipse last month. I thought the city was quite attractive and might consider living there except for the winter cold. If I wanted cold I could just stay where I am in southern New Hampshire. We also visited Halfway and Richland on our drive to Joseph and Enterprise. I kind of liked Halfway but could not move there because of medical reasons that make living within a couple of hours of big hospitals a good idea.


The Glacier Grand Hotel was a good example of 1890's luxury but not really worth what they were charging that week. There were several good restaurants and beer halls. I had the guy at Glacier45 distillery send me a bottle of their whiskey. Good stuff for high proof booze.

[pnwguy2]

Baker City. A nice small town on the way from Portland to Boise. A good stop off point, complete with McDonalds, a Safeway, and a nice historic district if you venture in a couple of miles. Unfortunately 98% of visitors exit off I-84 and don't venture more than a half mile. I do like the truck stop right off the freeway, complete with a country diner and casino. Nice diversion.

[Easteagle]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

Baker City gets about one thread per year but hasn't had one yet this year, so here goes.

Looking at the faces of Baker City's City Council, they appear more diverse in gender and age than for LaGrande. Is this current happenstance or typical and does it make a difference in the city's operations and priorities?

Any major new stores /employers in last few years or on horizon?

For hiking in Elkhorns, are trails generally snowfree in June, earlier or later? How about in Oct. / Nov.?

What is a realistic travel time to Boise city center on weekends? 2hrs, 2.5, or more?

What major advantage do you think Baker City has over LaGrande? Besides EOU in LaGrande, what is the biggest disadvantage for Baker?

Is gardening tougher in Baker? I know it is a lot drier but does that make the soil less productive even with irrigation / hand watering?

I have heard Baker City's tourism pitch. Is it noticeably more oriented toward tourism development as a future industry than LaGrande?

True or not true, Baker City has a lower% of new arrivals from out of state?

Most surprising thing about Baker is...?

In your opinion, what types of small businesses does Baker City need and would likely adequately support?

Better simple description of future outlook: stagnant or slow improvement?

Nicest neighborhoods in what quadrant(s) of city?

LDS member economic and political influence is modest, moderate or larger than any other group?

I know that in the past, few locals have been available to respond. But thanks to any long-timers, newcomers, past residents or near neighbors who respond to this baker's dozen of questions. Commentary on anything else you think is important that been missed and previously would also be welcome.

I've been thru the area a handful of times and have gathered facts on the area before but thought I'd try to get a refresher and a bit more detail.

I have not checked this site in years. Try to answer some of you questions about Baker City having lived here my whole life.
Baker City's City Council?
The City seems to be doing OK. They just added several more full time fire/medics to the payroll and they did fix a few more Streets this last summer.
Any major new stores /employers in last few years or on horizon?
Window manufacturer doing a major expansion. Grocery Outlet building a new store adding to Safeway, Bimart and Albertsons.
For hiking in Elkhorns, are trails generally snow free in June, earlier or later? How about in Oct. / Nov.?
I would say mid June to mid October. But depends on the year. The hiking is awesome we also have the Eagle Caps (Wallowa Mountains to the east).
What is a realistic travel time to Boise city center on weekends?
2 hour 15 minutes. Roads can be bad in winter.
What major advantage do you think Baker City has over LaGrande?
Large restored historic buildings, wide streets, gold mining history, very low crime (last I heard lowest in Oregon), river walking path.
What is the biggest disadvantage for Baker?
Very conservative and does not like change.
Is gardening tougher in Baker?
Shorter season than some places but plenty of water. You can't grow watermelon here. Maybe it's the altitude?
I have heard Baker City's tourism pitch. Is it noticeably more oriented toward tourism development as a future industry than LaGrande?
Yes
Most surprising thing about Baker is...?
Lots of summer festivals. Sunday live music in the park. Family movie night in central park (yes we have more than one park). Lots of brew pubs and restaurants. Large gold nugget in a bank display. You can safely walk the streets and paths. Clint Eastwood and lee Marvin lived here one summer. Gold rush season 7 was filmed near by. Ghost Mine was filmed nearby.
The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Once had a US Air Force radar station. You can drive to work in seven minutes. Lots of art. Leo Adler left the city twenty million dollars for scholarships and other stuff.
Leo Adler | Oregon Experience | PBS This video will teach you a lot about Baker City.
In your opinion, what types of small businesses does Baker City need and would likely adequately support?
Clothing store for working people.
Nicest neighborhoods in what quadrant(s) of city?
Very nice homes by the golf course. 18 hole by the way.


For the post that said "From my experience there is nothing in Baker." Well if big box stores is your life then their isn't. I would say Baker City is still what the USA was 20-30 years ago.

[Squidlo]

Originally Posted by Easteagle

I have not checked this site in years. Try to answer some of you questions about Baker City having lived here my whole life.
Baker City's City Council?
The City seems to be doing OK. They just added several more full time fire/medics to the payroll and they did fix a few more Streets this last summer.
Any major new stores /employers in last few years or on horizon?
Window manufacturer doing a major expansion. Grocery Outlet building a new store adding to Safeway, Bimart and Albertsons.
For hiking in Elkhorns, are trails generally snow free in June, earlier or later? How about in Oct. / Nov.?
I would say mid June to mid October. But depends on the year. The hiking is awesome we also have the Eagle Caps (Wallowa Mountains to the east).
What is a realistic travel time to Boise city center on weekends?
2 hour 15 minutes. Roads can be bad in winter.
What major advantage do you think Baker City has over LaGrande?
Large restored historic buildings, wide streets, gold mining history, very low crime (last I heard lowest in Oregon), river walking path.
What is the biggest disadvantage for Baker?
Very conservative and does not like change.
Is gardening tougher in Baker?
Shorter season than some places but plenty of water. You can't grow watermelon here. Maybe it's the altitude?
I have heard Baker City's tourism pitch. Is it noticeably more oriented toward tourism development as a future industry than LaGrande?
Yes
Most surprising thing about Baker is...?
Lots of summer festivals. Sunday live music in the park. Family movie night in central park (yes we have more than one park). Lots of brew pubs and restaurants. Large gold nugget in a bank display. You can safely walk the streets and paths. Clint Eastwood and lee Marvin lived here one summer. Gold rush season 7 was filmed near by. Ghost Mine was filmed nearby.
The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Once had a US Air Force radar station. You can drive to work in seven minutes. Lots of art. Leo Adler left the city twenty million dollars for scholarships and other stuff.
Leo Adler | Oregon Experience | PBS This video will teach you a lot about Baker City.
In your opinion, what types of small businesses does Baker City need and would likely adequately support?
Clothing store for working people.
Nicest neighborhoods in what quadrant(s) of city?
Very nice homes by the golf course. 18 hole by the way.


For the post that said "From my experience there is nothing in Baker." Well if big box stores is your life then their isn't. I would say Baker City is still what the USA was 20-30 years ago.

Good lord America 20-30 years ago.... That sounds kinda pleasant. I have always liked the area. Not for people with urban tastes and needs at all. Hunting, hiking, fishing & camping should top your list if you are considerimg the area and want to get the most from it.

[Monique0a]

Not sure how helpful I will be but will do my best. We just moved to Baker City a month ago from Palm Bay, FL. Previously, we lived in the DC Metropolitan Area, more specifically, Gaithersburg, MD and Frederick, MD. Having said that, those are all very large cities. We also lived in Charles Town, WV for a short time, it is a small town but I would say Baker City is smaller, maybe not in land mass but certainly in more town-like areas. To me, it seems as if anywhere useful to go in Baker City is within 2 square miles. There may be some housing further away but as far as shopping, restaurants and "townies", I will stick to the 2 square miles which is great when you are new here, you can learn where things are much easier and if you make a wrong turn, it is much easier to get back on track.
Our reasons for moving here are a bit complex. We are a large, extended family (5 adults, 2 kids) who moved from the DC area to Florida to here together. I have always loved Florida, used to visit it every year when we were in Maryland so I was excited to move there, plus, I am not a bit fan of snow (ironic isn't it?) so I was thrilled to be going somewhere I would never have to deal with it again. However, what we hadn't considered were hurricanes. Yes, we knew there were hurricanes in Florida but lots of people live successfully in Florida and our house was far enough above sea level and away from water (10 minutes from the beach) that we felt reasonably assured of minimal disruptions, our house was from 1987 and still stood proudly. Great. Yep. We moved there is 2014, first hurricane we encountered was in 2016 I think? Didn't affect us much although we were well prepared with supplies, we didn't even lose power so we grey more confident in our decision. Then came Irma. Irma was very ugly. We still didn't sustain any damage although we did lose power for 3 or 4 days in AUGUST in FLORIDA! However, for the first time in my life, I was truly frightened for my life. It sounded like our house was going to blow away and the rest of the family felt the same so we decided that perhaps, Florida wasn't for us. We weren't interested in moving back up North to the Maryland area (I would have been fine with it but the rest of the family didn't want to) so we did a lot of research to figure out our next move. My son-in-law is from Oregon, even lived in Baker for a while as a child and loves it here. He had been talking Oregon up for years, also, anyone we had ever spoken to had loved Oregon although I believe most had lived in Portland. My daughter didn't want to move to a big city. She wanted to live somewhere safe for her children so we started looking around. We almost bought a place in Ontario but then saw the house in Baker we wanted so we packed everything up and drove across the country to move here a month ago. Personally, I don't mind living in a small town as long as there is a city nearby, there isn't one close enough in my opinion but again, my daughter loves it here. She likes the thought that it is easy to get to know people here, easy to get information or help for various things. I am not fond of the fact that there are a bunch of stores and restaurants that I thought were EVERYWHERE, except apparently, in Baker City. The closest Walmart is 40 minutes away. There is a small Ace Hardware here but no Home Depot or Lowes anywhere in reasonable distance. No Dominos Pizza although there is a Pizza Hut and they do have a really good local pizza place called Paisanos so that makes it a bit better. I have read great reviews of some of the other local restaurants but we haven't tried them yet. There is also a McDonald's and Subway here but I think that is it for the national chains (I could be wrong but it is hard to miss anything here because of how small it is). Also, depending on how you lean politically and whether you care, it is very conservative here even though Portland is known for being very liberal. Also, there isn't a lot of racial diversity here which I didn't know until tonight when I got on this website Having moved from Florida a month ago, we don't have a lot in the way of winter clothing so we only venture out on warmer days.
As far as gardening goes, we have done a lot of research because we couldn't plant much in Florida and we missed it (In Maryland we had fruit and flowers in our backyard and loved it). Oregon is apparently similar to Maryland as far as growing things goes even though it is drier here. The house we bought already has various flowers, rhubarb and onion growing, we are basically adding a large vegetable and herb garden and planting some fruit trees, pears, cherry and something else I can't recall.
I am not sure I can adequately speak on tourism here although I saw an article recently that said Baker City has the best "Main Street Shopping" in Oregon. The article listed the best in every state, for Maryland it listed Frederick and having lived in Frederick, I can say that the "Main Street Shopping" in Baker City does remind me greatly of Frederick. A lot of funky little shops located in historic buildings with stunning views. We haven't been to the Geiser Grand Hotel that was built in 1889 but I am looking forward to going there and exploring. They hold events like Ghost Tours and High Teas that sound like a lot of fun.
Personally, I would prefer to be in a place that didn't shut down by 9pm every night with more shopping and eating choices but I think Baker City does a lot with what it has and I have heard great things from people who stay here while driving somewhere else.

Sorry this was so long, hope it helped at least a bit

[PNW-type-gal]

Baker has a growing season of around 105 days, which is on the short side. Oregon towns on the west side of the Cascade Mountains have growing seasons between 160 and 230 days ("growing season" is mostly defined as frost-free days).

Someone upthread mentioned watermelon - there are some short-season versions, but you'd have to start them indoors.

The entire area population is about 10,000, so most big national chains won't be there.

[Squidlo]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

Baker has a growing season of around 105 days, which is on the short side. Oregon towns on the west side of the Cascade Mountains have growing seasons between 160 and 230 days ("growing season" is mostly defined as frost-free days).

Someone upthread mentioned watermelon - there are some short-season versions, but you'd have to start them indoors.

The entire area population is about 10,000, so most big national chains won't be there.

Hot houses/beds would help. Starting indoors for sure.

I really do like Baker. The weather is what it is. Winter is wow....... cold, More sun though than the Willamette Valley.

It's on my short list for retirement.

[Easteagle]

Welcome to Baker City!

[Larry Caldwell]

You have a few months to get your winter clothing organized. You will need it. A straw hat, sunscreen and shorts will get you through the summer. Keep your water bottle handy. The low humidity will dry you out quickly, and dehydration is a thing.

[Hawk J]

When it's sunny it's important to wear sun glasses, or you could develop Cataracts in your eyes.