24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Arlington, OR

Arlington is a city in Gilliam County, Oregon, on the Columbia River at the mouth of Alkali Canyon, about fifty miles east of The Dalles.

As of the 2020 census, Arlington had a population of 628, up from 586 in 2010.

Arlington came into existence as a place for shipping cattle down the Columbia River, and Elijah Rhea built the first house there in 1880, with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company establishing a station a year later.

The town was platted in 1882 and named Alkali, and it was incorporated as Arlington by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on November 20, 1885.

How Arlington received its name varies by tradition: one says it was named after lawyer Nathan Arlington Cornish, while another says the city's Southern inhabitants had enough clout to rename it after Arlington, Virginia, home of General Robert E. Lee.

Arlington was the county seat of Gilliam County until voters in the general election of 1890 chose to move the county seat to Condon.

The original townsite was demolished beginning in 1965 because of the scheduled inundation of Arlington by the rising waters of the Columbia River forming Lake Umatilla behind the John Day Dam, while a new townsite had been completed two years earlier and the United States Army Corps of Engineers relocated much of the town to higher ground in the early 1960s.

Arlington now stands at the intersection of Interstate 84 and Oregon Highway 19.

Wheat, barley, and cattle are the main crops in the surrounding area of Gilliam County, but the largest employer in the area is the Columbia Ridge Landfill, owned and operated by Waste Management and located at Arlington.

Arlington's population peaked in the mid-20th century at 686 in 1950 before falling to 375 by 1970, then recovering to 628 by 2020.