Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Shaniko, OR

Shaniko is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, on U.S. Route 97 about 8 miles north of Antelope, at an elevation of 3,343 feet.

The 2020 census counted 30 residents in Shaniko, with 11 households and a median age of 66.5 years.

The town was originally called Cross Hollow, with a post office established in May 1879, and the name Shaniko reflects the local Native American pronunciation of settler August Scherneckau's name.

Shaniko was incorporated in 1901, and the first official meeting of its city council occurred on March 16, 1901.

In its heyday in the first decade of the 20th century, Shaniko was known as the "Wool Capital of the World," serving as a regional center for wool, wheat, cattle, and sheep production east of the Cascade Range.

The Columbia Southern Railway, a Union Pacific subsidiary, built a branch from Biggs Junction to a terminus in Shaniko, completed in May 1900.

In 1903 the town shipped 2,229 tons of wool and over 1.16 million bushels of wheat, with $3,000,000 in wool sales that year.

Traffic was diverted away in 1911 when a new line through the Deschutes River canyon linked Portland to Bend, and passenger rail service to Shaniko ended in the early 1930s.

By 1982 Shaniko was nearly a ghost town, and it had first been called a "ghost town" at the Oregon Centennial Exposition in Portland in 1959.

The Shaniko Historic District, the Columbia Southern Hotel, and the Imperial Stock Ranch Headquarters Complex are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.