24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Umatilla, OR

Umatilla is a city in Umatilla County, Oregon, on the south side of the Columbia River along U.S. Route 730 and Interstate 82, about 30 miles northwest of Pendleton.

The 2020 census counted 7,363 residents in Umatilla, with 1,793 households, and the population includes approximately 2,000 inmates incarcerated at Two Rivers Correctional Institution.

Before European settlement, the peninsula formed by the convergence of the Umatilla and Columbia rivers had been occupied by the indigenous Umatilla people for at least 10,000 years, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition noted a village on the site on their return trip in 1806.

Timothy K. Davenport surveyed for a townsite at the mouth of the Umatilla River in 1862 and filed a plat in 1863, and the site was first known as Umatilla Landing, then Umatilla City, then Columbia, before reverting to Umatilla City.

Umatilla's post office was established in 1863 with Z. F. Moody as postmaster, the city was incorporated in 1864, and it won the Umatilla County seat on March 6, 1865, holding it until 1868 when it moved to Pendleton.

Umatilla quickly became an important trade and distribution center for gold rush travelers and for farmers and ranchers, and at its peak its business district had 3 hotels, 22 saloons, 6 mercantiles, and 3 grocery stores.

For a brief time during the 1860s gold rush, Umatilla competed with Wallula, Washington, to become the Sacramento of the Upper Columbia, but the gold rush did not last long enough to support either town's growth beyond frontier villages.

The removal of the rapids in 1877 allowed boats to continue directly to Wallula and beyond, and the great flood of 1894 destroyed what was left of the original business district, with many surviving buildings moved away from the river.

In 1916 several women launched secret bids for local office in Umatilla, resulting in what has been called the Petticoat Revolution.

The Umatilla Chemical Depot opened in 1941 to prepare for World War II, took on a chemical weapons storage mission in 1962, and on October 25, 2011, the last barrel of HD mustard agent was destroyed there, ending the risk of chemical accident in Oregon and Washington.