PARKDALE (CDP)

-
 PARKDALE 
Parkdale isn't a city, I am aware of that, yet it is so deserving of city hood. It is so isolated within the valley and the orchards. So isolated that it avoids view. It has a population of 311 and that is really small. It has a ton of businesses for that population. It has a market and a pub and a couple restaurants. It's amazing and Mt. Hood is huge in the distance. 
When I first came to this place, I took the exit from the highway and the the car bounded on the small road and into the middle of a huge pear orchard that extended for miles. Our car rode down the hill through the orchards and into this intersection that has a stunning view of mount hood. We rode on, past a fire station and we were looking for the town and wondering where it was. Then finally the businesses started trickling in, first the fish house then the artie shops and the bike store and the gas station in the center of town. It's like a little spot of sunlight in the darkened valley. It has a little park with a historic museum and a great logging truck showing the area's history. You could go into McIsaac's store and get something or you could just explore the beautiful landscape of this place. 

 Parkdale is a really small place, and kind of isolated too, it is a place that not many know about and you have to explore Oregon a lot to find it. It has a rather simple history like most places of this size, it was founded by David Eccles and R.J. McIssac in 1910 as a sight for the new Mt. Hood railroad. It's not the greatest place on Earth but it is really special and worth seeing. It lies in central Hood river county and if you drove north along the highway for a few dozen miles you would get to Hood river, which I will do a blog post on in the next week, so get ready.  

 In conclusion, if you're exploring hood river county and just those counties in general, check out Parkdale, if you're a fan of those places in Oregon that you have to dig deep to find, this is your place . Also I would like to plug a organization that is doing some great work in city government, the league of Oregon Cities, you can visit their website here: http://www.orcities.org/  or visit their building at 1201 Court St NE #200, Salem, OR. And that's my article for today, and I hope you enjoyed it, be sure to follow me on Google+ and view my blog in the future. Farewell for now.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SILVERTON

-
Image
SILVERTON  Silverton is the gold standard for any town in Oregon, and it is easily accessible from the big cities. Word has been spread about how great Silverton is, but you have to visit to truly experience it's magnitude. It is the small town in Oregon that all others should be compared too. It is a winner in both categories. It is a  cute small town with great architecture and stunning natural views. But it is also a healthy and well functioning city with many amenities and scores high livability points in my book and is a destination for many people seeking to escape from urban life in the western part of the state. It sits along the 45th parallel and is on the edge of the Salem metro area. It is about an hour from Portland and ten minutes from Salem. As with many Willamette valley towns it is surrounded with countryside. When you first arrived in Silverton, you see many nice houses in a neighborhood or two, but once you get into downtown it is the real deal.  You witness f
Read more

BAKER CITY

-
Image
BAKER CITY In the rural dessert lands with the Wallowas lying north and the dessert lying south, sits a gleaming city of wonders. The queen city of eastern Oregon, it is filled with great sights to behold. It has tall buildings and old ones and it maintains the European vibe a bit with some buildings but it looks like a small city in eastern Oregon. When you are driving to Baker city, you think it's either going to be crappy or sleepy if you don't know anything about it. But instead you find an amazing wonderful  place with so much star-studded greatness it's not like the environment around it, it's like Oregon's version of Dubai(except without the skyscrapers, futuristic technology, and huge dessert, I mean huge!) Arriving there, I was in awe, I never really thought it would look like what it actually was. Most people(I mean Portlanders) look at pictures of Baker city and say to themselves "hey! I'd like to go there some time maybe in a couple years..
Read more

WHAT IF.... WEST SALEM WAS IT'S OWN CITY

-
Image
WHAT IF... WEST SALEM WAS IT'S OWN CITY I am starting a starting a new section on my blog, it's what if Thursdays. Every week I will propose a theory on a place in Oregon and weigh the likelihood and ramifications. This week I will be discussing west Salem. I think that there is a slight possibility that it could become it's own city. It sits along the Willamette river and is technically a neighborhood in Salem, but it could be much more. It is located in Polk county whilst the rest of Salem is in Marion county. West Salem is mostly residential and some retail chains. It has the population to back up becoming a city. West Salem's population was 24,183 in 2012, and it is a considerable part of Salem's residential population.  If west Salem became it's own  city it would be the largest city in Polk county, and would probably become the county seat. It is an interesting question to ponder. Do you have anything you would like me to cover? Do you want me to cover
Read more