PARKDALE (CDP)

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 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.  

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