Kinzua, Oregon

Kinzua is a former company town and ghost town in Wheeler County, Oregon, United States that existed from 1927 to 1978. [http://www.pasturegolf.com/kinzua.htm Kinzua Hills Golf Club] . pasturegolf.com] Kinzua lies directly east of Fossil and uses a Fossil mailing address.

The community was founded by Pennsylvania lumberman Edward D. Wetmore to support the sawmill operations of the Kinzua Pine Mills Company. [http://www.trainweb.org/highdesertrails/cks.html Condon Kinzua & Southern Railroad Kinzua Pine Mills] trainweb.net] At one time Kinzua was the most populous community in Wheeler County and 330 people worked at the mill. [http://www.nps.gov/archive/joda/hrs/hrs6c.htm John Day Fossil Beds: Historic Resources Study: Economic Development: Lumbering] National Park Service]

When the mill, renamed the Eastern Oregon Logging Company, closed in 1978, all the buildings were either razed or destroyed in an arson fire. Most of the former townsite was replanted in ponderosa pine.

Part of the former site of Kinzua has been developed as a "pasture golf" course.

References

External links

* [http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/caps7/00659.htm Historic image of Kinzua Pine Mills, 1939]