On August 18, 1890, the Sumpter Valley Railroad was incorporated in Oregon by David Eccles and four others. One year earlier, those same Utah industrialists had founded the Oregon Lumber Company. The railroad's initial purpose was to haul logs to a new sawmill being built for the Oregon Lumber Company in South Baker City, but it's role soon expanded well beyond that.

In 1890, the Utah & Northern Railroad subsidiary, was converting from 3-foot narrow gauge to standard-gauge operation. As a result, they had a good deal of surplus equipment including locomotives, cars and even track, David Eccles and Charles Nibley reached an agreement with the UP President to purchase the Utah & Northern equipment in exchange for bonds issued by the new Sumpter Valley Railway. To help insure the success of that arrangement, the Union Pacific Railroad contracted to purchase 500,000 ties each year for 5 years from the Oregon Lumber Company.

Work began immediately to lay track from South Baker to the timberlands along Sumpter Valley. A severe winter impeded work, but in October 1891 the railroad reached McEwen, a stage stop 22 miles west of Baker City. The railroad began at once to offer passenger and freight service to McEwen in addition to hauling logs to the Oregon Lumber Company mill.

The end of track advanced slowly to the west as logging proceeded. In October1896, the line reached the town of Sumpter and a depot was built. Placer mining in the Sumpter area had given way to hard-rock mining technology, and the railroad's ability to bring in supplies and heavy equipment launched Sumpter on a boom that continued for several years. The railroad continued advancing in stages to the southwest, crossing three summits above 5000 feet in elevation on its way establishing the town of Whitney, Tipton, Austin and Bates. Eventually, in 1910 the railroad reached the ranching and mining community of Prairie City, 80 miles southwest of Baker City in the John Day River Valley.

In the 1920's the railroad began losing passenger and freight business to automobiles and trucks, resulting in 20 miles of main line being abandoned between Prairie City and Bates in 1933. Scheduled passenger service was discontinued entirely in 1937, though mail and occasional passengers continued to be carried in the cabooses of freight trains until the railroad ceased operation completely. Finally in 1947, the railroad ceased all operations except for 1.5 miles of dual-gauge trackage in the Oregon Lumber Company yard in South Baker. A diesel switch engine worked there until December 1961, when even those tracks were removed. During its 57-year history from 1890-1947, the Sumpter Valley Railway was a vital part of the Eastern Oregon region it served. It was one of the most colorful and longest-lived narrow gauge railroads in the nation.

Sumpter Valley Railroad Restoration, Inc.

Building To Preserve Local History

• NARROW-GAUGE STEAM RAILROAD •

In 1970 a small group of Baker County residents met to discuss the formation of a non-profit organization dedicated to acquiring, restoring, preserving, maintaining and operating a portion of the abandoned SVRR narrow-gauge railroad, as an historical and educational operating museum. The SVRR was incorporated in the State of Oregon that December.  In 1971 this group purchased their No. 3 Heisler geared locomotive, from the Boise-Cascade Corp. The locomotive, a W.H. Eccles Lumber Co. logging locomotive was resting in a shed at Cascade, Idaho, where it had provided standby steam for the Boise Cascade sawmill there until about 1969.

The next project was to acquire some rolling stock, and the Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow-gauge railroad was in the process of scrapping out some flat cars, and they formed the basis for the two observation cars we currently use on the railway. From 1971 to 1976, the membership grew, and the disbelievers shrunk. Amid cries of joy from the hardworking SVRR restoration crew, No. 3 steamed proudly onto a low-boy trailer for the 22 mile trip to the Dredge Station (McEwen), and a return home to the Sumpter Valley.

In 1977, the White Pass & Yukon Railroad in Skagway, Alaska, provided SVRR with two original SVRR Schenectady 2-8-2 "Mikes," numbered 19 and 20 with the stipulation that they be moved from Skagway by July 1, 1977. SVRR founding President Nils Chistensen and volunteers put this huge transportation task together, and the "Mikes" returned to Baker City via Union Pacific flat cars from Seattle, where they were off-loaded from an Anderson Tug and Barge Co. barge.

In 1992 the No. 19 was taken to Portland, Oregon for a four-year restoration by Doyle McCormick and the Daylight Locomotive Works shop. The 19 and 20 where the only two locomotives purchased by the SVRR new and to their own specifications, and we are proud of the results of this four-year effort by McCormick and our volunteer crews.

In 1990, through the generous donation of Emma Eccles Jones, a daughter of the SVRR founder David Eccles, the original No. 20 Pullman standard coach was purchased and restored and is now running the rails on our line. Also, with this donation, came the final push into the City of Sumpter, and in 1991 narrow-gauge rails again served that mining town at the head of Sumpter Valley. Baker County constructed a day park at the McEwen Station site, with picnic tables restrooms and parking, and the SVRR group uses the area for the shop and storage facility.

In the beginning the County Railroad Park was operated as a Wildlife Habitat area, and a trail was built to access several of the many "dredge" ponds located within easy walking distance from the depot. The area is home to many species of birds, including Sandhill Cranes, hawks, geese, ducks and bluebirds. Visitors may also get a glimpse of beavers, muskrats, and an occasional elk, and deer. You're invited to visit us and take a trip back in time, to an era when steam locomotives were the main mode of transportation and logging and mining were the mainstays of the local economy.