In central downtown, near the multi-story federal building, a block or so from several eating and drinking establishments and retailers, and the library and the animal rescue service and the busy and multi-use senior center, in the midst of these things, you’re invited to slow your pace.
There, below ample leafy trees and just off busy commercial streets you can listen on the sidewalk to the broadcast of the radio station housed there, to its musical and local news and sports offerings. While reading, if you like, the local newspaper and sipping a fresh coffee drink.
Where, on the right day this year, you might have seen a No Kings demonstration on the main street.
Nope, this isn’t Portland or Salem or Eugene.
Welcome to Oregon’s most remote rural center, which most Oregonians probably never have visited: Lakeview.
I spent time there recently on a winding trip around the huge section of Oregon south of Interstate 84 and east of U.S. 97. This area amounts to close to half of the state’s land area but has no metro areas or even any micropolitan areas, and not many people.
The landscape and wildlife are more varied than you might expect. Much of the terrain is arid, desert-like, but it also has vast forested regions and some of Oregon’s larger lakes.
Many western Oregonians may see the society here in stereotypes: Tiny and decaying towns, barely any economy, with only tiny communities located far from each other and further from bigger cities. Agriculture as the sole, limited, and maybe declining economic base. Vast open lands mostly run by the federal government. Politically deep red, a population identifying itself as Greater Idaho. And, well, is there a risk some of them might fall below an irreducible minimum of people and economy and simply vanish?
Spend some time in these places, and you’ll find more complexity and depth, and a brighter picture, than you might expect.
The Census counted 2,418 people in Lakeview five years ago. Most western Oregon cities that size would have little commerce and few services; but many of them are located near larger regional centers or metro areas. Lakeview, seat of the vast but lightly populated Lake County, is about two hours from the nearest larger Oregon community (Klamath Falls).
Lake County more than matches the political stereotype. In 2024 it voted solidly Republican: 81.2% for Donald Trump for president, the highest percentage any presidential candidate has received in its history.
But in smaller population areas even political minorities can stand out and have impact. A local anti-Trump No Kings group rallied here this fall (as did a group in the similarly-sized city of Burns, a couple of hours away), drawn in part no doubt from the 681 people here who in 2024 voted for Kamala Harris. (Consider the determination it would take to do that.)
Similarly, local commerce and communications in these far-flung places often get strong local support and interact more closely with the community than they do in more populated areas. There’s a lively radio community with not only downtown station KORV-FM (“kick off your boots and stay awhile”) but others as well. The broadband internet server TNET has an office next door to the station. Lakeview has a large Safeway supermarket and a significant array of other retailers. Public transit? It has a bus service of sorts connecting to other southern Oregon communities.
Of course, maintaining all this requires keeping enough money flowing into the area. Agriculture — which means ranching in many places — remains important. But you can also find an array of unexpected small businesses.
Government investment and employment provide a key additional piece of the foundation. The good wages by federal agencies account for a big piece of the economy throughout this area, and county governments in places like Burns, Vale, Lakeview and Fossil also bolster the area.
For all the wide open spaces, and the long distances — an hour or more is not unusual traveling time from community to community — the number of communities (Burns, John Day, Vale, Heppner, Condon, Fossil, Prairie City, Canyon City, Seneca, Bly, Paisley and more) do add up.
Many of these communities — John Day, Burns, Lakeview among them — seem much more economically vibrant than towns of their size and location would seem to allow.
They have specific cultures and traditions. In John Day, you will periodically hear what sounds like an air-raid siren, often setting off dog howling in the process. The city has a volunteer fire department, and the siren alerts everyone that firefighters are on the move.
There are challenges. Burns, which has a prosperous commercial area on the west side of town toward Hines, has too many shuttered storefronts on its dignified downtown section. Much of Burns flooded this year, but by fall most signs of it had disappeared from sight. You get the sense of struggles to develop more commercial activity, and attract new residents.
But they have maintained a sense of culture and place, and in standing up to many recent economic and social trends, they have proven themselves resilient.
If you’re looking for a part of Oregon you may not have visited lately, if ever, this wide open country is worth your consideration. And for consideration too of the lessons it can teach.
This column originally appeared in the Oregon Capital Chronicle.