Country United States County Morrow GNIS feature ID 1136356 Population 20 (1990) | State Oregon Time zone Pacific (UTC-8) Elevation 1,086 m Area code 541 | |
 | ||
Hardman is a historic community in Morrow County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is on Oregon Route 207 about 20 miles (32 km) south of Heppner and 32 miles (51 km) north of Spray. Hardman is at an elevation of about 3,600 feet (1,100 m) in an agricultural area slightly west of the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. Rock Creek, a tributary of the Columbia River, flows northwest by Hardman and to its south to meet the river at Lake Umatilla. A former social and commercial center for surrounding farm communities, Hardman has become a ghost town. The main surviving commercial building, the Hardman IOOF Lodge Hall, was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2012.
Contents
Map of Hardman, OR 97836, USA
History
The first settlers in the area were John F. Royse and his brother. Royse started a school in 1879 at a place called Dairyville, which locals referred to as "Rawdog". At the same time, David N. Hardman, who arrived in the county in 1878, started a settlement a mile to the southeast. A post office named Hardman was established there in 1881 with Hardman as postmaster. A mile to the northwest of Dairyville was the community of Adamsville, known to the locals as "Yallerdog". In 1882, the Hardman post office was moved to Dairyville but retained the Hardman name. Adamsville post office was established in 1884 and closed in 1885, and thereafter, all activity centered on what is now Hardman, where the post office ran intermittently until 1968. Locals called the place "Dogtown" after its two predecessors. Why the locals named these communities after dogs is unknown.
According to the NRHP nomination form for the IOOF hall, a history of Umatilla and Morrow counties that was published in 1902 said that Hardman at that time had three general stores, two hotels, two feed stables, two blacksmiths, a saloon, a barber shop, a church, schools, a post office, a newspaper, and a telephone office. Other infrastructure included two meeting halls, a skating rink, and a racetrack.