1955 Map of Baker

About this map

Baker stands as the primary hub in this mid-century look at the borderlands of eastern Oregon and western Idaho, where the Snake River carves a deep boundary through high mountain ranges. The legacy of westward migration is literally marked by the Oregon Trail Memorial Monument, while the industrial footprint of the era is visible in the Virtue Mine and the extensive network of the Union Pacific Railroad. To the north, the Wallowa Mountains and Seven Devils Mountains rise sharply above the river, which is already beginning to transform under the weight of hydroelectric development with the Brownlee Reservoir and Oxbow Reservoir appearing along its course. The map details a landscape of transition, from the irrigated agricultural settlements of Ontario, Nyssa, and Payette in the south to the mining and timber outposts of Homestead and Copperfield further north.