History of Quinton
By Curt Cunningham

Quinton is located about 14 miles downstream from Arlington and close to exit 123 on Interstate 84 west of the mouth Philippi Canyon. Quinton was an old steamer landing where sacks of wheat were loaded onto riverboats long before the railroad came through in 1880. The place was also known as Quinn's and was named after a man named Quinn who was the first to settle in the area. The railroad built a station at Quinton to serve the residents of the area and a telegraph office was inside the station. Except for the telegraph operator the residents of Quinton were either farmers or they worked for the railroad.

An article in the November 7, 1915 Sunday Oregon Journal gives a description of Quinton as it was over 100 years ago; "Wheat warehouse on railroad. Good landing on sandbar between 2 rock bluffs. Old wheat shipping point by water. At present considerable wheat is shipped by river. There is a small wheat platform at the river. The construction of a warehouse on the river bank is contemplated. Road from hills down canyon. It crosses the O. R. & N. track and status to river is doubtful."

The Quinton Canyon road runs south through Philippi canyon and this was the road the farmers used to bring in their wheat to be loaded onto the steamers. The canyon was originally called Quinton canyon but years later the name was changed to Philippi canyon after Albert Philippi who homesteaded there in the 1880's. Over the years 4 generations of the Philippi family lived on the old ranch.

The Quinton Earthquake

On Saturday evening at 8pm on August 22, 1894 Quinton resident Pat Cahill became alarmed when he saw the earth rising and sinking at Quinns station which reminded him of the earthquakes he experienced in California. What frightened him the most was the sudden sinking of a 100 foot square section of earth. He could not see the bottom of the hole and did not know how far down it went. The next morning the hole was filled with water. Pat said he was never so frightened in his life.

There were no reports of shaking from any other place in the area. Pat described the actions of the earth with his arms going up and then down like a "teeter" in quick motion. The hole was on the river bank close to his cabin and from his description the reporter said it would have frightened the stoutest heart. Later there were reports that back in Kansas at about the same time the ground sunk in many places around that state in the same way that Cahill had described them.

Wasco on the Columbia River Highway?

In the October 20, 1917 edition of the Sunday Oregon Journal is an article about the location of the Columbia River Highway between the mouth of the Deschutes river and Arlington. At the time the route had yet to be officially determined between the Deschutes river and Pendleton. There was a tentative location which had been made by the state highway commission, but it was not satisfactory to all interests. The tentative route would leave the river at Sherman station or at Biggs Junction and then run 10 miles away from the river to Wasco, and then return to the river near Quinton, and then cross the John Day canyon about 8 miles upriver from is mouth at a place called "the Narrows."

To complicate matters a resolution was introduced to the highway commission to locate the highway through Gilliam county along the Columbia river from the mouth of the John Day river to the Morrow county line. This resolution was in direct conflict with the former proposal, because Quinton is approximately 10 miles east from the mouth of the John Day river. There were many diverging and sincere opinions given for the proper location of the new highway.

"It all depends on the point of view." said Roy Atwood of Wasco who was in the process of building a new brick hotel in that town. As for the location of the highway he said; "Through Wasco, of course. It should leave the river, come up into Wasco and then eastward to Rock creek. There is nothing else to it." Dr. Donnelly of Arlington was asked for his opinion on the highway location as he was compounding a prescription while talking to the reporter, replied derisively. "Along the river. all the way. Why go up a hill and then down again when you can go on a level grade?"

As the pharmacist answered the reporter, he looked as though he was questioning his sanity by asking him such a foolish question. Former county Judge Fulton, Commissioner McKee, Henry Blau and H. D. Crossfield, all of Sherman county, agreed with Atwood, while J. W. Biggs, C. C. Clark and J. W. Maddox, the man who ran the Wasco hotel, said that Donnelly had the right idea. But to prove he was right Atwood insisted on getting out his car and taking the reporter over the proposed interior route. As they rolled along the road he lectured the reporter on why the road should go this way;

"Sherman county is a great county and we want people to see it. Look at these big wheat fields." He then sweeps the horizon with his arm. After renewing the light on his ever present cigar, he continued; "What can you see along the river? Nothing! And the sand and the wind, why, I saw a man once who got caught in a sandstorm along the river and all the skin was peeled off his face. This is the only route for the highway. It is the natural route and it was followed by the pioneers."

"The Arlington people think if they can pull the highway along the river they will be able to sell a gallon of gasoline and a veil to protect the woman's face from the sand and sun. That is the only interest they have in the road. They talk about making a road district and levying a ten mill tax to build the road along the river. They will never do it in a thousand years. The Rock creek people won't vote for a ten mill tax. Most of them want the road to run through Wasco." Commissioner McKee then chimed in with agreement and said; "if the Wasco route is selected Sherman county will fix up the roadbed, but if the highway is kept along the river we won't do a thing for it. That's final."

Lighting a fresh cigar, Atwood resumed; "It won't be much trouble to make a good road here, as you notice. See that hill ahead. We go to the right of that, then down to the John Day river, crossing at McDonald's ferry. There is a considerable grade going down, but if this route should be adopted, the county will make a new grade on the left side of the hill, not to exceed 6%. Finally you will come to Rock Creek station, where the road divides. One goes east towards Cecil. The other leads northwesterly to Arlington."

"Do you know what would happen if the highway came this way?" asked Atwood. "Everybody would keep driving east toward Cecil and then on to Pendleton instead of going a roundabout way to Arlington. The people of Arlington know this and that is another reason why they want the road to keep along the river. The proper place for the highway is the interior route all the way from Pendleton along the old emigrant trail, that is, if it is intended to serve the greatest number of people."

"Wasco would be about half way between Portland and Pendleton. How about this proposed cut-off from Quinton to Wasco? you ask. This is the proper route, but if we cannot get it we will take the Quinton cut-off. In any event, the road ought to go through Wasco." The reporter said that by going into Arlington the tourist could easily tell that they were not entering the county seat, by the condition of the road. 

"So that Wasco bunch has been telling you that you can't build and maintain a highway along the river, eh?" said Dr. Donnelly. "Did they tell you how the wind and dust blows sometimes on top of the hill? I reckon not." Donnelly was a native of North Carolina. "They want you to climb up a hill a thousand feet to see a few wheat fields. Don't you think a person who has come from around Pendleton will have seen wheat fields enough? Scenery is only a relative term, anyhow."

"For my part there can be no more magnificent view than along the river. Talking about scenery, I am a good deal like the man who said that a fine view might be obtained at a certain place if it were not for the mountains. The only people in Sherman county who want the highway to go over the hill live in Wasco. If you will go south of there, around Grass Valley and Moro, you will find that the residents are in favor of the river route. "Everybody wants to get to the river. That is peculiar of this country. When any one wants to get outside they strike for the river instead of going across the country."

"That ought to be a good indication of the sentiment of the local people on this highway proposition." Maddox said; "I have no personal interest in the question, but if here is a highway which is to serve the interest of the state as a whole. It ought to be put in the right place or not at all. The right place, in my opinion, is along the river all the way."

There was yet another point of view. It was that of the man who was not susceptible to any local influence and studied the problem from a statewide standpoint. This man said; "There are only two logical routes, one is along the riverbank all the way. The other is through the interior on a direct line from Pendleton to Wasco. No compromise to satisfy the wants of any particular community would be to the general interest, neither would it be lasting, for the reason that it would be fundamentally wrong. "Consideration of the full interior route is precluded by the letter of the law which reads; Through Gilliam county, by way of the town of Arlington and up the Columbia river to the confluence of the Umatilla river with the Columbia, thence up the Umatilla river through Hermiston, Stanfield, Echo and Pendleton."

"This definitely fixes the route between Arlington and Pendleton. On top of this the highway commission has selected the route along the river west of Arlington to the Sherman county boundary. In order to pass through Wasco the highway must be detoured to an elevation of approximately 1,000 feet and the mileage increased. It may be conceded that the cost of construction would be less but this would be more than offset by the cost of surfacing the extra mileage, the loss of time to through travel and the extra expenditure of motive power."

"It is fully as practicable to build and maintain a road along the river between Arlington and the mouth of the Deschutes as it is between Arlington and Umatilla. It is also true that by going along the river one misses a sight of the magnificent wheat fields of Sherman county and gets no conception of the resources of the county but opposed to this is the fact that the highway is in its primary purpose a commercial route. Its scenic features are only incidental. On the other hand scenery is a matter of individual taste. There are those who would prefer the view along the river to the one on the plain."

"Another thing to be considered is the topography of the country. It is cut up with canyons which form natural boundaries between settlements. All the drainage is toward the river. This natural tendency toward the river is reflected in the business and social life. All meet at the river instead of cutting across the hills. The most important factor to be considered, in fact the controlling one, is the part to be played by the highway in development of an open river. For years an earnest effort has been made to build up water transportation to and from the great inland empire."

"Millions of dollars have been expended by the state and federal government in removing obstructions to navigation. No return has yet been had from an enormous investment. Owing to a lack of highways radiating into the producing and consuming centers of the interior, traffic is not brought to the river. River transportation will not be developed until it is here that the highway enters upon its important function. With a great trunk road along the river bank and feeder roads running into it the products of the immense food producing region will be assembled at river landings for river or rail shipment. This would solve the railcar shortage problem."

"Even though the main highway would not be used by auto trucks in competition with rail and river, its cost of construction would be an infinitesimal part of its value in regulating tariffs. There is yet another point to consider. The highway is more than a state road. It is an interstate road. If located along the river the people of southern Washington could pour through their canyons and ferry across sharing in the advantages of a trunk road. Taking a comprehensive view it is realized that the logic of the situation demands that the highway be located along the river all the way. Any other location would not meet the requirements of the future."

The Quinton Tunnel

In the summer of 1919 the state highway commission had planned to construct a tunnel through a rock bluff 520 feet long equipped with windows which would overlook the Columbia river. This tunnel was to be the main feature of the John Day river-Blalock section of the Columbia River Highway in Gilliam county. Bids on the project were received by the state highway commission at its meeting in Portland on September 9, 1919. The bidding was also for 75 miles of road work in Oregon. Included in these construction projects which totaled $1,000,000 was the tunnel at Quinton. Other contracts were let for work which would complete the grading of the unfinished sections of the Columbia River Highway between the mouth of the Deschutes river and at Umatilla, plus the grading of 15 miles of the highway between the John Day river and Blalock.

On September 11, 1919 the Oskar Huber Co, was awarded the contract to grade the 15 miles of the Columbia River Highway between the John Day river and Blalock at a cost of $187,000. The contract to build the Quinton tunnel was awarded to A. Guthrie & Co. for a cost of $41,857.50. For reasons not explained the Quinton tunnel project was cancelled by the highway department. The only reference I could find is in the 1919 Third Biennial Report of the State Highway Commission which says that the Quinton tunnel project was cancelled and gives no explanation as to why it was cancelled.

Quinton From the 1920's to the 1960's

By the 1920's the steamers had stopped plying the river and the landing at Quinton was no more. The completion of the Columbia River Highway in 1921 had no effect on Quinton and it remained just a railroad stop with a telegraph office. In the mid 1920's trees were planted along the highway between Quinton and Squally Hook. Quinton was a quiet place and there were never were any reports of derailments or deaths ever happening there. But in the summer of 1926 a tragic accident occurred on the Columbia River Highway near Quinton. That August Jake Dexter and his family were moving to the Willamette Valley and had all their belongings loaded onto their truck.

While on the road they had been having trouble with the front tire on the passenger side. Dexter's wife was worried about it and would look out the window to check on the tire periodically. At Quinton when she looked out at the tire she fell out of the truck, which was going at top speed, about 18 miles an hour. Jake didn't have time to stop the truck before it passed over her body and broke her pelvis. An ambulance was called from a phone at a nearby farmers house and it took 2 hours for it to arrive from The Dalles. The poor woman was comforted while waiting for aid by a couple who had stopped to help her. Mrs. Dexter was rushed to the hospital but her injuries were too severe and she sadly passed away later that evening. She was 27 years old and had 2 small children.

On May 5, 1944 Harley Anderson and his wife who lived at Heppner were going to The Dalles for a visit. Mrs. Fred Nicholson who also lived in Heppner accompanied them as far as Quinton so she could visit her daughter Alice Nicholson who was the telegraph operator there. While Alice was visiting with her mother she received a message that she had got the job as telegraph operator which she had applied for at the Ione depot. Alice was to begin work there on May 17, 1944.

The railroad station with the telegraph office inside remained in operation until the late 1950's. The beginning of the end for Quinton came in 1953 when John Day dam which was first proposed. The coming of the dam forced the remaining residents to move, and by 1968 the place was deserted. In 1968 the rising waters behind the completed John Day dam had created what is known as Lake Umatilla. This lake inundated the Columbia River Highway and the railroad grade from the dam all the way to Boardman. The station, tracks and highway through Quinton were submerged leaving no trace of the old steamer landing the farms and the railroad station.