The arrival of railroads in the 1880s quickened the area’s economy. Wheat production, logging, milling, and other manufactures boomed. Automobiles by the 1910s prompted urbanization. Schools and reform groups proliferated in towns and cities, but so did movies and other aspects of modern, mass culture.
The Railroad and Agriculture:
The coming of the railroads to northeastern Oregon allowed for an economic and social development previously denied the region.
The Railroad and Economic Growth:
The early eonomy in the southern portion of of the region was varied and dependent on logging, stock raising, and mining.
Irrigation and Mechanization:
Irrigation promised to make up for the area’s natural lack of rainfall.
Urbanization and Culture:
Towns grew out of the economic activies in the countryside.
Working Men:
The growth of towns and durable economic enterprises led to a more stable and respectable region.
The Automobile and Culture Wars:
The automobile was one of several national developments that brought northeastern Oregon into the nation’s cultural mainstream.
