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Union Pacific Pilot Rock Branch |
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Fifteen miles south of Pendleton is the small community of Pilot Rock, named for a nearby large basaltic rock formation used as a beacon by passing emigrants on the Oregon Trail. The small community gained the notice of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company in the early 1900s, and on 24 May 1906 the OR&N incorporated the Umatilla Central Railroad Company. The Umatilla Central completed a fourteen-mile long line running from the OR&N mainline at Reith/Pilot Rock Junction (four miles west of Pendleton) south to Pilot Rock. The railroad opened for business on 16 December 1907, at which point the OR&N leased the property and initiated operations. Union Pacific maintained service on the line with a daily except Sunday mixed train, operating as Train #42 southbound and Train #41 northbound. Passenger traffic eventually fell off, but freight traffic remained strong, especially after Pilot Rock Lumber Company built a sawmill in the town in 1940. Georgia Pacific acquired the mill in 1962, then spun it off to Louisiana Pacific in 1972. Frontier Resources, the corporate successor to the Kinzua Pine Mills company, purchased the mill in 1996 and operated it as Kinzua Resources. The mill changed hand again in 2009, when the company sold the mill to timber industry giant Boise Cascade. Boise Cascade operated the mill as Kinzua Lumber until late 2018, when they sold it along with a couple other area mills to Woodgrain Millwork of Fruitland, Idaho. The mill was the only shipper on the branch for many decades, but in early 2020 Union Pacific suspended service due to flood damage on the line that compounded steadily deteriorating track conditions. Woodgrain announced the permanent closure of the Pilot Rock mill on 1 July 2025, but as the line had not seen a train in more than five years by that point the event will have little impact on the branch beyond probably sealing the line's fate. |
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