Bourne is a mining ghost town located in Baker County, Oregon about seven miles north of Sumpter in the Blue Mountains. It lies along Cracker Creek. Gold was discovered in the region in 1888. Soon there was a rush to the site and a mining camp was established. The camp was originally known as “Cracker City” because of its location along Cracker Creek. It became a mining community and when a post office was established on March 2, 1895 it was named Bourne. It was named after Jonathan Bourne who had an interest in the mines of the area. He later became a U.S. senator for Oregon. The first postmaster was Robert Weathered.

In the 1890s the region had a few well producing mines including the Eureka & Excelsior Mine and the North Pole Mine. Several buildings were constructed and it became a lively mining community. It was officially platted in 1902. It had a boom period from about 1900 to 1906. By 1906 the most productive mines were beginning to decline in production. There were several smaller mining claims that were not productive.

It did require extensive funding to continue operating mines as extracting ore from mountains sides could be expensive. This opened the door for F. Wallace White to hoax investors from the eastern United States. He made false advertisements of the great potential for profits for investors. The investors money went into White’s personal enrichment and investors never received returns from their investments. He dazzled investors from all over the world and built a mansion in Bourne to host potential investors and managed to swindle millions of dollars.

In 1915 the law finally caught up with White and his schemes were revealed in the papers. An article from April, 1915 said that his Sampson mining company, with headquarters in Bourne, had been dissolved as of January 5, 1915, and that the company had been financed since 1905. White fled from Bourne at this time. In mid-April 1915 the case was referred to the U.S. district attorney. White avoided arrest until April of 1919, when papers reported that he was detained in connection with charges for mail fraud. His arrest was made in Buffalo, New York as he attempted to flee to Canada.

The diminished mining activity and the scandal of White’s fraud scheme led to the demise of the community. The post office was discontinued eventually on Sept. 30, 1918. Today it is mostly a ghost town with some buildings still standing.

Contributed by Steve Lent, historian