Yesterday, I made a visit to Post, Oregon, one hour east of my house in Bend. Why drive there? Because Post claims to be at the geographic center of Oregon.

The Post General Store and Eatery includes a store, restaurant, and post office. In 1889, Post was named after Walter Post, their first postmaster. The outside of the building has a rustic Old West charm.

A view my drone above the store shows the rural nature of this country. On this visit to Post, the weather was nice and warm with a scattering of clouds.

Inside, they sell gifts, groceries, and lots of products with a “Post: Center of Oregon” theme. I bought a new green t-shirt for my collection.

The picture below shows the Post post office. Yes, it is small. There are only 48 mail boxes.

The store also has an eatery with a very limited menu. I ordered a meatloaf sandwich and I thought it was fine, but not the style I prefer. Post General Store & Eatery serves over a dozen kinds of milkshakes.

The center of Oregon?

Is Post really located in the exact center of Oregon? There are multiple ways to determine the location of the center of a state. If you cut out a map of Oregon and balanced the rectangular-shaped state on the head of a pin, the real center is nearby. It’s on the Bonnieview Ranch, just north of Post.

You have to get permission from the landowner to view a small U. S. Geological Survey metal marker on the property. Over the years, people have assumed it marks the center of the state. However, these benchmarks were historically used to help surveyors create maps, not to mark geographical features. This marker, installed in 1903, indicates the site’s elevation at 3,348 feet. Other markers include the latitude and longitude.

If you would like to own the land where the center of the state is located, the ranch is for sale for $20 million dollars. With 20% down, your payments will only be around $101,000 a month. The 18,700 acre Bonnieview Ranch includes several buildings including three homes, two cabins, and a bunkhouse. There are more than 50 springs and ponds, plus a 35-acre reservoir.

For this post I used my Samsung phone camera, my Canon pocket camera, and my DJI drone. To play up the history of this spot, I used cross processing photo effects and a border reminiscent of old printed photographs.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Stuck in place

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