Mitchell

History

At the request of William "Brawdie" Johnson, a blacksmith, a post office was established at Mitchell in 1873. In 1872 the first school in Wheeler County was established near Mitchell, and in 1874 it was relocated into the town itself. Since its founding, Mitchell has experienced three catastrophic flash floods along Bridge Creek, which runs through the center of the city. Flooding caused great damage to the city in 1884 and 1904. The third flood occurred on July 13, 1956, shortly after an intense thunderstorm in the hills to the south. Bridge Creek is usually less than deep during July, Total damage from the flood, which also caused extensive damage to crops and roads in a nearby valley, was . In 2018, a geologist from the University of Oregon found a fossilized toe of a plant-eating dinosaur near Mitchell, where the Pacific Ocean coast lay 100 million years ago. This discovery has been billed as the first dinosaur fossil found in Oregon. A competing claim involves fossil fragments of a hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaur found in the Otter Point Formation near the mouth of the Rogue River.

Geography

Mitchell, in southwestern Wheeler County, is on U.S. Route 26 just east of its intersection with Oregon Route 207. To the city's south lie the Ochoco Mountains, the source of Bridge Creek. It flows through Mitchell and then north through the Painted Hills to the John Day River. Eroded remnants of ancient stratovolcanoes, once the size of Mount Hood are nearby; these include Black Butte and White Butte, visible from town. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. Precipitation in the region is limited by the rain shadow effect of the Cascade Range and the Ochoco Mountains to the west. In winter, much of the precipitation arrives as snow.

Race & ethnicity