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Boardman is a city in Morrow County, Oregon, United States on the
Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, ...
and Interstate 84. As of the 2010 census the population was 3,220. It is currently the largest town in
Morrow County, Oregon Morrow County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,186. The county seat is Heppner. The county is named for one of its first settlers, Jackson L. Morrow, who was a member of the ...
.


History

Boardman was homesteaded in 1903 by Samuel H. Boardman, the first superintendent of the Oregon State Parks System. Boardman and his wife worked for 13 years to develop irrigation for their land; during those years his wife taught school, and Boardman at times worked on railroad construction projects. The Union Pacific Railroad passed through Boardman, where it had a station. The community was
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
ted in 1916 at about the same time Samuel Boardman went to work for the
Oregon State Highway Department The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depart ...
and became involved in the development of roadside parks. The Boardman post office opened in 1916. The city was incorporated in 1921. During construction of the
John Day Dam The John Day Dam is a concrete gravity run-of-the-river dam spanning the Columbia River in the northwestern United States. The dam features a navigation lock plus fish ladders on both sides. The John Day Lock has the highest lift (at ) of any U.S ...
on the Columbia River in the 1960s, the city had to be moved south, further from the water.
Lake Umatilla Lake Umatilla is a long reservoir on the Columbia River in the United States, between the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. It was created in 1971 with the construction of John Day Dam, and stretches upstream to the McNary Dam. It lies in p ...
, behind the dam, covered much of the original city. South of Boardman, the
U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
established a training range in 1941. The
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
transferred ownership of the range in 1960 to the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
and it is now known as the
Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman The Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman, informally known as the Boardman Bombing Range, is a military installation south of Boardman, Oregon in the United States. It is used by NAS Whidbey Island as their principal training grounds ...
. The range is largely used by
NAS Whidbey Island Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI) is a naval air station of the United States Navy located on two pieces of land near Oak Harbor, on Whidbey Island, in Island County, Washington. The main portion of the base, Ault Field, is about ...
and the Oregon National Guard.


Geography

Boardman is in northeastern Oregon, along Interstate 84 south of the
Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, ...
. The city is above sea level. It is west of Hermiston and east of Portland. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


Climate

Boardman has a
steppe climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''BSk'').


Demographics

Boardman is part of the PendletonHermiston Micropolitan Statistical Area.


2010 census

As of the census of 2010, there were 3,220 people, 964 households, and 759 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 1,017 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 60.1% White, 0.7%
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...
, 0.9% Native American, 2.4% Asian, 0.3%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oce ...
, 33.0% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 61.7% of the population. There were 964 households, of which 53.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.9% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 9.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 21.3% were non-families. 14.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34, and the average family size was 3.70. The median age in the city was 27.5 years. 35.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 11.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 28.9% were from 25 to 44; 18.8% were from 45 to 64; and 5.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 53.3% male and 46.7% female.


2000 census

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,855 people, 853 households, and 686 families residing in the town. The population density was 798.2 people per square mile (307.9/km2). There were 947 housing units at an average density of 264.8 per square mile (102.1/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 55.24% White,1.93% Native American, 0.70% Asian, 0.39% African American, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 38.74% from other races, and 2.91% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 50.12% of the population. There were 853 households, out of which 53.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.4% were married couples living together, 14.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.5% were non-families. 14.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.33, and the average family size was 3.66. In the town the population was spread out, with 38.1% under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 15.0% from 45 to 64, and 5.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females, there were 109.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 114.8 males. The median household income was $32,105, and the median income for a family was $32,543. Males had a median income of $30,000 versus $21,765 for females. The per capita income for the town was $12,297. About 16.3% of families and 20.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 26.2% of those under age 18 and 6.7% of those age 65 or over.


Economy

As of 2013, the six largest employers in Boardman are Lamb Weston (potato products) (370 employees); Oregon Potato Company (125);
Portland General Electric Portland General Electric (PGE) is a Fortune 1000 public utility based in Portland, Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - 44% of the inhabitants ...
(PGE) (113); the Morrow County School District (106), Boardman Foods, (100) and
Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its e ...
. The
Port of Morrow The Port of Morrow is the port authority in Boardman, a city in Morrow County, Oregon, United States, on the Columbia River. History In 1958, Morrow County residents approved the creation of a port district by general election. A $500 loan wa ...
, Oregon's second-largest port, is adjacent to the city and located on the Columbia Riverfront. The port property also includes two (PGE) gas-fired power plants. PGE also has a
coal-fired power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
in the Boardman area; opened in 1980, it had shut down in October, 2020 marking the closure of the last coal fired power plant in Oregon after 40 years of service. This 550MW power plant was the largest single point of emission of greenhouse gases in Oregon. The Umatilla Chemical Depot, which includes the
Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility The Umatilla Chemical Depot, (UMCD) based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U.S. Army installation in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons originally stored at the depot consisted of various live munitions and storage co ...
, is east of the city, northwest of the intersection of I-84 and
Interstate 82 Interstate 82 (I-82) is an Interstate Highway in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States that travels through parts of Washington and Oregon. It runs from its northwestern terminus at I-90 in Ellensburg, Washington, to its southeas ...
. Seven miles east of Boardman is the Irrigon Fish Hatchery. Threemile Canyon Farms is the largest farm located In Boardman. According to a November 2008 article in '' The Oregonian'', a "huge data center linked to Amazon.com asunder construction" at the Port of Morrow. The data center was to have a dedicated 10- megawatt
electrical substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and ...
. A website focused on data centers suggested the Boardman site was created in response to the rapid growth of
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide ...
; earlier in 2008, Amazon had announced that
Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its e ...
was storing 29 billion objects (such as IMDb tables). The project made Boardman the second Oregon city along the
Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, ...
to host a power-hungry data center for web services: Google has a similar center in
The Dalles The Dalles is the largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,010 at the 2020 census, and it is the largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River between the Portland Metropolitan Area, and Hermisto ...
. By 2012, Apple had announced plans for a
server farm A server farm or server cluster is a collection of computer servers, usually maintained by an organization to supply server functionality far beyond the capability of a single machine. They often consist of thousands of computers which require ...
south of The Dalles in Prineville, where Facebook already had a similar farm. Rackspace was said to be considering a data center at the Port of Morrow. According to an August 2018 article in the
East Oregonian The ''East Oregonian'' (''EO'') is a daily newspaper published in Pendleton, Oregon, United States and covering Umatilla and Morrow counties. The ''EO'' was the first-place winner of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association General Excellence ...
, Amazon has two data centers in Boardman and one in Umatilla and is proposing to build four more data centers in the region. The three data centers in Boardman and Umatilla correspond to the three availability zones in
AWS Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide d ...
US-West-2 (Oregon) region. Since 2007, Alto Ingredients, formerly known as
Pacific Ethanol The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, has operated an
ethanol plant Ethanol fuel is ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, used as fuel. It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. The first production car running entirely on ethanol was the ...
in Boardman.It can produce up to of ethanol a year from grains. ZeaChem has built a demonstration biorefinery at the Port of Morrow with a capacity of up to of ethanol a year from wood waste. The company hopes to build a much larger commercial refinery with a capacity of annually. However, in April 2013, less than a month after start-up at the demonstration plant, ZeaChem halted production, citing funding problems. The company plans to resume production if financial backing can be found.


Coal export

Ambre Energy, a company based in Australia, has proposed using the Port of Morrow as a transfer point for shipping U.S. coal to Asia. Ambre wants to export up to of coal per year from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. It would ship the coal by train to Boardman, where it would be loaded on barges and hauled down the Columbia River to the
Port of St. Helens The Port of Columbia County (formerly the Port of St. Helens) is the port authority for Columbia County, Oregon, United States. The port is a municipal corporation formed under state law to engage in economic development activities. Under Oregon l ...
. There it would be transferred to ocean-going ships headed for China, South Korea, Japan, and other Asian countries. The Ambre plan has generated controversy among proponents touting economic benefits and opponents fearing environmental damage. After the public-comment period ends on August 12, 2013, the
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is the chief regulatory agency of the state government, government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for protecting and enhancing the state's natural resources and managing sanitary and to ...
will decide whether to grant Ambre's request for permits to proceed. To export coal across Oregon in the way Ambre proposes, the company will also need approval from the
Oregon Department of State Lands The Department of State Lands (DSL), one of the oldest agencies of government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is principally responsible for the management of lands under state ownership, as its name implies. Unlike most other department-level state ...
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.


Transportation

Boardman Airport, owned by the Port of Morrow, is southwest of the city. It is a public airport used mainly for transient and local general aviation. Midcolumbia Bus Company are also in the Boardman area.


References


External links

*
City of Boardman

Entry for Boardman
in the ''
Oregon Blue Book The ''Oregon Blue Book'' is the official directory and fact book for the U.S. state of Oregon prepared by the Oregon Secretary of State and published by the Office of the Secretary's Archives Division. The ''Blue Book'' comes in both print and o ...
'' * {{Authority control Cities in Oregon Cities in Morrow County, Oregon Oregon populated places on the Columbia River Port cities in Oregon Pendleton–Hermiston Micropolitan Statistical Area Populated places established in 1927 1927 establishments in Oregon