Blitzen is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in the Catlow Valley of southern

Harney County, Oregon Harney County is one of the List of counties in Oregon, 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 7,495, making it the sixth-least populous county in Oregon. The county seat i ...

History

It appears that at some point a post office named Blitzen was established about 10 miles south of

Narrows A narrows or narrow (used interchangeably but usually in the plural form), is a restricted land or water passage. Most commonly a narrows is a strait, though it can also be a water gap. A narrows may form where a stream passes through a tilte ...

, and named for the

Donner und Blitzen River The Donner und Blitzen River is a river on the eastern Oregon high desert that drains a relatively arid basin, the southern portion of Harney Basin, from roughly 20 to 80 miles (30 to 130 km) south-southeast of Burns including Malheur Nationa ...

, which flowed nearby. Another post office was established in another town called Blitzen on April 10, 1915. A Mr. Stewart served as the first postmaster, and the town's population gradually declined; there were only three families left in Blitzen in 1924. The Blitzen post office continued to operate as a small rural delivery site until it was closed in February 1943.LaLande, Jeff
"Catlow Valley"
''The Oregon Encyclopedia'', Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, 2008. Today, there is no evidence of habitation at any of these sites except at the

of Blitzen, where there are still a few deteriorated buildings at the town site, which is now located on the large Roaring Springs Ranch."Blitzen"
''Burns Times-Herald'', Burns, Oregon, 20 May 1987.

References

Unincorporated communities in Harney County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon Ghost towns in Oregon {{HarneyCountyOR-geo-stub