unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
, United States. It is approximately northwest of Ione, on
Oregon Route 74
Oregon Route 74 is an Oregon, U.S. state highway
A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained ...
. The
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...
crossed Willow Creek here, and it was once an important
stagecoach
A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
stop.
Cecil was the name of a railroad station on the Heppner Branch of the
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...
railroad. In 1867, a post office named "Cecils" was established a mile south of the station; it ran until 1870. Cecil post office was established in 1902 and closed in 1974. The Cecil family, including William Cecil, a pioneer of 1862, owned large amounts of land in the area and donated the site for the post office.
In 1940, Cecil had a population of 15. As of 1993, Cecil had a store and gas station. The store is no longer operating. In 1993, the Union Pacific Railroad filed for abandonment of the Heppner Branch. The last train ran on the line on June 30, 1994, and all traces of the line including bridges, tracks, and depots were gone by August 1994.