Today we drove out to the ghost town of Richmond, which was founded about 1899 and mostly abandoned by 1960. My great-great grandfather John Kent Trent built this house, and his descendants lived in it until the early 1980s.
The house and most of the remaining buildings (all four of them) are on private property now, so we couldn't get any closer. A very friendly horse was guarding the gate.
Richmond is in Wheeler County, where population density measures less than one person per square mile. Why the Trents wanted to move out there is a mystery.
We stopped in Mitchell, the last real town before Richmond, for lunch. Its population in 2010 was 130.
For such a little town, it had a pretty nice park a very short walk from the cafe. The poor kids spent so much of this day in the car, driving up and down hills, so we were glad they had some time to play.
Bridge Creek is usually 12 inches deep or less in the summer, but three times in the town's history a flash flood along the creek has destroyed the lower town.
1 comment:
John Trent was my maternal grandfather..He and his wife Emma,built the house as a stage stop,between The Dalles and Grant county..They just about had it finished when the flood came and washed the town away..Several of my brothers was born in that house and raised in that house..About 1934 Dad and Mom moved to Mitchell where myself and a younger sister was born..When I was able and could drive,I loved to get in the car and drive over there to just look around..Several membeers and relatives are buried in the cemetery there..I'd go clean their graves and put fresh flowers out..We even have gr.gr. grandparents buried there,as well as many aunts,uncles and cousins..Hope you can come back again before long,I can at least show you pictures..Sorry I missed meeting you and the family on this trip..aunt dorene
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