to the Morrow-Umatilla county line. The office may have been in the two counties at different times but when it was discontinued it certainly was in Morrow County.
AUBURN, Baker County. Gold was found on Griffin Creek in October, 1861, and within a few weeks the eastern Oregon gold rush was in full fever. Thousands of miners and prospectors poured into the Blue Mountains and also into parts of Idaho where there were similar discoveries. A camp sprang up in the Blue Canyon district a little south of Griffin Creek. This camp was about eight miles airline southwest of the present city of Baker, and it rapidly became one of the largest settlements in eastern Oregon. A paragraph from Isaac Hiatt's Thirty-one Years in Baker County, page 30, gives the following account of the founding of the place: "On the 13th of June, 1862, a meeting was called by Wm. H. Packwood, Ed. Cranston, Geo. Hall and others at which time it was resolved to lay out a town to be called Auburn, and the next day a street was located from Freezeout gulch to Blue canon, and building lots taken on each side, and in a short time a number of buildings were put up and Auburn assumed the usual appearance of a new mining town. The diggings in that vicinity were thereafter called the Auburn mines." Many interesting stories have been written about the rise and fall of this camp, which is now not even a ghost town, but the compiler has never seen any information about the reason for the application of the name. Upward of twenty-five places in the United States have been named with the word made famous by Oliver Goldsmith in the first line of his Deserted Village, a name that turned out to be truly prophetic as far as the Oregon camp was concerned. According to Irving L. Rand of Portland there were no buildings left in Auburn, Oregon, in 1945. Many miners came to eastern Oregon from the Sierra Nevada region of California and the compiler is of the opinion that Auburn, Oregon, was named for the well-known California mining town, which was in turn named by miners who came from Auburn, New York. The compiler admits he has no evidence to support this theory but it is pleasing to contemplate. It is a matter of interest that there is a place called Blue Canyon in the Sierra Nevada not very many miles northeast of Auburn, California. There is nothing on modern maps to recall the mining camp of Auburn except the Auburn Ditch now used for irrigation. The post office at Auburn, Oregon, was established November 1, 1862, with William F. McCrary first postmaster. This was the first post office in northeastern Oregon. It was in operation continuously until October 31, 1903. See also under BAKER.
AUDISON CREEK, Wallowa County. This stream empties into Saddle Gulch in township 2 south, range 49 east. It bears the name of George Audison, hunter and trapper, who had a dugout there in the early '80s.
AUDREY, Baker County. Audrey post office was established in March, 1902, and was discontinued in April, 1918. The first postmaster was Lemuel D. King. The writer has been told that the office was named for Audrey King, daughter of the first postmaster. This office was in the extreme southwest corner of township 11 south, range 37 east, on North Fork Burnt River about nine miles southeast of Whitney, at the old King ranch and stage stop. Miss Audrey King married Charles Davidson. She was appointed postmaster at Audrey in August, 1912, after her marriage, and served until the office was discontinued as of April 15,
