Boardman
Gilliam County,
On the River, on the Way
As a youth growing up in southern Oregon I always heard the name Boardman connected with "bombing range." Some things are not worth being famous for. Still when fishing on lake Umatilla it is common to be buzzed by fighter jets at low altitude. A quick tour through the residential area of town (which does not take long) shows mostly new housing. Most of the town relocated in 1960 to escape the rising waters behind the new John Day dam on the Columbia river. The area features huge irrigated farms, a large coal fired electrical generation facility (scheduled for closure by 2020) and the ample water of Lake Umatilla behind the John Day dam.