USA’s uniforms for this summer’s Olympics, which is fitting given the region’s history as a wool-shipping powerhouse. As it turns out, breathing life back into a long-busted ghost town requires a lot of work, even more love — and a little luck. “There’s been a resurgence in Shaniko, with the hotel and gas station reopening,” says Scott Marrs, the manager of Shaniko Hotel. “Cowboy music, bluegrass, and ragtime are a good part of the momentum. But car and quilting groups are also coming. Everyone feeds off of everyone else’s enthusiasm. It feels like it’s snowballing.” The Main Street Approach That isn’t to say the town doesn’t still battle old existential challenges. “Shaniko faces the same dilemma as many rural small towns,” says Amy Hause, deputy director of Rural Development Initiatives, a nonprofit that supports economic development in the Pacific Northwest. “Meager tax base, no housing, no school, no child care, few jobs — it’s a complex nut to crack. But a lot can happen in communities that rebuild from their assets, which is what Shaniko seems like it’s doing with its music and historical appeal.” Hause points out that Shaniko has unassumingly taken the Main Street Approach, a common development framework that encourages incremental, community-based revitalization aimed at rebuilding the downtown main street and supporting local business. Shaniko’s main street — or E Street and 4th Street in the town’s case — is a crossroads in the middle of a sea of grasslands. Snow-peaked Cascades interrupt the distant horizon, and the strong winds smell of sage. If you sneeze while passing through, you might miss the blip of rickety plank boardwalks, century-old wood-framed buildings, and a historic hotel that have somehow survived the collapse of the wool industry and three major fires. Though Robert Pamplin owns the majority of Shaniko’s properties (see sidebar, p. 47), Ernie Martin owns a good deal of the rest, including historic buildings on the main drag, south of Shaniko Hotel. In 2022 Martin put a huge effort into saving and beautifying the dilapidated properties, which his father, Ed Martin, first purchased in the ’60s. Before passing away in 2008, the Salem native managed to save four historic buildings from being destroyed. He was famous for saying “Like hell” when anyone tried to tear something down. Though Pamplin’s Shaniko Hotel is the centerpiece of the town, reflecting early 20th- century Western architecture, kitty corner from it is an example of Martin’s restoration: He refurbished the old schoolhouse coat room, which he calls the “Stage Stop,” and it has gorgeous Western-themed photography on exhibit inside. “My dad was a visionary for Shaniko,” says Martin, who notes that his father organized the first Shaniko Days festival 50 years ago. “I’m proud of what he did here, and I hope I can take it to the next level, maybe build a Conestoga wagon camping park or cowboy cabins. You could say I’ve also been bitten by the Shaniko bug.” Although Martin is working hard on Shaniko’s main drag Shaniko Hotel lobby 46
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