In 2000 Shaniko Hotel came up for sale down the road from R2 Ranch owned by Robert Pamplin Jr., longtime business magnate at the helm of sprawling investments from gravel to wineries. As a historic preservationist, Pamplin’s interest was piqued. “He started reading up on the history and bought the hotel. Then he started buying up other properties that came for sale — over half of the real estate in Shaniko — like the ice cream parlor, wool barn, RV park,” says Craig Nichols, who has worked for Pamplin at R2 for 25 years. For seven years, Pamplin, who has recently been in the news for a pension- plan controversy and the decline of his business empire, worked in good faith to revitalize Shaniko. However, the relationship eventually soured. Conflict arose, as it often does in Central Oregon, over water. In 2008 the Shaniko City Council and the State of Oregon denied Pamplin an easement for a well on one of his lots. He wanted a more reliable source of water for his properties. In response, he shut down the hotel, cafe and RV park and abandoned plans to build housing for tourism workers. For 15 years he wouldn’t sell or lease the hotel. It was a huge blow to a town that was already teetering. It wasn’t until August 2023 that Shaniko Hotel and the RV park reopened. Pamplin agreed to let Scott Marrs, the fire chief of South Wasco Fire & Rescue Association, manage it on a volunteer basis, allowing the profits to funnel to the fire and rescue organization, which provides protection for Pamplin’s R2 Ranch and surrounding areas. This spring Pamplin’s 539-acre ranch was listed for sale. On it sits a 100-year-old, six-bedroom, five-bathroom house filled with Western movie memorabilia and Western-style decor. The property was originally listed at $4 million; by the end of July, the asking price was $2 million. By early September, when this issue went to press, the listing had been removed. Listing agent Joe McDonald told Oregon Business the property had not been sold but had been removed from the market. Per the listing, Pamplin signed the listing contract on May 28, just days before it was announced that Pamplin Media Group — which owned 25 newspapers in Oregon—had been sold to Mississippi-based Carpenter Media Group, which owns 180 publications in the U.S. and Canada. The June press release announcing the sale of the newspapers cited Pamplin’s age and health as the primary drivers for the sale. Pamplin, who is 82, declined to be interviewed for this story, but Nichols told OB in June that about half the land Pamplin owns in the area — about 40,000 acres of 80,000 — was for sale. The cattle were also sold this spring, and the ranch is no longer an active farming operation. In September Nichols said the property has been appraised at a “pretty high” value — between $60 and $70 million — and Pamplin has spoken with real estate agents about the property, but is “not in any big rush” to sell the property as he negotiates with the Department of Labor about the pension plan. — Ellee Thalheimer Pamplin’s Shaniko JASON E. KAPLAN COURTESY OF FLEXMLS.COM Robert Pamplin Jr. bought the Shaniko Hotel in 2000. Pamplin’s ranch property 49
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