It's cherry season in the valley! Our home has a rich history of agricultural use and although we've developed the land a lot, there's still pockets of "wild" fruit trees and pockets of orchards.

Now the seat of Union County, La Grande is nestled in the eastern foothills of the Blue Mountains. It was primarily used for agriculture after white settlers, traveling the oregon trail, chose to settle in the valley.

For thousands of years, Native Americans were drawn to the Grande Ronde Valley to hunt, gather food, and graze their horses. The abundant resources drew several different, often warring, tribes. The valley was an important rendezvous site for Native people of the southern Columbia Plateau. Umatilla, Nez Perce, Cayuse, and others traveled to the valley in the summer to harvest camas root and other plants and to hunt, fish, and trade.  For a few months during the summer, the Nez Perce, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Shoshone tribes lived together in harmony in what they called “The Valley of Peace.”

Although white settlers passed through the valley while en route along the Oregon Trail in the early 1840s, few were willing to be deterred from their Willamette Valley goal. But early in the 1860s, many settlers took notice of the Grande Ronde Valley’s abundant resources, establishing farms, and settlements. With the discovery of gold, the valley prospered and settlements thrived. Once part of a great inland lake, the Grande Ronde Valley floor is rich in nutrients, giving rise to Union County’s prosperous agricultural industry.

The Grande Ronde Valley had long been a waypoint along the Oregon Trail. It was decided to use "La Grande" to describe the area's scenic splendor. La Grande grew rapidly during the late 1860s and early 1870s, partially because of the region's many gold mines and the valley's agricultural capabilities. La Grande had a factory for processing sugar beets into raw sugar. R. Doerstling, the superintendent of the factory in 1899, reported seeing a Native American teepee built out of used cloth filters from the factory.

Learn more below🔽

http://www.oregongenealogy.com/union/lagrande.htm

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