"Twenty-seven acres of ground, immediately back of the Mosier depot has been laid off for a town site. It comprises seventeen blocks with some fractional blocks, in lots 50x100 feet each. The Holmes Mercantile Co., are now constructing a building for the accomodation of a general merchandise store. A fruit dryer will be erected by the same company in time to handle the present season's fruit. The Holmes company expect to be ready for business by the first of June."


Source:    "The Dalles Daily Chronicle", May 24, 1892, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, 2017.

Jefferson Mosier stated of Mosier in a 1904 Times-Mountaineer, the same year he constructed his fine Queen Anne residence, that the "town of Mosier is showing a good and healthy growth this year. During the coming summer there will be a number of buildings erected, including a hotel, store, hall, and several residences." ...

The population increased in size by five times, from approximately 100 in 1908 to 500 in 1914. In 1914 the town was incorporated and a Mosier directory published the same year boated of Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Adventist and Christian churches, a bank, a newspaper, a livery, a post office, an hotel, two sawmills, two planning mills, a box factory, a dentist, "an usual number of store", a blacksmith and a city school. ...

The town continued to proper until a disasterous fire occurred November 26, 1919. The fire rapidly spread through the business district, destroying one half of the structures. Two hundred men were called to help control the blaze. ...

The town never truly recovered, the population dwindling from 500 in 1919 to 250 in 1921. Throughout the years, Mosier has maintained a stabile population and its current population listed at 340 (1990). The area is still an important fruit porducing area and in recent years has benefitted from the influx of sail boarders and associated industries."


Source:    U.S. National Register of Historic Places Mosier House Nomination Form, 1990, #90000286.

At the instigation of the club the Mosier citizens are building a public wharf, at which 35 men have been at work. About two miles of highway, known as the Mayerdale road, has been completed just east of the city. It is possible that this macadamized roadway will eventually form a link of the Columbia Highway in Wasco County.

Building, too, is booming in Mosier this Summer. Three new buildings are rising, one of which is a brick structure, the new home of the Mosier Bank."


Source:    "Sunday Oregonian", August 30, 1914, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, 2017.

"MOSIER, 118.1 m. (95 alt., 192 pop.), at the confluence of Mosier Creek and the Columbia River, is in a small fruit growing section well known for its apple cider. The MOSIER TUNNELS, 119.5 m., one 261 feet and the other 60 feet long, often referred to as the Twin Tunnels, penetrate a promontory more than 250 feet above the river. West of this point the contrast between the barren, semi desert contours of eastern Oregon and the lushness of the Pacific Slope becomes apparent. "

"At Mosier, Friday afternoon Oct. 5th, 1894, at 1:15 Jonah Harrison Mosier, aged 73 years 6 months and 25 days. Funeral in Mosier cemetery Monday morning at 10 o'clock under the direction of the Masonic Fraternity.

Jonah Harrison Mosier was born in Maryland March 10th, 1821, and was therefore 73 years old. While yet an infant his family emigrated to Pennsylvania and successively afterward to Iowa and Wisconsin. In the latter named state, at Smithsville, he was married in 1846 to Jane Rollins. In 1849 he moved to California, and being a carpenter by trade built several houses both in San Francisco and the state capital. ...

Later he left California for his former home in Missouri, but like all others who have had a taste of western life, he soon tired of his old surroundings, and in 1853 bade farewell forever to Missouri, removing directly to The Dalles, Oregon. He, with Col. Gates and Judge Laughlin (father of Frank J. Laughlin) first platted the city of The Dalles. Soon thereafter Mr. Mosier was again busy with his hammer and saw and built the first business houses of the city. In the spring of 1855 he settled at Mosier, where he has resided ever since. His pursuits since then were varied. In 1855 he erected a sawmill, which is believed to have been the first operated in Wasco county. He also drove cattle to the mines, and himself owned large bands. He had an occasional brush with Indians, and on one occasion nearly met his death while rowing a large sail boat up the river during a comparative calm. ... More than once Mr. Mosier, with his family, has been compelled to temporarily abandon his place in the night, being threatened by predatory Indians. But though courageous and resolute, he never retaliated in kind, depending more upon kindheartedness and inoffensive conduct toward his copper-hued bretheren than the modern weapons of offense and defense. In 1876 Mr. Mosier served the state with dignity and honor in the legislature.

His wife died in 1865, after bearing seven children ... In 1866 he married Mrs. Martha J. Lewis. Two children were the fruits of the latter marriage ...

Mr. Moser has been quite ill since the latter part of June ... The creek he settled and the town he located justly bear the name of its locally illustrious founder, all now given to history and memory in minds of men. He professed religion a short time before his death, and sustained by its consolations and an indomitable will, he bore his sufferings uncomplainingly to the end."


Source:    "The Dalles Daily Chronicle, October 6, 1894, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University or Oregon Libraries, 2016.

"Residents of Mosier have always welcomed travelers -- even as far back as 1854, when Jonah H. Mosier settled here on a donation land claim. Mosier, a cabinetmaker by trade, had made the rugged trip west twice -- to California in 1849, and again to Oregon in 1853. Mosier and his wife operated an impromptu stage station, catering to the hundreds of Oregon Trail emigrants who streamed down the Gorge on their way to the Willamette Valley.

The railroad arrived in 1882 and sparked a real estate boom as settlers, drawn by the case of transportation and by reports of idea apple-growing conditions, queued up to purchase land. As it turned out, cherries were far more suitable for the area's soil -- but it would take many years for growers to realize this -- and even more years for them to switch crops.

Mosier got another infusion of industry with the arrival of the Columbia River Highway in 1921. Roadhouses, restaurants, and service stations lined the scenic road where it passed through town, and the hills echoed with the sputter and cough of touring cars on their way to or from The Dalles."


Source:    Mosier information sign, Mosier, Oregon, visited June 2009.

Trail Length: 3.5 miles out and back, including the HWY 30 walk.
Difficulty: Moderate (includes stair sections)

The Mosier Plateau Trail was developed by the Frineds of the Columbia Gorge in collaboration with the City of Mosier.

This trail is the first of the Gorge Towns To Trails, a comprehensive trail system that wraps around the Columbia Gorge, linking communities with recreation and enhancing community downtown vitality.

CITY OF MOSIER
small enough to make a difference


Source:    Information Sign, Mosier, Oregon, visited March 2016.