Fields, Oregon

Fields is an unincorporated community in Harney County, Oregon, United States. The community is located south of Burns. It is the center of commerce for local ranches and the largest community between Denio, Nevada, to the south, and Frenchglen, Oregon, to the north. The community has a single family-owned retail outlet and restaurant called Fields Station. The radius around that store has below 25 occupants.

Fields is an unincorporated community in Harney County, Oregon, United States. The community is located south of Burns. It is the center of commerce for local ranches and the largest community between Denio, Nevada, to the south, and Frenchglen, Oregon, to the north. The community has a single family-owned retail outlet and restaurant called Fields Station. The radius around that store has below 25 occupants. ==History== In 1881, Charles Fields established a homestead where the community of Fields is located today. Fields built a stagecoach roadhouse to serve the stage route between Winnemucca, Nevada, and Burns. A one-room school was established at the site around 1900¹ with one teacher. Fields sold his business to John Smyth in 1911. The Fields post office was opened two years later. The stone roadhouse was eventually remodeled into a store and restaurant, and is still in use. The original stone horse barn has partly collapsed, but remains in use. Today, the community of Fields consists of a bar, store, cafe, gas station, school, campground, and a few houses. As of 2003, the school has two rooms and two teachers serving kindergarten through eighth grade. Ranching began in the area in 1869 when Whitehorse Ranch was established. The Rose Valley Borax Company processed about of crystallized borax annually from 1892 to 1902. Chinese workers collected alkali formed from evaporating spring water containing 80 parts per million (ppm) borate. ==Climate== Averaging under of precipitation per year, Fields is among the driest places in Oregon. The nearby Alvord Desert may be the driest. Fields, like the Alvord, experiences a continental or "cold" desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWk). ==Economy== The town services cars traveling on the local highway. ==Transportation== some pilots of general aviation aircraft use the area highway as an airport. ==Healthcare== In 1989, Nellie Nix of The Bulletin described the catchment area of Harney District Hospital in Burns as being Harney County. In 2005 Matthew Preusch of The Oregonian, citing the lack of doctors and long distances between the southern part of the county and the hospital, described the southern part of Harney County, which includes Fields, as "the most medically underserved area of all." In 2005, Harney District Hospital provided a traveling doctor in a mobile trailer for southern parts of the county, which included Fields. ==References== ==Further reading==

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