Farms have grown larger, less numerous, and more expensive since World War II. Timber declined, though government work and manufacturing increased. In general, northeastern Oregon did not share much of Oregon’s late-twentieth-century prosperity. Latino settlement continued to grow, as did white residents’ conservatism.
Big Farms, Big Business, Big Government:
The trend toward larger and more capital-intensive farms in northeastern Oregon’s wheat belt accelerated after World War II.
Urban Growth: Ontario and Hermiston:
The populations in both Hermiston and Ontario have grown considerably in the last thirty years.
Going and Coming:
In the decades after the war, thousands of immigrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America made their way to the fields of Malheur, Umatilla, and Morrow counties.
Women, Counterculture:
As with other social indicators, the region’s cultural landscape has undergone considerable change in recent decades.
Tradition in Culture and Politics:
Tradition plays an integral part in many of the region’s cultural celebrations.
Epilogue:
The region’s culture of individualism often seems at odds with a post-modern world defined by hyper-technology, multi-national corporations, and mobile capital.
