Ghost town of Cabell City, Oregon

Ghost town of Cabell City, Oregon

I’m not convinced that Cabell City was ever a “real” city in the traditional sense, at least, it never had a post office that I can find information about. It is pretty obvious that at a minimum it was a fairly decent sized gold mining camp though. Oregon Geographic Names says that Fred E. and John B. Cabell located the La Bellevue Mine nearby. Mining cars most likely came from the mine to the mill here to process the stone and extract gold.

The “city” as it is is a bit hard to find physically, but the location is easily viewable on Google Maps. After driving National Forest Develop Road 7335, there is a gate on the left hand side that says “Please do not block.” You have to walk up the road to see a sign that says “Cabell Cemetery 100 Yards.”

If you look the way of the arrow, you’ll see this bridge. Following the path takes you up to a small fenced off (by the U.S. Forest Service,) graveyard. Only one grave marker remains, but according to the USFS, Fred Cabell, his wife Johanna, and their eight year old daughter are all buried here. Only Johanna’s grave seems to still be marked with a wooden marker which is nearly impossible to read.

Following the original road, someone’s trailer is parked on the right hand side. No one was at home when I came through. A few yards past that is the main part of the town. Electricity still seems to be in the area, and several of the buildings were wired, including a couple of sheds. According to Brian894x4.com there are several buildings in the area. I was only able to find two small sheds, the ore processing building and what looks like a house.

I didn’t have a lot of time to really explore as it wasn’t too long until dark, but there were several tantalizing trails in the area obviously created by 4×4 ATV vehicles. Perhaps one or two of them would have led off to another building or two.