He died in 1861 while leading a charge of 1,700 Union Army soldiers up a ridge at Ball's Bluff, Virginia, during the American Civil War.

[9] The establishment of the Oregon Lumber Company by Charles W. Nibley, the creation of a lumber mill by David Eccles on the North Powder River, and the purchase of sugar beet farms led to the migration of Latter-day Saint families to the Baker area.

[12] One of its former councilors, Adam Nilsson, who also served for the Baker City Public Arts Commission,[13] was charged with criminal mischief for graffiti on August 1, 2017, while holding office.

A police officer made connections through the tag "Provolotus" which has been found in graffiti complaints as well as on Nilsson's Instagram profile.

[14][15] The graffiti was on a Baker County owned property when Nilsson and his friend Ashley E. Schroder were cited.

[20] Before resigning, the three remaining city councilors in September made an attempt to appoint new people to fill the vacancies but they were not able to satisfy quorum requirements, after which they resigned in an attempt to force a special election but Oregon state law requires the vacancies to be filled by the county commissioners.

[22] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total land area of 7.16 square miles (18.54 km2).

Baker City has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), with a large diurnal temperature variation most of the year, peaking at 39.3 °F (21.8 °C) in August.

Baker City hosts many annual festivals, including the Miners' Jubilee on the third weekend of July, which celebrates the mining history of the area and the filming of the 1969 Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood musical comedy Paint Your Wagon in the city.

The city hall, county courthouse, the former post office, former library, former social clubs, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and an Episcopal Church are among notable buildings within the district.

[31] Baker City Tower, a nine-story structure in the historic district, is the tallest building east of the Cascade Range in Oregon.

[33] The concrete Art Deco structure features terracotta eagles at each ground-floor entrance and is topped by an octagonal observation center with an eight-sided hip roof and a flagpole.

[32] Also in the historic district is the Geiser Grand Hotel, a three-story, stucco-clad, brick structure that at the time of its opening in 1889 had plate glass windows, electric lights, baths, an elevator, and a dining room that seated 200.

The exhibits interpret the history of the region including mining, ranching, timber, early Baker City life, Chinese culture, and wildlife.

The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, about 5 miles (8.0 km) east of the city, offers exhibits, theater performances, workshops, and other events and activities related to the Oregon Trail, the ruts of which pass through the center's 500-acre (200 ha) site.

[35] Other points of interest in Baker City include the Crossroads Art Center, in a former Carnegie library;[36] the downtown U.S. Bank, featuring a gold display that includes the Armstrong Nugget, weighing 80.4 ounces (2.28 kg);[37] the Eltrym, Baker City's only movie theater, housed in a single-story structure built in the late 1940s.

Possible forest activities include hiking, biking, winter sports, fishing, hunting, mineral prospecting, camping, wildlife viewing, and other forms of recreation.

[44] Interstate 84 (I-84) runs along the eastern edge of Baker City, while U.S. Route 30 passes through its downtown.

Baker City is served by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP), originally the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company (OR&N).

In 1887, the UP acquired a long-term lease on the OR&N, which connected to existing UP track and the Oregon Short Line at Huntington.

In that same year, Baker School District 5J agreed to support development of a student exchange program between the two communities.