At Flagstaff Hill, near Baker City, 15 miles (24 km) of wagon ruts left by immigrants can still be seen.

In September 1862 the state assembly created Baker County from Wasco.

Auburn was the original county seat; a booming mining town with 5,000 inhabitants.

The population of Baker County nearly quadrupled from 1880 to 1910, largely due to the Sumpter Valley Railroad and several of its spur lines.

The opening of the railroad helped lumber and mining operations develop.

[3] In 1914 Fern Hobbs, on behalf of her employer Governor Oswald West, declared martial law in the Baker County city of Copperfield.

This was the first declaration of martial law in the state since the American Civil War.

From 1915 through 1946, Baker County was represented in the Oregon State Senate by William H. Strayer.

When he died in 1946, Strayer had served in the Oregon legislature longer then than any person in the state's history.

The racial makeup of the county was: 2.34% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Lyndon Johnson in 1964 was the last Democrat to carry the county in a presidential election.

Jimmy Carter in 1976 was the closest any Democrat in a presidential election came to carrying Baker County since, when he lost it by only 34 votes.

With the exhaustion of the gold fields, agriculture, stock raising, logging became the primary economic pursuits.

Portions of Season 11 of Discovery's TV show Gold Rush was filmed in Baker County.