Columbia Southern Railway

The company was incorporated on March 5, 1897, and intended to continue beyond Shaniko to Prineville, with a branch to Canyon City.

Operations began October 6, 1897, on 8.5 miles (13.7 km) from Biggs to Wasco, and the line was extended to Moro on January 13, 1899, Grass Valley on March 27, 1900, and Shaniko on May 13, 1900.

[1] The Union Pacific Railroad (UP), owner of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N), which followed the Columbia River through Biggs, gained control of the Columbia Southern in 1905,[citation needed] and leased it to the OR&N on June 30, 1906.

The properties of the OR&N and Columbia Southern Railway were conveyed to new UP subsidiary Oregon–Washington Railroad and Navigation Company on December 23, 1910.

[2] A railway timetable for September 9, 1900, listed station stops for Biggs, Gibsons, Wasco, Klondyke, Summit, Hay Canyon Junction, McDonalds, DeMoss, Moro, Erskineville, Grass Valley, Bourbon, Kent, Wilcox, and Shaniko.