Shaniko (/ˈʃænɪkoʊ/, SHAN-i-koh) is a city located in Wasco County, Oregon, United States, on U.S. Route 97 and about 8 miles (13 km) north of Antelope.

[7] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.50 square miles (1.29 km2), all of it land.

[3] On the high plateau on which Shaniko was built, the soil is thin and the vegetation sparse, consisting mainly of sagebrush, bunchgrass, and occasional junipers.

[9] Many peaks of the Cascade Range, including Hood, Jefferson, Adams, St. Helens and Rainier, are visible from the city.

[11] Following this road, homesteaders began claiming land in Central Oregon that previously had been fairly inaccessible.

[11] The region served by the city even stretched into Idaho, south to Klamath Falls, Oregon, and beyond, because of rail connections to the main line.

[11] By 1911, the Oregon–Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, another Union Pacific subsidiary, began using an alternate route linking Portland to Bend by way of the Deschutes River canyon.

The new line, advertised as the "direct, quick and natural route",[13] diverted traffic from the Columbia Southern, and Shaniko began to decline.

Jean later became the Mayor of Shaniko and continued to own and operate the renovated hotel until he sold it in July of 2000 to businessman Robert Pamplin Jr.[14] Pamplin purchased the hotel and several other properties in Shaniko with intentions of bringing life back to this once thriving ghost town.

[16] Shaniko attracts ghost town tourists, but a wastewater issue still prevents any large scale tourism efforts from forming.

[17] Local businesses operate seasonally from April to September to accommodate the tourists, including those in "Shaniko Row".