I discovered Dufur about ten years ago. It was new to me, but the little town along Route 197 just south of The Dalles has a long history of agriculture, vintage cars, and those arid landscapes I have come to enjoy. Sure, it has a funny name, but I’ll see that, and raise you Intercourse, PA, and Hoboken, NJ. Take that. Dufur resides in Wasco County, once the largest county in the US, stretching all the way to Wyoming in its prime, way back in 1853. It has been reduced in size during the intervening years, and now boasts as many people as one of the smaller Portland suburbs.
Dufur sits at the confluence between the old and new west. A few miles to the north sits The Dalles, a metropolitan area boasting a busy downtown with wineries, Oregon’s oldest bookstore, Klindt’s, and a smattering of trendy restaurants. To the west is Mount Hood, and to the east and south are many miles of grasslands, tractors, and sagebrush. It’s the kind of place where one can walk into a western movie, if one has the right sense of imagination. Dufur extends well beyond its borders due to being surrounded by unincorporated land. There are roads, and old schoolhouses named after Dufur miles away. Let’s take a look.
©2020 Gary L. Quay
Mt Hood presides over a farm in Dufur, Oregon. Infrared image.
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: 28mm Zeiss Distagon ZF2
©2018 Gary L. Quay
This is from about 3 years ago. 2018 was a productive year for my photography. Having access to all of those wonderfully delapidated houses was especially fun. The Substation Fire, and a few other recent fires burned down a few of these beauties, but I managed to capture them to present here.
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 90mm Tamron Macro
Agricultural landscapes hold a certain we-are-blessed-to-have-food fascination to me. I like old things, and old ways. In my daily life, I work with technologies that I hardly would have dreamed of ten years ago, but I still use an antique, cast iron coffee grinder, use cameras dating back to the mid 1800’s, and have an affinity for the rural and rustic. I grew up in a farming community. The big city is not natural to me, but I have seemed to have thrived there. My photography exhibits the trait that I believe has allowed me to become what I am. It’s that zen I spoke of earlier. Where I am, I am. What I am doing, I am doing. As Ram Das said, “Be here now.”
©2019 Gary L. Quay
The Radiator of a Vintage Chevrolet Dufur Vintage Days, August, 2019. Dufur, Oregon.
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Vintage 85mm Nikkor
©2019 Gary L. Quay
I got to cross an item off of my bucket list when Gaia and I stayed at the Balch Hotel in August 2019. Glen Bledsoe (you can find him on Flickr) and I photographed a wedding at White River Falls in the morning, and then headed over to the Dufur Vintage Days fair in the afternoon. Around nightfall, we heard that there may be a repeat of Friday night’s thunderstorm, and we went out to see if there were pictures to be had. The thunderstorm fizzled, but the hotel did not.
fCamera: NIkon D810
Lens: 24-85mm Nikon
©2019 Gary L. Quay
I took this also during my recent August 2019 trip to Dufur, Oregon with Salem photographer Glen Bledsoe. I very rarely get to photograph true storm lighting during the “Golden Fifteen”, so this was a treat.
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 24-85mm Nikon
©2018 Gary L. Quay
Could use some paint. Really.
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 28-105mm Nikon-D
©2018 Gary L. Quay
Could use some paint. Really.
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 28-105mm Nikon-D
I hope to have more from the area in the near future.
Thanks for looking!
–Gary L. Quay
