Rural Oregon Community Happy With Response : Tiny Condon Beats Bushes for Residents

Folks from Japan to Virginia are filling the mailboxes at City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce and the local newspaper as they respond to this farm town’s ads for “a few good residents.”

The northern Oregon town made news last month when the Chamber of Commerce, worried about a population that has shrunk from nearly 1,000 to about 700, put ads in the Los Angeles Times and the Oregonian of Portland.

The ads read: “Upbeat Eastern Oregon community is looking for a few good residents. Safety, inexpensive housing, good schools and services, recreation opportunities.”

Nearly 200 calls and letters had been received by Monday.

“It’s been unbelievable,” City Administrator Bonnie Parker said. “The phones have been crazy as well as the mail. It’s pretty neat to see that people are interested in living here.”

Some of the responses were as concise as the ad.

Replied Al Seidner of Desert Hot Springs, Calif.: “Have good income. Have car, and fishing rod. Can move.”

Most letters have come from the Northwest and California. Others came from big cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston.

The letter writers have asked lots of questions about Condon: How hot it gets in the summer, how cold in the winter, is there a decent mobile home park, where is the nearest veterinarian--and whether a home can be bought for less than $10,000.

Some say they long to return to a rural community like the ones they grew up in.

“To put it simply, I’m homesick for the wide open spaces, small towns and most of all the West,” lamented Joan Lohrenz of Hixon, Tenn., who read about Condon in the Chattanooga News-Free Press.

Others tried to market themselves, as if residency might be subject to a competition.

“I am very quiet,” a Lynnwood, Wash., man said.

If nothing else, Condon’s efforts will reap a small tourism boom.

“There are people driving around town now,” Parker said. “You see probably three or four cars a day. You can spot a stranger around here, you know.”