Мичелл, Орегон: История и особенности маленького города

Mitchell is a city in Wheeler County, Oregon, United States. The population was 130 at the 2010 census. It was founded in 1873 and was named after John H. Mitchell, a politician. The Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is about 9 mile (14 km) northwest of Mitchell. Mitchell School, a public school with an enrollment of about 70 students, is in Mitchell.

At the request of William "Brawdie" Johnson, a blacksmith, a post office was established at Mitchell in 1873. In 1872 the first school in Wheeler County was established near Mitchell, and in 1874 it was relocated into the town itself.

Since its founding, Mitchell has experienced three catastrophic flash floods along Bridge Creek, which runs through the center of the city. Flooding caused great damage to the city in 1884 and 1904. The third flood occurred on July 13, 1956, shortly after an intense thunderstorm in the hills to the south. Bridge Creek is usually less than deep during July, Total damage from the flood, which also caused extensive damage to crops and roads in a nearby valley, was .

In 2018, a geologist from the University of Oregon found a fossilized toe of a plant eating dinosaur near Mitchell, where the Pacific Ocean coast lay 100 million years ago. This discovery has been billed as the first dinosaur fossil found in Oregon. A competing claim involves fossil fragments of a hadrosaur or duck billed dinosaur found in the Otter Point Formation near the mouth of the Rogue River.

Mitchell, in southwestern Wheeler County, is on U. S. Route 26 just east of its intersection with Oregon Route 207. To the city's south lie the Ochoco Mountains, the source of Bridge Creek. It flows through Mitchell and then north through the Painted Hills to the John Day River. Eroded remnants of ancient stratovolcanoes, once the size of Mount Hood are nearby; these include Black Butte and White Butte, visible from town. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.26 square miles (3 km2), all of it land. Precipitation in the region is limited by the rain shadow effect of the Cascade Range and the Ochoco Mountains to the west. In winter, much of the precipitation arrives as snow.

As of the census of 2010, there were 130 people, 61 households, and 39 families residing in the city. The population density was There were 83 housing units at an average density of The racial makeup of the city was 92.3% White, 0.8% Native American, and 6.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.5% of the population. There were 61 households, of which 18.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.8% were married couples living together, 4.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 8.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.1% were non families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.8% had someone living alone who was age 65 or older. The average household size was 2.13 people and the average family size was 2.56 .

In the novel World War Z, by Max Brooks, the people of Mitchell are almost entirely infected and turned into zombies. Instead of being cleared, the town is sealed and is turned into the K 9 Urban Warfare school, where military dogs are trained with live zombies.