One morning, we walked off the street in downtown Baker City, Oregon into the Geiser Grand Hotel and had a surprisingly good breakfast there.
Instead of the “Gluten Free Oatmeal” from Oregon’s Bob’s Red Mill, I decided to try their “Stone Ground Ten Grain” hot cereal instead. Their menu claimed that this was the hot cereal standard of the whole-grain world, made in Oregon with century-old millstones.
The list of ingredients was impressive: high protein hard red wheat, rye, triticale, oat bran, oats, corn, barley, soy beans, brown rice, millet, and flaxseed. And the large bowl of hot cereal that they placed in front of me was also impressive. It tasted good!
The hotel was built 122 years ago in the gold-mining year 1889 by a Czechoslovakian architect named John Benes. It claimed to have the third elevator west of the Mississippi.
After many years of grandeur, the gold mines closed down and the building fell into disrepair. It closed shortly after the cast from the movie “Paint Your Wagon” stayed there in the summer of 1968. Then, during the years 1993 through 1998 the building was completely restored costing six to seven million dollars. Here are links to a case study done by the National Park Service of Baker City and the rehabilitation of the Geiser Grand Hotel: Baker City page 1, Baker City page 2, Baker City page 3.
Now that I’ve been there and seen the countryside around the Geiser Grand Hotel, I want to watch the movie “Paint Your Wagon” again!
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