Josiah Dean enjoys making jokes about owning both the greatest and worst hotel in Dufur.
This is because there are only 600 hotels in Dufur, and the Balch Hotel is the sole one.
The Balch Hotel, located 15 miles south of The Dalles and roughly 100 miles east of Portland, is a weekend getaway with stunning views of Mount Hood and historic accents.
According to Dean, we’re essentially where Oregon’s high deserts meet the gorge. This is where wheat country is located. We are both in the center of everything and in the midst of nowhere, right close to the Columbia Gorge.
Charles P. Balch, a rancher and pharmacist who arrived in Oregon from Wisconsin in 1883 and lived in Dufur, where he married the town’s founder’s daughter, constructed the hotel.
The highest structure in Dufur, excluding the grain elevator, is the three-story Balch Hotel, which was built in 1907 and opened in January 1908.
In expectation of a boon that never came, it was constructed after the Great Southern Railroad connected Dufur to the Dalles in 1905.
According to Dean, they planned to turn Dufur into one of the West Coast’s major transit hubs. Those (railroad) developers ran out of money after traveling as far as Friend, which is roughly ten miles away from here.
The hotel, however, stayed. It continued to function during the Great Depression and until the 1940s, when it changed its focus to more of a boarding house before becoming a private home.
After Howard and Pat Green purchased the Balch Hotel in 1988, it reopened to visitors in 1991. It was a labor of passion for the Greens, who had operated a construction company, to undertake a historic restoration. They put the Balch on the National Register of Historic Places, repaired the woodwork and original transom windows above each bedroom door, and modernized the hotel’s plumbing and electrical systems.
There were just 20 rooms available for rent after several of the rooms were turned into bathrooms during the renovation. These days, visitors can select between rooms that use the common bathrooms on each floor or suites with private bathrooms.
The Balch was purchased by Jeff and Samantha Irwin in 2006, who then remarketed it as a wedding venue. The hotel can be booked for special gatherings or weddings on its little more than one acre of beautiful grounds.
Josiah Dean and Claire Sierra purchased the motel from the Irwins ten years ago. Having managed the Paradise Inn at Mount Rainier National Park and the Chateau at the Oregon Caves, Dean has an experience in hospitality.
Sierra owns a wellness spa on the second floor of the hotel that provides facials, Reiki, and other wellness treatments including aromatherapy, meditation, and crystals.
Bistro 1907, a tiny eatery and bar in the back of the hotel, with a short menu of mostly locally based dishes. Although all overnight visitors receive a complimentary breakfast there, it is only available for dinner on weekends throughout the winter.
In addition to being the slow season, winter has the advantage of possibly having an entire Edwardian-era hotel to yourself, as was the case on the reporter’s most recent trip.
According to Dean, one of the common responses from visitors to Dufur is “nothing.”
There are no TVs or phones in the rooms, but there is wifi. The parlor can be a peaceful spot to unwind and read. Meditation and soaking up some of the winter sunlight—which can be hard to come by in the rainy Willamette Valley—can be done in the peaceful garden area.
However, there are lots of things to do in the area for those who are searching.
Dufur is located 15 miles west of the Mount Hood National Forest.Billy Bob Sno-Park, which is only reachable from the Dufur side of the mountain, provides areas for hiking in the summer and cross-country skiing or snowmobiling in the winter.The town of Maupin, a well-known river rafting location along the Deschutes River, is roughly 30 miles south of Dufur, while White River Falls State Park is only 20 miles south.
Gravel riding, a type of cycling that falls somewhere between road biking and mountain biking, is also known to be excellent on the rural roads surrounding Dufur. In April, the town will host the George Gravelride.
The Dufur Market, run by health food wholesaler Azure Standard, is located in the town of Dufur itself. There, customers can discover fresh baked goods, organic fruit and delicacies, and The Forge Coffee Shop. Based in DufurIn the market, Shadowbuck Winery also runs a tiny tasting area.
According to Dean, it’s less than two hours from Portland, but once you arrive, it feels like a world apart.
IF YOU GO: 40 S. Heimrich St. in Dufur is the address of the Balch Hotel. For reservations or other details on forthcoming promotions, visitbalchhotel.com or give 541-467-2277 a call.
Here is Oregon and The Oregonian/OregonLive are covered by Samantha Swindler. You may reach her at oregonian.com/sswindler.
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