Bingham Springs is an unincorporated community in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States.[1] It is about 8 miles (13 km) east of Gibbon in the Blue Mountains near the Umatilla River.[2]
Bingham Springs was a station and tollgate on the Thomas and Ruckle stagecoach line through the Blue Mountains.[3] The stage house was built in 1864.[3] Alfred B. Meacham operated the station from 1867 to 1868.[3] There was a post office at the locale named "Purdy" from 1881 until 1891, named after one of the early owners of the stage house.[3] Later, the community had a Gibbon mailing address, and today it receives its mail through Adams.
Beginning in the late 19th century, Bingham Springs was the site of a popular hot spring resort.[3] Today the hot mineral water is a feature of the pool at Bar M Ranch, a dude ranch founded in the 1940s that uses the historic stage house as its ranch house.[4] Notable guests of the resort include President Calvin Coolidge and then-Secretary of State Herbert Hoover.[4]
This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22.0 °C). According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bingham Springs has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.[5]
