A cowboy saved a Wild West ghost town by buying up its City Hall to help get it out of debt.
Ernie Martin bought the property from the Shaniko City Council for $50,000 on Tuesday, the city announced.
The sale ‘stabilized’ the city’s finances ‘after a period of fiscal turbulence,’ the city said in a statement.
‘The building serves as a recognizable part of Shaniko’s historic downtown, and will continue to be maintained and cared for under Mr. Martin’s ownership,’ it said.
Martin’s purchase helped the city of Shaniko repay $37,000 in debts it owed to an insurance provider, a supply company for the water system and for legal fees, The Oregonian reported.
The city of less than 30 people had less than $8,000 in its accounts prior to the sale.
Martin has long invested in Shaniko and traces his roots in the city back to his father.
‘People talk about going to Shaniko and getting bitten by the bug,’ he told The Oregonian. ‘When I’m up in Shaniko, I don’t want to leave.’
Ernie Martin bought the old City Hall from the Shaniko City Council for $50,000 on Tuesday, alleviating the city’s nearly $37,000 of debt
Martin plans on restoring the building to its historic charm and to ‘keep it western and cowboy-like.’
‘[I want to] give people an experience that they cannot get anywhere else,’ he told the paper.
This will also include keeping the three-cell jail in the back open to the public.
‘The jail is one of the coolest things to see if you’ve never been to a ghost town from the 1900s,’ he said. ‘I want to make sure that it’s preserved and that the door is open on that jail for tourism, like it has been for me since I was just a little teeny kid.’
His father also saw the value in the town and began snapping up properties in the 1960s, including the Shaniko Hotel where he worked on antique cars.
He would bring Martin and his twin brother, and they would run around the small city pretending to be cowboys.
After his father passed in 2008, Martin took ownership of his properties. He said he wants to expand his presence in the city by adding glamping wagons on his half-dozen properties in Shaniko for overnight rentals.
‘I hope that we just continue to have more positivity and teamwork up here to make Shaniko amazing,’ he said.
Mayor Mark Haskett held an emergency meeting with the council, where they decided the building had to be sold within 24 hours to pay off the city’s debts
Shaniko, located about 40 miles northeast of Madras, was once a bustling shipping hub for sheep herders and wool buyers. Its population peaked at 600 people in 1910.
Although its heyday has long passed, many of the town’s original Old West buildings still stand and Shaniko now markets itself as the state’s ‘only living ghost town.’
The city held an emergency meeting where the three other councilmen present voted unanimously to authorize the mayor to sell the historic City Hall within 24 hours as a last‑ditch effort to stay solvent.
Its most pressing bill is $10,820 owed to its insurance provider, CIS, due Tuesday, a payment the city must make or lose its coverage.
Losing insurance would force the entire council to resign because they would be personally liable for any lawsuits.
Mayor Mark Haskett emphasized the severity of the situation at the recent council meeting.
‘If we do not pay that on Tuesday, in full, they’re dropping our coverage,’ Haskett said. ‘If we drop coverage, that means everybody on the council will have to quit, because nobody wants to be held personally liable for lawsuits.’
Shaniko has spent years tangled in vicious political feuds and costly legal disputes.
Shaniko is the last Old West ghost towns and Martin wants to keep the authenticity with the half-dozen buildings he owns in the city
Shaniko, located about 40 miles northeast of Madras, was once a bustling shipping hub for sheep herders and wool buyers
At its peak in 1910, the city had a population of 600. Now, the population is under 30
One resident, Zachary Forrest Marquart, has filed at least 14 lawsuits against Shaniko and its officials since 2020 – all dismissed – with the city attorney calling them ‘frivolous’ and intended to harass.
These allegations stemmed from disputes that began when Marquart purchased property in Shaniko in 2021, but claimed the city repeatedly blocked his attempts to build a home.
Defending the cases drained thousands that the tiny city could not afford.
Haskett added that Shaniko’s collapse would betray the people who built the city more than a century ago.
