Three Southern Oregon landmarks straddle state borders.
The community of Denio, population 47, has one foot in Harney County, Ore., and another in Humboldt County, Nev. The place takes its name from Aaron Denio, who settled in the area in 1885.
The Denio post office opened in Oregon in 1888, but moved in 1950 to Nevada along with businesses taking advantage of that state’s more liberal drinking and gambling laws.
About 150 miles east of Denio is McDermitt, which sits on the state line dividing Humboldt County, Nev., from Malheur County, Ore.
Originally known as Dugout, McDermitt took its name from Fort McDermitt, established in 1865 to protect an important stagecoach route between Virginia City and Silver City, Idaho. The last census counted 513 residents, 75 percent of them Native Americans.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names also recognizes Hatfield, a junction of three highways, Oregon Route 39 and California Routes 39 and 61, as the third Southern Oregon-Northern California border-line straddle. The closest populated communities are Tulelake, Calif., and Merrill, Ore.
Sources: "Feature Detail Report for: Hatfield." U.S. Board on Geographic Names, U.S. Department of the Interior/U.S. Geological Survey, 19 Jan. 1981, https://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2017; "McDermitt, Nevada-Oregon." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wikemedia project, 7 Feb. 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDermitt,_Nevada%E2%80%93Oregon#History. Accessed 23 Mar. 2017; "Denio, Nevada." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wikimedia project, 17 Mar. 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denio%2C_Nevada#History. Accessed 23 Mar. 2017.
