Shaniko is so close to the 45th parallel – the midway point between the North Pole and the Equator – that if the latitude line were an actual topographic feature, you could see it from the second floor of the hotel.

But it’s not, so you can’t.

What you can see, however, is the old water tower, the old jail and the old schoolhouse. About the only things in Shaniko that aren’t old are the gas station and Booker T. Pannell’s Pontiac Bonneville hearse (and that’s been on the road 35 years).

Shaniko is considered a ghost town, although it never completely died. Today, it relies on its quaint past to keep Highway 97 motorists stopping in.

One hundred and four years ago, a passenger train pulled in to Shaniko for the first time. The view from that train as it approached the tent city (of mostly construction workers) from across the sage flats was probably much the same as it is from the front seat of a Mitsubishi Montero today. Except the buildings were canvas and there were more of them.

The federal census of June 1, 1900, put the population of Shaniko at 172; today there are between 19 and 25 residents, depending on what time of year you’re asking. They are either ranchers, retirees or ghost-town entrepreneurs.

Between 1900 and 1911, the year the Columbia Southern Railway began bypassing Shaniko and a fire destroyed most of the town’s important buildings, the place rocked. Farmers in the area raised bumper crops of wheat and sheep. Warehouses sprang up. City fathers dubbed Shaniko the ”Wool Capital of the World.”

Today Shaniko, which was named after the Native Americans’ pronunciation of early settler August Scherneckau’s name, could very well be the ghost-town capital of Oregon. Businesses such as Jim’s and Anita’s (jewelry and gems), Shaniko Springs Bottled Water Co. (bottled water), the Shaniko Wedding Chapel (weddings) and Pannell’s This Ole House (”If we don’t have it, probably no one has it!!”) capitalize on the town’s hanging-by-a-historic-thread status.

Pannell, a Louisiana native, retired to Shaniko in 1985 for ”the open space and quietness.”

”I didn’t want to be around all the hustle and bustle,” he says from inside his little-of-this, little-of-that shop on the town’s main drag. ”It’s Peyton Place. But that’s anywhere that’s this small.”

Around the corner and up the street, Don ”Brownie” Brown presides over the remodeling of the Shaniko Sage Saloon from a bench out front.

”We’re some of the ghosts,” he jokes, then introduces Debra Holbrook, who along with her husband recently bought the old building.

On the corner, the Shaniko Historic Hotel has been fully restored to its former grandeur. Dorothy and Jean Farrell fell in love with the old hotel and ended up buying it in 1985. They retired from the plumbing business in Salem, moved to Shaniko and went to work. Today, the bed-and- breakfast hotel and restaurant is the centerpiece of Shaniko.

Shaniko also boasts two free museums, the Shaniko Livery Barn, Museum and Wagon Yard and the Shaniko Sage Museum. In addition, there are antique stores, an ice cream parlor, an RV park and a couple of gift shops.

Shaniko is 66 miles northeast of Redmond on Highway 97. It’s on the way to Kent, Grass Valley, Moro and Biggs to the north, Fossil, Spray and Kimberly to the east.

But Shaniko is close enough to be a day-trip destination. Even though it is clear on the other side of the 45th parallel.