CONDON — The wheat fields of north-central Oregon do not attract a lot of travelers. The back roads of Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam and Morrow counties are plied by as many farm vehicles as standard passenger cars. Even well-maintained state highways — such as Route 216 from Tygh Valley to Grass Valley, or Route 206 from Wasco via Condon to Heppner — see more head of cattle than human beings.

Central Oregon travelers may pass through some of the tiny towns as they drive north on U.S. highways 97 and 197 toward the Columbia River Gorge, but they rarely stop except for gas (where it’s available) or a quick bite to eat.

That is exactly what attracted me to explore this region on a two-day drive late last month. I was curious what I would find in farming communities like Dufur, not to mention the county seats of Moro, Condon and Heppner, every one of them smaller than Sisters.

The drive was a delight. River crossings, historical museums, wind farms, even a virtual ghost town provided ample diversion. In Condon, the Gilliam County seat of 770 people, I stayed and dined in what is certainly the finest hotel and restaurant for 70 miles in any direction.

I began my drive off the beaten track by taking the paved but winding road through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation north of Madras. I picked up state Highway 216 at Wapinitia. My first stop, after a wave at Tygh Valley, was Dufur.

Dufur and Tygh Valley

“Ask not what you can do for Dufur but what Dufur can do for you.”

That’s the slogan of the newly formed Dufur Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. The group promotes a town of about 600 people that was incorporated in 1893 (12 years before Bend) and named for the Dufur brothers, who had established a 600-acre cattle ranch at this location in 1859. Located just 14 miles uphill from The Dalles, it has some fruit orchards, but wheat farming sustains the local economy.

The year’s big event is the Dufur Threshing Bee, held on the second full weekend of August. The Dufur Historical Society insists this is the only threshing event in the United States to use horse-drawn machinery, exhibiting every step of the 19th-century process, from cutting standing wheat to sewing up bags for shipping. For a more “modern” touch, there’s also a steam tractor powering a belt-driven threshing machine.

A U.S. Highway 197 bypass takes traffic around the little community, but a detour pays dividends. A highlight is the Dufur Living History Museum, which during the summer entertains children and adults alike with demonstrations of blacksmithing, milling, weaving and other pioneer crafts. A historic log cabin contains the core exhibits. Though closed for the season when I visited, the grounds remain open for exploration.

Just down the street is the Historic Balch Hotel, built of bricks in 1907. It was purchased in 2006 by Jeff and Samantha Irwin, of Hood River, who continued an ongoing restoration and opened the old hotel in July 2007 (its 100th birthday) as a 19-room bed-and-breakfast inn. With no TVs, radios or telephones, it’s truly a getaway, although it does have wireless Internet. Dinners are catered on request.

Seventeen miles south, Tygh Valley’s 200-odd citizens live along the White River where it flows off Mount Hood. East from here, Highway 216 follows the route of the pioneer Barlow Road past White River Falls. A short detour took me to a viewpoint over the powerful 90-foot falls, which provided hydroelectric power to Wasco and Sherman counties from 1910 to 1960.

The White River flows into the Lower Deschutes a couple of miles below the falls. The highway, meanwhile, descends to Sherar’s Bridge, a Deschutes River crossing noted by pioneer trailblazer Peter Skene Ogden as early as 1826. A formal bridge was constructed in 1860, a post office was established nearby in 1868 and a 13-room hotel was built by Joseph Sherar in 1871. The hotel burned down in 1940, and today there are no structures, although American Indians often may be seen engaging in traditional spearfishing for trout, salmon and steelhead in the river just above the crossing.

Grass Valley and Moro

Highway 216 flows into U.S. Highway 97 at Grass Valley, a village of 150 whose landmark building is an abandoned Methodist church that has not held a service since 1946. Although restoration is planned, the wood-frame building is now merely a windowless shell.

When Grass Valley was incorporated in 1900, according to Lewis McArthur’s “Oregon Geographic Names,” pioneer settlers claimed the region’s rye grass was so tall, it towered over a man’s head even when he was on horseback. Today, the grain remains tall, but it’s mainly wheat.

Grass Valley is 10 miles south of Moro, the smallest county seat in Oregon with just 320 citizens. Historians say it was first settled in 1868; a trading post was established in 1879, and incorporation came 20 years later. A hilltop courthouse built in 1899 is still in use today.

The best reason for a traveler to stop in Moro is to visit the Sherman County Historical Museum. Open from May 1 through the end of October, it’s a well-organized, volunteer-operated museum that has been honored by a national museum organization for its efforts: Incredibly, about 5 percent of the 2,000 residents of Sherman County donate time here.

There are three separate exhibit areas. My favorite was “Oregon Trails, Rails and Roads,” which depicted early American Indian and pioneer history and flowed into “Wheat Through the Ages.” The Oregon Wheat Growers League was established in Moro in 1926 as the first such organization in the state, and today, I learned, wheat is Oregon’s No. 1 cash crop. Oregon produces 10 percent of America’s wheat, and 90 percent of that grain is exported, according to this exhibit.

I took a little more time to enjoy displays of dryland farm equipment and other pioneer farming tools, then continued my drive through the Columbia Plateau wheat country. Along with Umatilla County, where Pendleton is located, the four counties I was traveling through produce by far the most wheat in Oregon. A “summer fallow” agricultural system is employed, with land for soft-white wheat (mainly used for pocket breads or flatbreads, crackers, pastries and noodles) being cropped every other year to conserve moisture.

As I drove east on Monkland Road, to join state Highway 206 a few miles southeast of Wasco, I admired the golden waves of grain that cloaked the rolling hills. But as I neared the valley of the John Day River, I found something considerably more high-tech sharing the landscape.

The drive into Condon

Wind farming is becoming big business in north-central Oregon. Picking up the diffuse winds of the Columbia River, 400-foot-tall turbines rise above the wheat fields. Located climatically at a point where desert heat collides with cooler intermountain breezes, these turbines supply clean energy to Bonneville Power and utility companies in Portland and Eugene.

On both sides of the John Day River crossing at Cottonwood Canyon — 40 miles upstream of its confluence with the Columbia — the giant windmills utterly dominated the landscape. I imagined a 21st-century Don Quixote, accompanied by faithful Sancho Panza, waving a giant sword at these intruders. In fact, they are the perfect complement to grain in this economy. The acreage they require is minimal, as they rise directly out of the fields, allowing threshing machines to harvest wheat within a few yards of their foundations.

Today, many Sherman and Gilliam County ranchers are being convinced to share their land with wind-farm operations. It’s a win-win situation, said Connie Ramsay, who lives on a family ranch a half hour’s drive north of Condon. “Even my father, who is 78, sees the wisdom of it,” she told me, “and he’s very conservative about everything.”

No doubt that is why, in the course of my drive, I passed numerous new turbines being raised above the landscape. The pinwheels look even larger when they sit on the ground beside the towers.

Condon is between Fossil and Arlington, at the crossroads of state highways 206 and 19. Originally named Summit Springs, it was founded in 1906 and was a childhood home of Dr. Linus Pauling (1901-1994), the two-time Nobel Prize winning chemist and peace activist. The small municipal airport is named Pauling Field in his honor.

The highlight of Condon is the Hotel Condon, an elegant milestone when it was built in 1920. After World War II, it fell on hard times, with 14 different owners between 1947 and 1990 turning it into apartments upstairs and a series of bars downstairs. At one point, it even contained a pizza parlor and arcade. Closed in the early 1990s, it was rescued in 1999 when a 30-member community group raised more than $600,000 for its renovation. More than 30 local craftsmen dedicated their time to a thorough renovation, completed in late 2001.

Where there once were 42 rooms with shared bathrooms, today there are 18 with full, private baths. My queen room was equipped with flat-screen, cable television and wireless Internet. A light continental breakfast (coffee, juice and scones) is served in the central library each morning.

Stanley’s Steakhouse restaurant and the Sage Lounge, meanwhile, feature custom-made wood furnishings, a restored fireplace framed by stained glass, and other touches worthy of the Roaring ’20s. A professional staff recruited from Redmond offers fine service, and hotel manager Gail Stanfield doubles as the chef. She prepared an excellent New York steak, cooked medium rare to order, with peppercorns and a brandy-cream sauce. Accompanied by a glass of Owen Roe cabernet sauvignon, it was better than I might have dreamed a meal in rural Gilliam County could be.

Across South Main Street from the hotel is Country Flowers, notable for its old-fashioned soda fountain and the only branch of Powell’s Books outside of Portland. It’s a good place to grab a more substantial breakfast than the hotel can offer.

I was disappointed that I didn’t make it up to the Gilliam County Depot Museum Complex, open summer and early fall afternoons only. It features numerous historic buildings relocated to this site, including an 1884 log cabin, an 1890s barber shop, a 1905 railroad station and caboose, and a 1915 schoolhouse.

Heppner and Hardman

Heppner is the geographical and governmental hub of Morrow County, and is dominated by the Morrow (not Moro) County Courthouse, which has been in continuous use for 105 years. Constructed of basalt quarried locally, it sits atop a low bluff. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985; the local chamber of commerce claims it is the most photographed courthouse in Oregon. The interior is rather mundane, but I found it nevertheless worth a brief visit.

Heppner was founded in 1887. With a population of just under 1,500, it is the largest of the communities I visited on my two-day road trip. The downtown commercial center, lining both sides of state Highway 74, is a full three blocks long! I grabbed a turkey sandwich at the deli counter of Heppner Family Foods and spent an hour or so browsing around town.

The main tourist attractions are two jointly operated museums: the Morrow County Heritage Museum and the Morrow County Agricultural Museum. Because they have limited April-to-October hours, I was unable to go inside either, but the exterior of the agricultural museum was fascinating in its own right. A long mural covered the entire western wall of a former granary, outside of which were numerous antique farm machines, including a combine and a steam tractor.

From Heppner, I headed southwest, to return to Bend via state Highway 207 (to Spray and Mitchell) and U.S. Highway 26 (through Prineville). But just 19 miles outside of Heppner, I stumbled upon one of the most fascinating little communities I had seen in two days.

Hardman was settled in the 1870s, and today it’s little more than a ghost town. At least two dozen log and wood-plank buildings are strewn, somewhat haphazardly, across the crest of a windblown ridge near Rock Creek, which flows northwest from the Blue Mountains to the John Day River. A few of the buildings are now the residences of people dedicated to historic preservation.

Originally known as Raw Dog, then Yellow Dog, Hardman flourished from the 1880s until the 1920s, when a railroad was built to Heppner but avoided this settlement. Today, Hardman has a community center on Highway 207, but no services.

I left Hardman in my rear-view mirror and was back in Bend three hours later.

Oregon road trip

• Gas, 448 miles @ $3/gallon $53.76

• Lunch, Dufur Pastime Saloon, Dufur $9.50

• Admission, Sherman County Museum, Moro $3

• Dinner, Stanley’s Steakhouse, Condon $52

• Lodging, Hotel Condon, Condon $105 (including 5% tax)

• Breakfast, Country Flowers, Condon $8

• Lunch, Heppner Family Foods, Heppner $8.63

TOTAL $239.89

If you go

• Condon Chamber of Commerce, 234 Main St., Condon; 541-384-7777, www.discovercondon.com

• Dufur Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. 175 N.E. Third St., Dufur; 541-467-2349, www.dufur.org

• Heppner Chamber of Commerce. 123 N.W. May St., Heppner; 541-676-5536, www.heppner.net

• Sherman County Visitors Association. 500 Court St., Moro; 541-565-3232, www.sherman-county.org

• Historic Balch Hotel. 40 S. Heimrich St., Dufur; 541-467-2277, www.balchhotel.com. Rates from $73

• Hotel Condon. 202 S. Main St., Condon; 541-384-4624, 800-201-6706, www.hotelcondon .com. Rates from $100

• Northwestern Motel. 389 N. Main St., Heppner; 541-676-9167, www.heppnerlodging .com. Rates from $50

• Tall Winds Motel. 301 Main St., Moro. 541-565-3519. Rates from $49.95

• Café Moro. 410 Main St., Moro. 541-565-3716. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Inexpensive.

• Country Flowers. 201 S. Main St., Condon; 541-384-4120. Breakfast and lunch. Inexpensive.

• Dufur Pastime Saloon. 25 S. Heimrich St., Dufur; 541-467-9248. Lunch and dinner. Inexpensive to moderate.

• Heppner Family Foods. 238 N. Main St., Heppner; 541-676-9614. Deli counter. Inexpensive.

• John’s Place. 168 N. Main St., Heppner; 541-676-5017. Dinner. Moderate.

• Stanley’s Steakhouse and Sage Lounge. 202 S. Main St., Condon; 541-384-4624. Lunch and dinner. Moderate to expensive.

• Dufur Historical Society and Living History Museum. Heimrich Street, Dufur; 541-467-2205. Open May to October, noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Monday.

• Gilliam County Depot Museum Complex. State Highway 19 at Burns Park, Condon; 541-384-4233. Open May to October, 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

• Morrow County Agricultural Museum. Riverside Avenue at State Highway 74, Heppner; 541-676-5524. Open April to October, Friday and Saturday.

• Morrow County Heritage Museum. 444 N. Main St., Heppner; 541-656-5524. Open April to October, Tuesday to Saturday.

• Sherman County Historical Museum. 200 Dewey St., Moro; 541-565-3232, www.shermanmuseum.org. Open May 1-Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

Next week: San Francisco’s Chinatown