Shaniko is one of those rare places where everyday life is so different from what most of us know, that stepping into town is like crossing a cultural and chronological border. It’s 2006 and it’s not.

At less than 70 miles from Redmond, that’s quite a travel bargain.

I first saw Goldie Roberts sitting outside her End of the Rail Ice Cream Parlor, kibitzing with her neighbors, Margaret Scranton and Mary Wright. Before I could tell her much about myself, I knew she was the mayor of Shaniko, that there was a town council meeting coming up, and we were all invited. Later, I’d learn that her husband, Richard, is the fire chief and head ice cream scooper and that just about everybody in Shaniko is an important civic contributor; it’s all-hands-on-deck in a town of 22.

Inside the ice cream shop, Goldie made us sandwiches, and, when Richard returned from a wholesale supplies run to The Dalles, he served up some kielbasas and counted change for customers, but mostly held forth from behind the counter, a low-key Vaudevillian in faded coveralls (ask him about his dollar bill shtick).

By the time we left the old-time soda shop, more than one of us considered Richard and Goldie our honorary ma and pa.

The ice cream shop is next door to the Historic Shaniko Hotel, an imposing brick edifice that’s been the bulwark of the town since the Columbia Southern Railroad terminated its line in Shaniko and built it for the freighters and stage coach drivers who served the booming wool shipping center in 1901.

We were booked into the recently renovated hotel for the night but found out when we got there that there was a water problem in the building, they’d been able to reach all the guests but us, and the place was temporarily closed. We’d have to find alternate lodging, unless …

Unless we were willing to go without showers and a hot meal at the cafe and drink only the locally bottled water they’d provide and have full run of the antique and possibly haunted hotel because there were no other guests and she, the manager, was headed back to the Willamette Valley for a few days. Here are the keys, don’t forget to lock up when you leave.

I’m not kidding. The calendar said 2006, but my inner clock shouted otherwise.

We drove the eight miles to the cafe in Antelope, a friendly country diner with tasty salmon and lamb dinners and an ambrosial marionberry pie a la mode that defies proper description. And we slept in a large, comfortable room in the hotel, and in the wee hours, I heard footsteps upstairs, but it could have been creaking.

By the light of day, Shaniko is a ”ghost town” that exudes plenty of history along with good, old-fashioned commerce. There’s a rustic, old water tower, a shed full of vintage wagons and automobiles, the original City Hall and jail. And there’s Shaniko’s Old Fashioned Candy Store, where April Pitre offers paying customers a crack at the safe and the goodies inside. And Juniper Creek Gallery and Studio, where artist and proprietor Sandy Cereghino sells original paintings and will deck you out in full Western finery and take your picture if that’s what you feel like doing. And Ghosts From The Past, Margaret Scranton’s brimming antique store, where it’s just as likely you’ll find a book on tractors as a fine old framed photograph of Celilo Falls.

Along the way, I learned that Shaniko, named after a pioneer settler, was a planned town and the center of a prime sheep ranching and shipping region. According to Keith F. May, author of ”Ghosts of Time Past,” Shaniko’s population peaked at 600 in 1910, before the boom began to bust. A fire swept through the business district in 1911, and outside rail competition dried up profits.

After that, people came and went, but mostly went.

Today, Shaniko plays up its ghost town image for tourists while remaining a haven for bedrock, salt-of-the-earth independent types. One of those, Booker T. Pannell, whom I met my last time through in 2002, died in 2005. He used to drive a colorful Pontiac Bonneville hearse, operated a secondhand store and told it like it was. Like the others, Pannell retired to Shaniko for ”the open space and quietness.”

The town will be far from quiet this weekend when Shaniko presents its fourth annual Ragtime and Vintage Music Festival. The fest features a performance by all the artists at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Shaniko Schoolhouse ($5 per person), but individual musicians will perform free throughout Friday and Saturday at the hotel and The Sage Saloon across the street.

Travelers might want to include nearby Maupin on their weekend agenda. The town, about 20 miles north of Shaniko, hosts River Fest on the Deschutes on Saturday. The all-day festival in the Oasis Riverview Campground celebrates the ”wild fish and wild water” of the Lower Deschutes. On tap is live music from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. as well as reduced-rate raft trips, a fly-casting pond and lots of food and vendors, according to coordinator Mark Malefyt.

If You Go

Getting there: From Bend, drive north on U.S. Highway 97 through Madras and on to Shaniko, which is 66 miles northeast of Redmond. The highway runs right by the town.

Contact: Historic Shaniko Hotel, 541-489-3441.