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Welcome to Friend ...

So far, we found very little information about Friend. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Friend to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Friend, please Contact Us.

Friend would have been located within present day Wasco County<2>.

Friend was established in 1903.

The origin (or the toponymy) of Friend: Named after George J. Friend, an early settler in this area who had the first post office on his homestead.

While the community is gone, the present day location for Friend is 2,440 feet [744 m] above sea level.<3> In other words, the altitude of Friend is about ½ mile above sea level.

Time Zone: The area where Friend was located is in the Pacific Time Zone (PST/PDT) and observes daylight saving time

The Area Codes where Friend was located: 541 & 458<4>

Communities Also Named Friend ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 6 communities that are also named Friend - they are located in Colorado, Kansas (2), Nebraska, New York and Virginia.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Friend.

Communities near Friend ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Friend.

  • The Dalles
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • City of The Dalles
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for City of The Dalles came from an uncertain source and they still need to be verified:<6>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for City of The Dalles
    • City of The Dalles is located in Wasco County
  • Dufur
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Maupin
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maupin have been provided by the GNIS.<7> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maupin
    • Maupin is located in Wasco County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 429 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Maupin <5>
  • Pine Hollow
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pine Hollow have been provided by the GNIS.<7> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Hollow
    • Pine Hollow is located in Wasco County
  • Pinehurst
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Tygh Valley
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Wamic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wamic have been provided by the GNIS.<7> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wamic
    • Wamic is located in Wasco County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wamic <5>
  • Nansene
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Nansene. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<8>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nansene
    • Nansene is located in Wasco County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Nansene
    • From Friend to Nansene
  • Boyd ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Friend. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Friend.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Friend. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Friend.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Friend. See our Newspapers Page for Friend.

Adding Friend to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Friend in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Friend was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<9>

X2X - From that list, the Friend post office opened in 1903.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Friend.

The official website for Wasco County: www.co.wasco.or.us/

The official website for State of Oregon: https://www.oregon.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Friend, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>If you're interested in how the shape of Oregon's counties, including Wasco, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<3>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Friend - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<4>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 541 code has been Overlayed with the 458 area code. New phone numbers in the Friend area will be assigned with one of these codes: 541 or 458. As a result, placing a call in the Friend area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<5>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<6>If we found a location and have questions about the accuracy of our information, we will simply say that the marker is 'in the vicinity'. We are not confident about the location and the position of our marker is only a rough guide. If we have too many doubts about the location, we will not include it in our database.
<7>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<8>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<9>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025