Shaniko, Oregon: How Scherneckau Became Shaniko

Shaniko, Oregon, is a German surname the way people actually said it: August Scherneckau ran a stage stop nearby, and Shaniko was how his name came out. Even the spelling of his name won’t hold still. The state’s 1940 Writers’ Project guide writes Scherneckau, and the Oregon Historical Society’s history gives Schernecknau and Schernacknau.

The stage stop at Cross Hollows

Scherneckau was a German immigrant. According to the Oregon History Project, he and his family settled near Cross Hollows in 1874, at a stop on the stagecoach line from The Dalles to Canyon City. They ran that stage stop for about ten years before moving on. That 1940 guide puts it a little differently: his ranch house “was a station on the old stage route from The Dalles to central Oregon.”

Naming a railroad town after a stagecoach man

Later, a group of local businessmen and farmers started planning a new town on the proposed Columbia Southern rail line into central Oregon. They put it on the hill above Cross Hollows, and they decided the new town should be called Shaniko, which the Oregon History Project calls “a common pronunciation” of the old station keeper’s name. The 1940 guide adds a detail of its own: the name Shaniko was what “the Indians” called him.

That’s the whole trick of the name. Nobody invented a word: when you read Shaniko, you’re reading a surname spelled the way it sounded.

Wool, a hotel and a dismantled line

The first train pulled into Shaniko in May 1900. The town quickly became a trade center for wool from central and eastern Oregon, and it got called the “Wool Capital of the World,” the society’s history says. By 1940 the Oregon guide still described it as the end of the Biggs-Shaniko branch of the Union Pacific, with grain warehouses, corrals and loading chutes.

The boom had a second act. When railroad builders raced each other up the Deschutes River in 1909, Shaniko became their construction headquarters, and its two-story brick hotel, by the guide’s account, was the center of the activity. You can still see the old Shaniko Hotel in the photo below. On the government’s 1953 map, though, the line running into Shaniko is already labeled “Dismantled railroad.” The tracks went away, and the station keeper’s name stayed.

Quick answers

Who is Shaniko, Oregon, named after?

August Scherneckau, a German immigrant who kept a stage stop at Cross Hollows. Shaniko is the way his surname was commonly pronounced.

Why is it spelled Shaniko and not Scherneckau?

Because the town took the name as it was spoken, not as he wrote it. The Oregon History Project calls Shaniko “a common pronunciation” of his name, and the 1940 Oregon guide says it’s what the Indians called him.

Was Shaniko a railroad town?

Yes. It was built on the Columbia Southern line, the first train arrived in May 1900, and the Writers’ Project guide still called it the terminus of the Biggs-Shaniko branch in 1940.

Key dates

1. 1874August Scherneckau and his family settle near Cross Hollows, a stage stop on the road from The Dalles.
2. 1900The first train reaches Shaniko in May.
3. 1909Shaniko becomes construction headquarters during the race to build a railroad up the Deschutes River.

Getting there

Open Shaniko in Google Maps

• Map
• Directions
• Satellite
• Terrain

Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of Shaniko in the USGS place-name record.

The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of Shaniko.

Airports

• Roberts Field/Redmond Municipal (RDM) 55 mi 89 km
• Portland International (PDX) 98 mi 158 km

Amtrak trains

• Wishram station (WIH) 46 mi 75 km
• Bingen-White Salmon station (BNG) 60 mi 97 km

Intercity buses

• Central Oregon Breeze Shell Station, Warm Springs 30 mi 48 km
• Northwestern Stage Lines The Dalles 49 mi 78 km
• FlixBus The Dalles Transit Facility 49 mi 78 km

Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.

Historical Sources & References

• Federal Writers’ Project, Oregon: End of the Trail (1940), pp. 389-390. Named for August Scherneckau, “called Shaniko by the Indians,” whose ranch house was a stage station; terminus of the Biggs-Shaniko branch; the 1909 railroad race and the brick hotel.
• Melinda Jette, “Wool Buyers at Shaniko,” Oregon History Project (Oregon Historical Society, 2004). The surname, “a common pronunciation”; Cross Hollows from 1874; the town promoters and the Columbia Southern line; the first train in May 1900; the “Wool Capital of the World.”
• GNIS feature 1126791 (U.S. Geological Survey). The U.S. place-name listing for Shaniko, in Wasco County, with its coordinates.