Raw Dog and Yellow Dog, the names of two small towns about a mile apart in Morrow County competing for the stagecoach depot in their locale. This was in the 1870s when stagecoaches and wagon trains traveled north and south through eastern Oregon and Washington. Either town was a convenient stopping point where passengers could rest for the night. When it was learned a post office was to be established in the area, it was decided Raw Dog would be the place because it had a few more people than Yellow Dog. It also decided Raw Dog would be the site for a more permanent stagecoach station and Yellow Dog laid down and died. When the post office was established in 1881, the postal officials couldn’t quite see Raw Dog a fitting name and gave the town the name of Hardman after the man who had homesteaded the site. As new methods of transportation were developed and stagecoaches began to disappear, so did Hardman. Raw Dog went to join Yellow Dog.

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Morrow County | Eastern Oregon