La Grande is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. Originally named “Brownsville,” it was provoked to bend its pronounce because that proclaim was bodily used for a city in Linn County. Located in the Grande Ronde Valley, the city’s reveal comes from an in advance French settler, Charles Dause, who often used the phrase “La Grande” to describe the area’s beauty. The population was 13,082 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Union County. La Grande lies east of the Blue Mountains and southeast of Pendleton.

The Grande Ronde Valley had long been a waypoint along the Oregon Trail. The first remaining settler in the La Grande area was Benjamin Brown in 1861. Not long after, the Leasey relatives and approximately twenty others fixed there. The concurrence was originally named after Ben Brown as Brown’s Fort, Brown’s Town, or Brownsville. There was already a Brownsville in Linn County, so taking into account the pronounce office was conventional in 1863, a more distinctive publicize was needed. It was contracted to use “La Grande”, a phrase used by a Frenchman, Charles Dause, to describe the area’s scenic splendor. Before the say office was established, William Currey charged 50 cents a letter to carry the mail on horseback to and from the nearest proclaim office, in Walla Walla, Washington. La Grande was incorporated as a city in 1865, and platted in 1868.

La Grande grew immediately during the late 1860s and to the lead 1870s, partially because of the region’s many gold mines and the valley’s agricultural capabilities. The early event establishments centered on C Avenue between gift day Fourth Street and the hillside on the west end.

In 1884, the railroad came to the flat slightly east of “Old Town”. This helped the town to accumulate and gave rise to “New Town”, centered upon Adams Avenue and built parallel to the railroad tracks.