Baker City is a small eastern Oregon town with more substance than its size suggests. It grew rich on mining, ranching, and the traffic of the Oregon Trail, and its downtown still has a run of handsome brick buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The strongest reason to stop is the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, where wagon ruts still cut across the dry hills above town. Back in Baker City, the Baker Heritage Museum fills in the local story, while the Historic Downtown gives the town its best walk.
Baker City also works as a base for the Elkhorn Mountains and old mining country. The Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge is a hulking reminder of industrial-scale gold extraction, and Anthony Lakes gives the area a high-mountain escape. It is not a big-city destination, but it easily clears a spare day if you are crossing eastern Oregon.