Josiah Dean likes to joke that he owns the best — and the worst — hotel in Dufur.

That’s because the Balch Hotel is the only hotel in Dufur, population 600.

Found about 100 miles east of Portland and 15 miles south of The Dalles, the Balch Hotel serves as a weekend retreat with historic touches and grand views of Mount Hood.

“We’re basically where the gorge meets Oregon’s high deserts,” Dean said. “This is the heart of wheat country. We’re right next to the Columbia Gorge, right in the middle of everything, but also out in the middle of nowhere.”

The hotel was built by Charles P. Balch, a pharmacist and rancher who came to Oregon from Wisconsin in 1883 and settled in Dufur, where he married the daughter of the town’s founder.

Constructed in 1907 and opened in January 1908, the three-story Balch Hotel is the tallest building in Dufur (not including the grain elevator, of course).

It was built after the Great Southern Railroad connected Dufur to The Dalles in 1905, in anticipation of a boon that never materialized.

“They were going to make Dufur one of the great transportation hubs of the West Coast,” Dean said. “Those (railroad) developers got as far as Friend, which is about 10 more miles from here, and ran out of money.”

But the hotel remained. It operated through the Great Depression and into the 1940s, when it became more of a boardinghouse and, eventually, a private residence.

The Balch Hotel reopened to guests in 1991 under the ownership of Howard and Pat Green, who bought the place in 1988. The Greens had owned a construction company, and they undertook a historic restoration that was a labor of love. They updated the hotel’s wiring and plumbing, restored the woodwork and original transom windows above each bedroom door and placed the Balch on the National Register of Historic Places.

During the remodel, some rooms were converted into bathrooms, reducing the number of rentable rooms from 28 to 20. Today, guests can choose between suites with private baths or rooms that use shared common baths on each floor.

In 2006, Jeff and Samantha Irwin bought the Balch and remarketed it as a wedding destination. The hotel sits on just over an acre of landscaped grounds that can be rented for weddings or private events.

Ten years ago, the Irwins sold the hotel to Josiah Dean and Claire Sierra. Dean comes from a hospitality background, having previously managed the Chateau at the Oregon Caves and the Paradise Inn at Mount Rainier National Park.

On the hotel’s second floor, Sierra runs a wellness spa that offers facials, Reiki and a variety of wellness services involving crystals, meditation and aromatherapy.

The rear of the hotel houses Bistro 1907, a small restaurant and bar with a limited menu that focuses on locally sourced foods. It’s only open for dinner on weekends during the winter months, though a complimentary breakfast there is included for all overnight guests.

Winter does tend to be the slow season, but one benefit is that, as on this reporter’s recent trip, you might be the only guest with an entire Edwardian-era hotel to yourself.

Dean said guests often ask what there is to do in Dufur, “and one of the answers is nothing.”

The rooms have Wi-Fi but no TVs or telephones. The parlor can be a quiet place to read and relax. The tranquil garden space can be used for meditation and to soak up winter sunlight.

But for those looking for “something,” there’s plenty to do nearby.

The Mount Hood National Forest is 15 miles west of Dufur. Billy Bob Sno-Park, accessible only from the Dufur side of the mountain, offers spots to go snowmobiling or cross-country skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer. White River Falls State Park is just 20 miles south of Dufur, and the town of Maupin, a popular river rafting spot along the Deschutes River, is about 30 miles south of Dufur.

The rural roads around Dufur also have a reputation as a great place for gravel riding — a form of cycling that’s a middle ground between road biking and mountain biking. The town will host the Gorge Gravel ride in April.

In the town of Dufur itself, Azure Standard, a health food distributor, operates the Dufur Market, where shoppers can find organic foods and produce, fresh baked items and The Forge Coffee Shop. Dufur-based Shadowbuck Winery also operates a small tasting room in the market.

“It’s less than two hours from Portland,” Dean said, “but it feels a world away once you get here.”

If You Go

The Balch Hotel is at 40 S. Heimrich St. in Dufur. For reservations or more information on specials, call 541-467-2277 or visit balchhotel.com.