The first building on the site of the present City of Vale was built on the banks of the Malheur by Jonathan Keeney in 1864. He offered accommodations to migrants and miners on their way to the Powder River area. Wagon trains on the Old Oregon Trail crossed the Malheur at Vale, where nearby natural hot springs bubbled forth, and it is reported that immigrants welcomed the hot water for laundering and bathing. The Malheur was named by Peter Skeen Ogden in 1826 while he was in command of a fur trading expedition for the Hudson Bay Co. out of Ft. Vancouver. After leaving a cache of supplies and furs hidden on the river, he returned to find that Indians had raided his storage place, and he named the river Malheur, literally meaning “Evil Hour.”