Editing Gilliam County, Oregon (section)

==Economy==
[[File:Gilliam Wheat and Wind Farming.jpg|left|thumb|The view westward of a wheat field off Highway 19.]]
Gilliam County is in the heart of the [[Columbia River Plateau]] [[wheat]]-growing region. The economy is based on agriculture, and wheat, [[barley]] and [[beef]] cattle are the principal products. Properties are large, with an average farm size of about {{convert|4,200|acre|km2}}.

The largest individual employers in the county are two subsidiaries of Waste Management Inc., Chemical Waste Management of the Northwest and Oregon Waste Systems, Inc., who run two regional waste disposal [[landfill]]s. By levying a fee of $1 a ton, Gilliam County receives enough money to pay the first $500 of the property tax bills of its inhabitants, an amount that covers the full tax bill for almost half of the county inhabitants, as well as funding other county projects.

Hunting, fishing and tourism are secondary industries. Transportation also contributes to the local economy; two major rivers, the [[John Day River|John Day]] and [[Columbia River|Columbia]], cross the area east-to-west, as does [[Interstate 84 in Oregon|Interstate 84]]. [[Oregon Route 19]] connects the county's major cities north-to-south and provides access to the John Day Valley.