Data centers in Gilliam County, Oregon: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Gilliam County has about 2,000 residents, and Amazon now owns the mesa above its landfill in the Columbia River town of Arlington. In August 2024 the city council agreed to sell 375.6 acres at the Arlington Mesa and Industrial Park, 801 Airport Road, to Amazon Data Services for $10.1 million; Amazon was also buying about 30 more acres from the Port of Arlington for $3 million. "We won't end up being just a truck stop on the highway," Mayor Jeffery Bufton said.

Almost everything else about the project is undisclosed. The city, the port and the county signed a non-disclosure agreement with Amazon in 2022, and when the Times-Journal requested the sale agreement, the city released a redacted version and charged attorney fees for it. Amazon vice president Kevin Miller said a land purchase is the first step in a process that takes "many years" and would not say when building might start, though he said the site could eventually match Amazon's operations in neighboring Morrow and Umatilla counties.

Amazon agreed in 2024 to buy more than 200,000 megawatt-hours a year from a wind farm three miles away, but it will need much more power from a constrained regional grid. Gilliam County does not qualify for the enterprise-zone tax breaks behind most Oregon data center deals, so County Judge Cris Patnode said the county would negotiate under the state's Strategic Investment Program instead. "We need to make sure that we capitalize on this opportunity," she said. Amazon has not announced a tax agreement or a construction start date.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.