Mitchell's Jalet Farrell, owner of Spoke'n Hostel, wins Governor's Hospitality Award

Jalet Farrell, owner of the Spoke'n Hostel in Mitchell has won the prestigious Governor's Hospitality Award from Travel Oregon. The news came as a surprise to Farrell, who did not know that she was nominated until she received a congratulatory call.

"I started laughing and crying at the same time," said Jalet upon receiving the news. This is the second time that the Spoke'n Hostel has won the award, the first being in 2016 shortly after Jalet and her husband Pat started their venture in Mitchell.

Jalet Farrell grew up in Ontario and John Day. Her father and grandparents were entrepreneurs and she remembers developing a business acumen at a young age. Her father later moved the family to Gresham and in her adult life, Jalet lived in Cottage Grove and in Gresham. A chance encounter led to Jalet and Pat Farrell's move to Mitchell. Jalet and her sister were taking a road trip and visited a friend in Wheeler County. Jalet was immediately taken with the environment and on their way out of town, Jalet peeked through the windows of a shuttered property on the highway on the edge of town.

"As we were peeking through, a neighbor lady offered to give us a tour of the property," Jalet says. "While going through it, I had what I can only explain as a vision for a hostel in Mitchell."

The comical part of this story is that Jalet has never stayed in a hostel before. But Jalet says that she envisioned a beach town on the weekend but in the high desert. While the Farrells were excited by the prospect of starting a hostel in Mitchell, there were challenges along the way and it looked like the move might not happen. For nine months, Jalet and Pat tried to work out a deal with the owner to purchase the building, which had been vacant for 18 years. One weekend, Pat and Jalet took a trip to Mitchell and attended a service at the Assembly of God Church. Unbeknownst to them, it was the last service for the church. Pat and Jalet were members of the Assembly of God Church in Monmouth and learned that the Assembly of God Church was looking for a new location for a satellite church.

"It was a feeling of divine providence," Jalet says. With support from the church, Pat and Jalet were able to make the budget work and to have a church and hostel under one roof.

The couple moved in and got to work cleaning and updating the property and getting acquainted with the people of Mitchell.

As they were preparing to open and cleaning, Jalet dug into the location a little bit more. Jalet says that she was shocked to learn that the town of Mitchell sat on the Transamerica Trail. Founded in 1976, the Transamerica Trail has become the superhighway for cyclists. Each year, thousands of people traverse the United States on the trail. Jalet quickly realized that the hostel concept would work perfectly for cyclists. Jalet had seen cyclists sleeping in the park in Mitchell and knew that she could offer visitors a unique experience.` Instead of charging a nightly rate, Jalet also thought that a donation based system would work best to cater to the differing budgets of cyclists and other guests.

Jalet says that her husband Pat was eager to market the property and to start an ad campaign. Having worked in advertising, Pat saw the potential to put the hostel on the map. But Jalet preferred to take it slow and said she had to pump the breaks for Pat's ambitious ideas.

"I told him that we need a year to learn about running a hostel and to get into the community," Jalet says.

The Spoke'n Hostel opened its doors in May of 2016 and welcomed their first guest. The cyclist who stayed told friends, who told their friends and in the tight-knit world of cyclists, word spread quickly.

In their first year of business, the hostel hosted 365 people. In recent years, the Spoke'n Hostel has hosted between 800 and 1,000 people each year. During peak season, Jalet says that she works eighteen hours a day. It can be incredibly demanding at times, but Jalet says that her interactions with guests are invigorating. People from all over the world stay at the hostel while traversing the United States by bicycle.

"The stories of peoples lives and why they chose to bicycle across the United States is always intriguing," she says.

Jalet says that recently, a man from Moscow and his business partner from Switzerland were staying at the hostel and were locked in a debate about American politics.

"It was just them in the hostel that morning and I thought, here we are in the little town of Mitchell in Eastern Oregon and I'm sharing this experience with people from the other side of the world."

While many people ride the Transamerica Trail with friends and family as a bucket list vacation, others ride for a cause and to help raise awareness for an issue that is dear to them. Jalet says that the most common rides for a cause are for cancer and suicide awareness. For cyclists that are biking for a cause, Jalet offers the stay for free and gives her hospitality as a donation to their effort. In 2023, Pat and Jalet Farrell purchased some land and began building a new home in Mitchell. It is the first new house to be built in the town since 1986. Pat Farrell served as mayor of the town for a stint and the couple have made deep connections with people in Wheeler County.

Jalet says that she didn't think that things would turn out the way that they did.

"I thought that I was coming out to open this business and to open up a new church," Jalet says. "We were thinking maybe a three-year stint and to then hand it off to then travel around the US."

While Jalet and Pat hope to take that trip around the United States someday, they are passionate about the business and their lives at the Spoke'n Hostel and the church in Mitchell. The couple will celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary this year. And while they are elated to move into a new house, Jalet has a deep passion for old buildings.

"There is something both humbling and visionary about taking something that has been cast off and then reused again," she says. "When I saw this building, I knew it was worth saving. Somehow I just knew."

And while it has been a long and winding road, Jalet says that she has enjoyed all the twists and turns that brought her and Pat to Mitchell. Jalet says, "It may sound cheesy, but saying yes to a dream is the very first step to reality."