Breaking: Spiess family sells Milton-Freewater drive-in theater\u00a0<\/p>\n
Published 8:00 pm Monday, June 1, 2026<\/p>\n
MILTON-FREEWATER \u2014 The last drive-in movie theater in Eastern Oregon is under new ownership.<\/p>\n
Mike and Lorie Spiess and family announced on Facebook they have sold the M-F Drive In Theater at 84322 Highway 11, Milton-Freewater. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn Tuesday, May 26th, we signed official documentation to begin the transition of ownership to Andrew and Stephanie Brown,\u201d according to the announcement.<\/p>\n
In an interview, they reported the sale price for the business was $150,000 and the land was $470,000.<\/p>\n
Dick and Loretta Spiess purchased the drive-in in 1961, opening for the first season under their ownership in 1962, the year their first child, Mike, was born.<\/p>\n
Dick and Loretta lived in Pendleton from 1961-69, where he owned and ran the Pendleton drive-in with his brother. The family moved from Pendleton to Milton-Freewater in 1969.<\/p>\n
The Brown family has deep roots in Milton-Freewater. Their children, Katie, Addi and Kooper have all worked at or do work at the drive-in, according to the post. The Spiess family in their post expressed confidence the Browns will carry on the tradition of community that is important to the drive-in experience.<\/p>\n
The Spiess\u2019 final day of operations will be June 30, with the Browns taking over on July 1. <\/p>\n
\u201cLorie and I were recently asked, \u2018If the Drive In could talk, what would it say?\u2019\u201d the announcement on Facebook states. And the answer would be: \u201cEveryone is welcome here!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spiesses also reported they are planning a \u201cFarewell \/Appreciation\/ Welcome\u201d event at the drive-in for the weekend of June 26-27, with more details coming soon.<\/p>\n
The La Grande Drive-in closed in May, leaving the M-F Drive In Theater as Eastern Oregon\u2019s remaining drive-in.<\/p>\n
East Oregonian correspondent Sheila Hagar contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breaking: Spiess family sells Milton-Freewater drive-in theater\u00a0 Published 8:00 pm Monday, June 1, 2026 MILTON-FREEWATER \u2014 The last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-679336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}