Packwood then moved east of the Cascade Mountains to Eastern Oregon where he was involved with establishing the town of Auburn in 1862. Auburn was a gold-mining boomtown that was briefly the county seat of Baker County, and Packwood helped plat the town. There he served as the first school superintendent of Baker County in 1862. During the 1864 presidential election he campaigned for Abraham Lincoln in that county. Soon after, he was responsible for another Baker County town receiving the name of Sparta. In that town he and his family built and operated a boarding house until 1867.