BAKER CITY (AP) — For the moment, Baker City has a tentative claim on 10,000 residents, even though population estimates vary and one puts the city below that threshold.

The Eastern Oregon city has hovered below the mark for decades, coming closest in 1960, when the census put it at 9,986.

The seat of Baker County won’t know officially until after the results of the 2010 census are released, but one current estimate puts the city’s population at 10,205.

That’s from the Portland State University’s Population Research Center.

The U.S. Census Bureau itself puts the figure, as of 2007, at just 9,408.

During the gold rush days of the 1860s Baker City was among the largest towns in Oregon and was a boom town for years even after the gold veins wore out.

In the interim between the once-every-10-year census, neither agency actually goes out and counts people, either by knocking on doors or mailing survey forms.

Instead, they check records such as new home construction, then either add or subtract to the population from the most recent national census.

The main difference in methodology: The Census Bureau counts births and deaths, while PSU doesn’t.

Jennifer Watkins, the city’s community development director, thinks the population probably has been growing slightly over the past several years.

She said, though, that PSU’s estimates have tended to be on the high side.

In the late 1990s, for instance, PSU reported that Baker City’s population has surpassed 10,000 by 105 people.

But the 2000 census counted 9,860 residents.