How long is the applegate trail

If you are traveling on Highway from Jacksonville toward the Applegate Valley, go approximately 2. About yards past the 4-mile marker on Sterling Creek Road turn right and proceed 0. The access road is rough but passable for most vehicles. The Applegate Valley and surrounding Siskiyou Mountains provide some of the best non-motorized trails in Southern Oregon if not in the Pacific Northwest!

Transcription of cover letter of March 20, , from Jesse Applegate to Gov. George Abernethy. Research Lib. Beckham, Stephen Dow. Smith, Ross A. Skip to main content. A project of the Oregon Historical Society. Search Search. Explore Entries A-Z Browse the complete list of entries. Entries by Themes Browse curated collections of entries.

In the Classroom. Staff and Board. Donate Donors. Federal Tax ID It is at this point that Jesse and Lindsay Applegate stepped forward and formed a new company. Jesse was elected captain of the new company and eleven of the men from the Gilliam expedition joined, including Levi Scott, David Goff and Moses Black Harris.

About half -way into the expedition Levi Scott and David Goff were elected to share in the leadership role alongside of Jesse. He was given a map drawn by Peter Skene Ogden in that proved to be very accurate in the areas where Ogden had actually traveled.

Jesse also obtained a copy of John C. From this journal he learned that a straight line between a point slightly south of the head of the Rogue River Valley and a point on the Bear River on the California Trail south of Fort Hall approximated the forty-second parallel.

This line now forms the southern boundaries of Oregon and Idaho. The road explorers intentions was to go south to the Rogue River Valley and head east sticking as close to the forty-second parallel as the topography of the land would allow.

Following the route of the May explorers, the new South Road Expedition, encountered few problems until they arrived in the Umpqua Mountain area north of modern day Canyonville. There they met a Mr. Hess coming up from California who told them there was a canyon ahead of them that you could not get a horse through much less a wagon, they might as well turn around and go home.

They went on and attempted to go into the canyon from the north end but brush, downed trees, and rocks soon forced them up the canyon walls where they traveled some ten to twelve miles along the ridge before they came back to the valley floor at the south end of the canyon. They all went into the canyon from the south end and agreed that with some work a road suitable for wagons could be made through the canyon as long as the little creek that wound its way back and forth on the valley floor remained in its banks.

David Lenox. Within a week, the Great Migration of broke into two parties over the issue of whether the livestock would slow the emigrants enough to risk running into winter weather in the western mountains.

Despite the fears of those in the light column, the cow column was able to keep a steady pace, following about half a day behind. The Applegate brothers left their guide Marcus Whitman at his mission in southern Washington and then abandoned their wagons at Fort Walla Walla. They spent several weeks sawing lumber and building flat boats before departing for Fort Vancouver via the Columbia River on November 1, Near The Dalles, tragedy struck the Applegate clan.

The boat we were watching disappeared and we saw the man and boys struggling in the water. The Applegates were not alone in wishing to find a new road through the Cascade Mountains, as the Columbia River route was dangerous and not well suited for bringing livestock into the Willamette Valley. The experiences of the emigrants of were no better than the parties, and in an entire family drowned while attempting to travel down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver.

The first efforts to find an alternate route through the Cascade Mountains were made in , when Sam Barlow and Joel Palmer scouted the route of the Barlow Road and Elijah White, who had lost two children to the Columbia River, himself, explored down the length of the Willamette Valley in the hope of finding a low pass through the Cascades. Other, smaller expeditions were mounted during the summer of , but none discovered a suitable pass for a wagon road over the Cascade Mountains.

Probably the best known of these other expeditions was the Lost Meek Party that followed guide Stephen Meek on an untried route through the high desert. By the time the party reached the Deschutes River, they were hopelessly lost, fighting among themselves, and had split into two groups. They eventually straggled into The Dalles, and the route they sought over the central Cascades was opened nine years later, in , by the efforts of Elijah Elliot and William Macy.

However, the Free Emigrant Road — so called because there was no toll charged for its use — was little used. James K.

Ford, on the Rickreall, so as to be ready to start on the trip on the first day of next May. The first expedition failed as dissension arose and Jesse Applegate was elected to replace Levi Scott as Captain. Four men deserted as the group headed into territory populated by hostile Indians, forcing the others to turn back for fear that they would not be able to mount an adequate watch over their nightly campsites. On June 25, , the Spectator reported that:. Jesse and Lindsay Applegate joined the company, and Jesse was elected to command it — in part because of this, his name stuck, and the route they opened became widely known as the Applegate Trail.

The explorers found a large wagon train gathered at Fort Hall and were able to persuade about families to try the southern route.