Oregon Pioneer Trail

Oregon Pioneer Trail...

Unfolded before me are Willamette National Forest maps from 1937 and 1948, rescued from obscurity with knowledge unleashed like the first beams of the equinox through the portals of Stonehenge. Here was a world ruled by trails, where the glacial power of Mt. Jefferson flowed unchallenged through a towering expanse of old-growth forest. The Santiam Highway was a single track, treacherous and forbidding, perched on the canyon wall where the Detroit Dam is today. The view dropping off into the canyon is still etched into the minds of old-timers. Turnouts were few, driving and negotiating skills were honed when two cars had to pass each other.

Detroit, originally named logging camp 17, was the hub of an extensive trail network that included shelters and suspension bridges that were in use until the 1960's. Lookout points surrounded the area, with phone lines that came down into Mill City, Detroit, and Idanha. The Santiam River had a trail on the south bank starting at Detroit that went up as far as Pamelia Creek. According to local legend, pack strings of horses carried hay bales in to Pamelia Lake to dam the subterranean outflow and raise the water level. The area where Pamelia Creek emerges was known as Flapper Spring in the old days.

In the Marion Forks area in the 1930's, the Santiam River Trail was improved with rockwork bridges apparently built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and a floating log cabin was observed on a lake close to the river. Prior to 1964, you could drive within a mile of Marion Lake, where there was a boathouse, docks, and rustic cabins. Dr. A. G. Prill had a cabin on the north side of the lake; only the fireplace hearth remains. A lost passage over Minto Mountain allowed access to the Skyline Trail, the predecessor to the Pacific Crest Trail. Mountain guide Dee Wright scouted it in 1896. He later oversaw the construction of the observatory on the McKenzie Pass by the CCC. Dee Wright did not live to see completion of the project that now bears his name.

Indian trails are still visible south of The Table formation of Mt. Jefferson, crossing the Cascade crest into eastern Oregon. Underneath the Santiam Highway lies an Indian trail, a haunting presence felt in twilight moments, when past and present merge into the timelessness of the canyon. In the wind is the sound of a forgotten traveler, cresting a ridge of long ago.

J.D. Adams: j1mcm0s@earthlink.net