Southern Route to Oregon

In 1846, Jesse Applegate and fourteen others from near Dallas, Oregon, established a trail south from the Willamette Valley and east to Fort Hall. This route offered emigrants an alternative to the perilous "last leg" of the Oregon Trail down the treacherous Columbia River.
The first emigrants to trek the new "Southern Road" left with the trailblazers from Fort Hall in early August 1846. With Levi Scott acting as guide, while Jesse Applegate traveled ahead to mark the route, the hardy emigrants blazed a wagon trail through nearly 500 miles of wilderness arriving in the upper Willamette Valley in November. Emigrant travel continued along the Applegate Trail in later years and contributed greatly to the settlement of southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley.

Travelers through Time
Native Americans and fur trappers trekked through this region long before emigrants settlers. Between 1846 and 1853 Applegate Trail emigrants passed nearby on a route that followed Coyote Creek for a mile then crossed a divide to upper Wolf Creek. In 1853 Major Benjamin Alvord and Jesse Applegate surveyed a military road from Myrtle Creek in Douglas County through the site of present-day Wolf Creek and on to Camp Stuart in Jackson County. Road construction began immediately and a wagon road soon replaced the



Applegate Trail through this area.


...passed down a hansom Brook (Wolf Creek)...crossed the Brook and immediately took (up) the mountain steep ruged and Brushy this ridge has several snow drifts yit visible on its summit a short distance South of the trail. The desent was not Quite so steep crossed a small Brook (Coyote Creek) and assended another mountain not Quite so high as the first but verry difficult on account of the logs and undergrothe...Partially desended the second a small cove and then mounted a third high ridge at the bottom of which opens a small vally of handsome Prairie (on Grave Creek) whare we encamped... — James Cayman, Fur Trapper June 19 1844

Sorry, but we don't have a picture of this historical marker yet. If you have a picture, please share it with us. It's simple to do. 1) Become a member. 2) Adopt this historical marker listing. 3) Upload the picture.

Show me all markers in:  Wolf Creek, OR  |  Josephine County  |  97497  |  Oregon  |  United States of America

Febble, Hungry, and Haggard
Early Traveler Accommodations
Wolf Creek Tavern
City of Glendale
Golden
GOLD!
Grave Creek Ranch
The Applegate Trail
Applegate Trail - Grave Creek
The Applegate Trail

• GPX
• KML
• LOC

Have you seen this marker? If so, check in and tell us about it.