Everything about The Siskiyou Trail totally explained
The
Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's
Central Valley to Oregon's
Willamette Valley; modern-day
Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path. Originally based on existing
Native American foot trails winding their way through river valleys, the Siskiyou Trail provided the shortest practical travel path between early settlements in California and Oregon.
Development of the Siskiyou Trail
The earliest European or American visitors were likely independent hunters and trappers who, in the 1820s, began to travel the rivers of Southern Oregon and Northern California in search of fur and pelts. Organized parties sent by the
Hudson's Bay Company (led originally by
Peter Skene Ogden,
Alexander Roderick McLeod, and Michel Laframboise) used the Siskiyou Trail to travel from Oregon to Mexican-controlled California, beginning in 1827.
In 1834, visionary
Ewing Young brought a herd of horses and mules over the Siskiyou Trail from
missions in California for sale at British and American settlements in Oregon. Although this initial effort was met with suspicion by Hudson's Bay Company officials in Oregon, Young returned to California in 1837, where he purchased 700 head of cattle which he drove over the Siskiyou Trail to Oregon. This monumental task, requiring nearly three months, helped widen and establish the trail, and solidify the new American settlements in Oregon.
In 1841, an overland party of the renowned
United States Exploring Expedition came down the Siskiyou Trail with the first scientists and cartographers in the region.
The
California Gold Rush, beginning in 1848, ushered in dramatically increased use of the Siskiyou Trail. The discovery of gold in
Siskiyou County and especially at
Yreka, California, brought thousands of
Forty-Niners along the trail in search of riches. However, the terrain was so rugged over the mountains of the trail, that travel was restricted to mule trains and horses. Early travelers were able to travel perhaps 20 miles in a day, stopping at wayside inns and hostels, such as at
Portuguese Flat,
Upper Soda Springs and Sisson, in Northern California. It wasn't until the 1860s that toll roads usable by stagecoaches were finally carved through the mountains of Northern California, permitting uninterrupted stagecoach travel for the length of the Siskiyou Trail.
The first telegraph line connected early towns along the trail in 1864. Development accelerated with the arrival of the
Central Pacific Railroad track, completed in 1887, which followed the path of the Siskiyou Trail.
Route of the Siskiyou Trail
The historic route of the Siskiyou Trail extended from the Columbia District headquarters of the
Hudson's Bay Company, at Ft. Vancouver in southern
Washington, to the
San Francisco Bay Area. In California, the trail went through or near modern-day
Redding,
Dunsmuir and
Yreka, California. In Oregon, the route went through or near modern-day
Ashland,
Grants Pass,
Eugene,
Salem and
Portland. The trail used the valleys of the
Willamette,
Umpqua,
Rogue,
Klamath,
Shasta and
Sacramento Rivers to make the connection between Oregon and California, and to traverse the rugged mountains of Northern California and Southern Oregon (
Siskiyou Mountains). The trail crested at the
Siskiyou Summit (elevation ) just north of the Oregon-California border, and went past or near landmarks such as
Mount Shasta,
Upper Soda Springs,
Castle Crags, and
Sutter Buttes.
Modern roads
In the mid-1910s, the pioneering
Pacific Highway, later numbered as
U.S. Highway 99, provided the first easy automobile access along the path of the trail.
Interstate 5 was built in the
1960s along the route of the original 1820s Siskiyou Trail. About 4 miles (7 km) north of the California border, and just south of
Ashland, Oregon, the highway crosses
Siskiyou Summit, the highest point on I-5 (elevation ).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Siskiyou Trail'.
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