OIL MACADAM FOR COUNTY ROAD
DUPLICATE OF CALIFORNIA'S BOULEVARDS
Harmon Recommends It to Commissioners for Central Point Highway--Its Description

ROAD MACHINERY IS TRIED OUT

    In the near future oldtimers will be completely lost on new Highway 99, which will sweep in straightaways and gradual curves from the Siskiyou summit to the interstate bridge on the Columbia River.
    This highway improvement in western Oregon will lop off a number of miles traveled the length of the state, especially in the southwest Oregon area. Several sections have already been completed between Medford and Roseburg, which is generally considered the worst section.
    A traveler along the new asphaltic-concrete speedway in the Cow Creek Canyon section can still occasionally see a two-wheeled dirt road adjacent to Cow Creek and ploughed under in other sections by the modern highway or the pretzel-shaped nightmare which used to be Highway 99.
Recalls Trip
    Many readers will recall the old 99, but few are still around to remember the old stage road which was once the north-south link with the Rogue Valley. However, one distinguished local citizen can recall one experience in his youth, which took place some 73 years ago on this same stage road. It has a particular spot in his memory, as it was a trip to see his first "iron horse," or railroad engine.
    The citizen, County Judge James Blin Coleman, was four years old at the time. The year was 1880. The circumstances surrounding the taking of such a "lengthy" excursion (it took about five days up and three or four back as compared with the modern time of about 2½ hours) were twofold: the Judge's father, Matthew Hubbard (Uncle Hub) Coleman, a county pioneer of 1853, had discovered a legal question concerning part of his farm, and also a friend wanted him to haul barrels to Roseburg, from whence they would be shipped by freight on the Oregon and California Railroad, which terminated at Roseburg.
    Roseburg at that time was the site of the district land office where M. H. Coleman hoped to assure title to his land by use of the homestead filing act. Somehow the title to 160 acres of his farm in the Coleman Creek area southwest of Phoenix (named after him) had been lost. The section was right in the center of his farm, including buildings adjacent to the two-story log house in which the family lived. He had originally obtained title to the property under the preemption law and entering the property. This was done by filing and paying $1.25 an acre. In order to regain the lost section, he would have to file under the new Homestead Act and occupy it for five years before permanent ownership, according to his son.
    Young Coleman and his parents started out on the journey with the owner of the barrels who was moving from the county. The Colemans' Steel-X (steel-axled) wagon was pulled by a pair of bays, which the Judge says he "can see yet." One was a dark bay gelding called Bill, and the other was a dark bay mare named Florie. The team pulled the heavy wagon, which featured rear wheels 72 inches high. These freight-type wagons were sometimes hooked together two and three in a bunch and pulled by a string of eight horses, J. B. Coleman continued. The driver usually rode the rear (left) horse and drove with a single or jerk line to the left leader. This "loose" method of driving the series of horses made it possible to maneuver well around the many bends in the road, the Judge noted.
Crossed River
    The route followed by the party went through Central Point from Phoenix and crossed the Rogue River at Gold Hill. The Judge couldn't remember what crossing method was used at that time, whether the old Cavanaugh Ferry or toll bridge. From here the road kept on the north side of the river and passed through Woodville (Rogue River) and continued on the north river road past the present site of Grants Pass. The latter could not be remembered by the son, and Kerbyville had been the Josephine County seat, and a whole township from Jackson County was given Josephine to provide a county seat on the new railroad which came through about three years later. In short order the road began the tortuous climb over Sexton Mountain and through the canyons to Wolf Creek and Canyonville, which were settled at that time. Each night the group camped along the road without the aid of convenient motels which now dot the entire route.
    As usual, they had wagon trouble instead of the usual tire or motor trouble of the modern tourist. Axle trouble developed near Canyonville. While Mrs. Coleman and her son stayed in the wagon, M. H. Coleman and the other man went into Canyonville to see if they could get the needed part. It was found that it would take four days to get the part down from Portland, so a blacksmith from the town agreed to ride back to the damaged wagon and stub-weld it back on, thus providing a predecessor to the mechanical help of today.
    After the axle was repaired, the party rode on to Roseburg. "It wasn't a bad road," J. B. Coleman explained, "although it was pretty steep in places. It traveled up and down over the draws."
First Train
    Upon arriving at Roseburg, the Colemans camped below the railroad track, he noted, and his father went directly to the land office to file the homestead claim. While he was on this business, his son and wife walked along the railroad track where the Judge saw his first train. He related that "as the train got nearer I pressed tighter against an adjacent fence till I was plastered against it when the puffing engine went by. I told my mother that if I got a little madder I would jump right at the big machine." He described the engine smokestack as the funnel-shaped type. The engine, "a tiny little thing," was pulling a tender full of wood and had a sandbox and several cars, he remembered.
    The Judge continued his association with trains in about the fall of 1883 when he rode on the first passenger train into the Rogue Valley. [Passenger service didn't begin until 1884.] The O and C extended its lines to Ashland where he was met later [in 1887] by another railroad from the south.
    On the return trip from Roseburg, the son recalled an incident in a field near Woodville where his father stunned a crow with his huge blacksnake whip and gave it to his son for a pet. The crow stayed a pet until it recuperated and then flew hastily away from its tearful, brief owner.
Added to Home
    After returning to the farm in the Rogue Valley, the Colemans had established a residence on the homestead property and showed improvements on it. About 60 feet from the main dwelling was a smokehouse which was just over the line of the property in question. The elder Coleman added a kitchen and bedroom to the smokehouse and lived there for the next five years. During this time the children stayed in the main house but ate in the smokehouse, the Judge said.
    After the prescribed time, M. H. Coleman took three witnesses with him to Jacksonville who ascribed that Coleman had made more than $500 in improvements on the land. A minor charge for this final proof and the original $15 filing fee was the only cost of the land. The entire farm then amounted to about 400 acres. It was sold in five or six pieces at a later date, with the last deed made out in June 1908 to the new owners.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 22, 1953, page 14


    A lot of people love scenic mountains. In the summer at least. When winter comes, this love can easily turn to hate as icy and snow-crusted roads turn the scene into [a] hazardous nightmare.
    For some time just such a route has been so considered by a large number of travelers over the Cascade Range from the Rogue Valley. It's called Highway 66 on road maps, but known hereabouts as the Greensprings route. The latter name is quite appropriate, as the motorist climbs to 4,000 feet on negotiating Greensprings Mountain, even though there is a higher spot farther on the route called Hayden Mountain.
    Public opinion on the route was expressed earlier this year when the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce conducted a series of community clinics. After a vote, it was determined that completion of a new and faster route to Klamath Falls was one of the two most important projects that should be completed in the county.
Not New Idea
    The route suggested was via Lake o' Woods, as paving for all-weather travel was being completed from Klamath Falls to Rocky Point junction near the lake. The idea wasn't exactly new. It had already been presented at least twice to the Oregon State Highway Commission and twice turned down in past years.
    However, a group became interested again, and after a Jeep trip over the proposed route via Lake Creek were even more convinced. Action was taken by State Rep. Robert Root last summer when he wrote a letter to the commission and received an answer that the commission felt a survey would be justified.
    At the present time, the commission is "well along on a physical and economic survey of the Lake Creek route," Root states, and the group has written him that the survey is expected to be completed by three or four months. At that time, they will have arrived at an "economic quotient," he reported, on the feasibility of the route.
Less Maintenance Cost
    In comparing the Greensprings route with the proposed one, Root explained that the Lake Creek highway, which is already a secondary state highway to McCallister Soda Springs, would involve lower maintenance cost than the present one, involve a lower grade and less snow. He described the new route as an "all-weather" one.
    In rough estimates, making the Lake Creek road into a primary highway would cost around $2,225,000, while reconditioning the Greensprings route would be near $8,000,000, Root said. Both roads are almost exactly the same mileage to Klamath Falls from Medford, but the Lake Creek route is considered potentially faster as it will be without the infamous "horseshoe" turns of the Greensprings. At their worst, turns on the Lake Creek road would be comparable to the new Siskiyou Highway. The present 19-foot width would be extended to 32 feet.
    Besides a better route to the east, the road would also open up a good highway to relatively inaccessible timber and to an excellent winter recreation area, the state representative continued.
    Historically speaking, there's a lot to say for the old route. In this modern day, high-compression engines must be held back by the safe driver or he's liable to end up at the bottom of the adjoining valley in the middle of the first Greensprings road, which is still used by neighboring ranches.
Was "Modern" Route
    However, the winding grade of the current route was the "modern" road for the "modern" cars after the first World War which putted up it in good style and were thankful they did not have the old stage road to contend with.
    To appreciate the present road, one has only to look at the first road. It can be seen off to a precarious right in the valley bottom while ascending the mountain. The road into Buckhorn Mineral Springs follows the stage road exactly till it turns to the right, and the stage road continues on up the mountain. Mileage variance between the old and the current road is as much as one-half to 1 mile, according to Paul Rynning, county engineer.
    Members of a pioneer family, closely associated with the route to Klamath Falls, still recall this early stage road use. Mrs. Frances Howard Worth, Granite St. in Ashland, reported that her grandfather, Zenas Howard, operated the Howard stage station from 1877 on the route. This property entered the family from a land grant to an uncle of Mrs. Worth's father, who was a Civil War veteran. It is now known as the Summit Ranch.
    Besides the stop at the Howard station, the stage also made stops at Parker station and then Keno. From Keno the stage went by ferry to Linkville, now known as Klamath Falls. The road also went by the old DeCarlow Ranch, which was another sanctuary in the wilderness. The DeCarlows later moved to the present highway and established the Pinehurst community.
    Mrs. Worth's father, Charles B. Howard, was a stage driver 1884-85 in his youth and in 1889 married and moved to Parker station. A sister, Mrs. Alice Howard Parker, 87, who lives in Ashland, also moved to the station when she married into the Parker family. This station was also a government telegraph station, and Charles Howard and Sumner Squire Parker went to work as linemen on the telegraph line. A brother, Walter Howard, who resides with his niece, Mrs. Worth, was a stage driver during the period for the Klamath River route from Ager into Klamath Falls.
    Later, after moving away, Charles Howard and his family lived in California and Arizona, Mrs. Worth related, and returned in 1915. At this time they found no service for passengers to Klamath Falls. The only route was by a short line railroad from Weed to Klamath.
    Howard then began operation of a bus line with headquarters first at Ashland and later Medford. The first vehicles he used were Model T Fords. Mrs. Worth even took to driving one of the "buses" in the summer of 1917 when she was 18 years old. The Model Ts were used for about two years, and then the firm utilized seven-passenger Studebakers. After about three or four years, Cadillacs were in use with special body work done by a mechanic in Medford in lengthening the sedan chassis.
    Mrs. Worth described the roads as "very rocky and steep. The bus would twist with the road as we drove." Added to this was the fact that it was only a good-weather road. Regular travel lasted only from about April to the first part of November of each year because of the snow and mud conditions. Service was begun earlier each spring by using the Klamath River route. This meant traveling over the graded Siskiyous road to Hornbrook, then east to Shovel Creek, Ager and up the Topsy grade. She noted that the Topsy grade wasn't quite as bad, although it was "very narrow" and "quite dangerous" with the Klamath River down below the road.
Sought Better Route
    Such road conditions were naturally outlived with modern "horseless carriages," and Charles Howard soon began a movement to obtain a better route over the Greensprings. He obtained petitions and made several journeys to Salem to obtain a survey and grading of a new road.
    Results were soon to materialize. Construction began in 1919 with the Greensprings section let to contract by the state, and county crews building part of the road from about Jenny Creek to the Klamath County line. In July of 1919, a young state highway engineer became location engineer and ran a survey to Keno. He was the present Jackson County engineer, Paul Rynning. His first trip to the project was on one of Howard's buses, he reported this week. He remembers the old road as "about straight up" where it reached the top of the valley. Rynning worked under Kenneth Hodgman, division engineer, and Jack True was foreman of the county road gang which worked part of the road on a cost-plus basis.
    Travel on the stage road was so rough, he continued, that a round trip would usually wear out a set of bands on a Model T's gears and brakes.
    Construction problems in those days were also quite different, he noted, as there were no tread tractors and gas shovels. Work included use of the old steam shovel, a lot of horses, and plenty of powder. He added that cleaning and grubbing stumps was the hardest part of the job. Horses plus liberal quantities of TNT removed these obstacles. "In those days," the engineer continued, "the boys would as soon blow a stump to bits as carry it out."
    Work continued on the new road in 1920 and was soon covered with rock macadam. Oiling did not take place until after 1925, he added.
    For a number of years, the bus trip to Klamath was an all-day affair, according to Mrs. Worth. After traveling to one end of the route the bus would start back the next day after an overnight stay. The bus would leave at 8 a.m., be at DeCarlows for lunch and into Klamath by about 4 p.m.
One Trip Each Way
    Later, about 1924 or 1925, Henry Grimes became a partner of Howard, and he operated from the Klamath end. Both would start from opposite ends and meet in the middle, switching passengers, he said. This allowed one trip a day each day.
    About 1930, the partnership sold the bus line to [the] Southern Pacific and its subsidiary Greyhound Bus Lines. The late SP agent A. S. (Rosie) Rosenbaum helped negotiate the transaction, Mrs. Worth reported.
    After sale of the bus line, Howard purchased the Summit Ranch, where the family again lived.
    When asked what she thought of a new route to Klamath Falls, Mrs. Worth reported that she "hoped that the present route was at least maintained for the beautiful drive" which she knows so well.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 29, 1953, page 9


    Modern man is struggling to keep a few primitive areas left in Oregon.
    It wasn't so long ago when the struggle was to carve modern advancements out of the whole primitive area. This turnabout has occurred swiftly since the turn of the century and has left a number of Jackson County residents rather agog with the changes.
    Changes also leave a host of memories wrapped up with the creak of wagon wheels and smell of saddle soap, and later with the goggled-eyed and duster-clad humans in "horseless carriages."
Early Route
    An early route from this area was the Medford-Crater Lake road. However, in those days it was slightly different than the present paved road, which is now declared by many to be too "curvy" for modern vehicles, at least from Trail to Cascade Gorge. This feeling is espoused even in the face of the historical fact that it took four to five days in [a] heavy wagon, one way, to reach the lake, while now the local resident, crammed in a car with visiting relatives, can zoom up in 2½ hours.
    Among a number of local residents who well remember both methods of travel are Mrs. Myron Root of 28 North Berkeley Way, who took many early wagon trips; Assistant City Superintendent Clatous McCredie, who slid down a pathless rim to Crater Lake's very edge with Mrs. Root's party; Seth Bullis of the California-Oregon Power Company, who sped to the lake and back in the amazing time of one day with a 1911 Winton Six; William von der Hellen, pioneer road contractor, who worked as early as 1906 on park road crews, and later as private contractor; and Paul Rynning, county engineer, whose second job was location engineer for the state highway department from Prospect to Medford in 1919. His first was work on the Greensprings route.
First Excursion
    Mrs. Root's first excursion to the late was in 1909 when she went in a two-wagon party. She was able to verify specific incidents of this and later trips with letters written by a chaperone. She was a member of the Rev. Kirby Miller's wagon group, whose son later became a Rhodes scholar. Their wagon was pulled by a pair of "balky white horses," Mrs. Root related, and this pair plus the famous William Stewart mules hitched to the other wagon "made some interesting experiences." The other wagon was headed by William McCredie, father of Clatous.
    "Never traveling more than 30 miles a day," Mrs. Root continued, "we made our first camp at Elk Creek, near the old fish hatchery." She related how the old dirt road didn't follow the present route but hugged the river and then would head "straight up." The road pitch was so bad the teams had to be hitched together to make the grade for each wagon. In one instance, at the top of a hard climb, the party met a caravan from Klamath Falls coming down with a woman driver on the wrong side of the road. After a precarious passing, the party got around the wagons using poles on the outside curves.
Travel on Foot
    The party was able to wagon to the base of the rim on this trip, near the present government camp, but the rest of the way was on foot or horse. The group arrived late in the day after a four-day trip, Mrs. Root said, and even though dusk was near she walked to the rim. She described the sun setting in the west and blue of the lake as "the most glorious thing I had ever seen, and not one man-made thing was within sight to mar the picture."
    In remembering his journey with the group, Clatous McCredie reported that he and Mrs. Root "crawled" down to the lake's edge without benefit of any path. A picture in Mrs. Root's possession revealed another party utilizing a water-path [i.e., a watercourse] in ascending the crater's rim two years later. McCredie also remembered that it snowed about two inches while the group was camped below the rim. He said the area was filled with "thousands of chipmunks."
    Although the party forded Union Creek, he said that a couple of logs had been placed over the road for automobile travel with flattened tops for the wheels. Travel by wagon was "a lot of fun," McCredie recalled, "as time didn't mean anything then." The group had ponies, which they rode along the way. Wagon members walked a lot, as the wagons were full of provisions.
    In 1911, Mrs. Root took her second trip to the lake and noted "great improvements" in the road during the brief period between trips. With her party were Josephine (Jo) Riley Holmes, still a resident of Eagle Point, Mrs. Ira Canfield and brother, and Myron Root and Robert Wilson, a cousin of Mrs. Root and now with the state highway department.
    This trip was described as "hilarious" by Mrs. Root. She said the group didn't meet a car this trip, which took 17 days. On this trip there was a boat at the water's edge, she continued, and the group borrowed it and rowed to Wizard Island. "On the way over the boat sprung a leak, and we had to bail like mad coming back," she said. "There was no path down to the water, and we just slipped down a dry creek bed."
    She described the "freight trains" which were met along the way, and the interesting stories they told. She remembered one freight wagon which turned over and all the party turned out to pick up the spilled apples. Another interesting part of the travel was heating water for the horses, as the animals could not drink the icy water from the snow-fed streams. Freighters often helped the party up steep grades, she reported, and one told her husband that use of freight horses in getting the party over a hill helped him also, as he couldn't pass anyway.
    The party of 10 also spent about three days at Mill Creek Falls, where they had lost some ponies. An accident happened here, which displayed the rough road. One driver was thrown from the wagon seat when he hit a rut near the falls, which threw him onto the ground, knocking him unconscious.
    Upon reaching the camp at the base of the rim, she noted that a small "horse-pin" road had been hewn out of the rim up to the top, which wasn't there in 1909. The road was so hazardous that the party had to cut down lodgepole trees and used them in lifting the rear of the wagons around the curves, she related, in what probably could be termed the original horseshoe curves. "It was so difficult," she added, "that only young people would ever have attempted to get a wagon up the road." However, she enjoyed the trip so much she made it again the next year.
    A few years later, in 1914, Bullis took his speedy trip to the lake. The occasion was a publishers' convention at Medford, and Bullis took a group up in his Winton Six and back in the same day. Bullis described this as "quite a feat in those days." Most of the other members of the group, including Myron Root, who drove a Franklin, stayed overnight at a lodge.
    Bullis said that the group motored via Derby to McLeod on the old Crowfoot Rd. and hit a similar roadbed to the present one from there to Annie Spring. The road then wound up from Garfield ski run to behind the present lodge.
    This same year an article in the Mail Tribune described a new Southern Pacific folder citing a round trip fare via Medford to the lake from Portland at $31.20 with "good accommodations and an excellent campground" at the lake and auto taxi service from Medford to the lake on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Another article in the paper described a party of four motoring to the lake who turned off the road near Derby to look for a campsite "when their car hit a cougar, causing fender damage."
Corkscrew Hill
    On Sept. 7, 1914, a letter from Dan C. Kingman, U.S. Army engineer, was published in the Mail Tribune, and it told of proposed elimination of "Corkscrew Hill" within the park boundaries. It reported that, in the engineer's opinion, the hill was the only piece within the park that presented "unusual difficulty to auto traffic. With the exception of this hill which will be eliminated this season, the road in the park is much better than the larger portion of the road between the park line and Medford."
    Von der Hellen, who with Chris Natwick and George Brown and son received a contract to clear and grade that portion of the present highway in April 1919 from Prospect to the park entrance, said that such a statement of the roads was possibly true, as the "higher up you went the wetter the ground and the firmer the ground." The road was worked out much more at the lower elevations and far more dustier, he added.
    The original road followed practically along the route of the present road, he noted, except for where it would "dodge a tree, instead of [going] straight by removing it." He said that in some places it was 200 to 300 feet off the old road. Von der Hellen also stated that the biggest construction expense was in clearing the right-of-way. There was very little rock to move in the deep pumice soil, he continued, with only 2 to 3 percent of the yardage removed of rock content. All the dirt moving was by horses, with stumps removed by TNT, furnished by the government. "It took more TNT than usual to move stumps in the porous pumice soil," he stated.
    The three contractors utilized three camps; three miles north of Prospect, Union Creek and Whisky Creek. He recalled one incident at their camp when Sen. George E. Chamberlain, a famous Oregon statesman, and Ralph Watson, Oregon Journal political writer, stopped with Model T Ford trouble and stayed overnight. The camp blacksmith repaired the car. A similar incident occurred when the blacksmith, doubling as a mechanic, repaired the vehicle driven by Tommy Luke, prominent Portland florist.
No Serious Accidents
    The contractor reported that construction in those days "was not very dangerous," and he could recall no serious accidents. They finished their 22-mile road piece in November of 1920, he added.
    Engineer Rynning, who went to work on the project in September of 1919 as location engineer from Prospect to Medford, reported that the section from Prospect on was not oiled until after 1925. He remembers that winter as the "one of the blue snow." In describing the route at that time, Rynning said that the ferry over Rogue River at Shady Cove was still operating, with the bridge completed about 1921.
    A lot of travel crossed the Rogue at old Bybee bridge and went on the north side of the river, he said. The ferry couldn't be used part of the time, as the black sticky near it bogged down cars. The Shady Cove settlement was nothing but one or two houses at that time, he added. Trail had one store, operated by a man named Ash, he continued, and there were also stores at McLeod and Cascade Gorge.
    The Grieve resort at Prospect was one of the main stopping places on the route. From there on, Rynning said that the dust was hub-deep and in some places so thick "you could hardly breathe." The trip took an easy half a day by car to the lake and "you never thought of coming back the same day."
Construction Easy
    Road construction on one stretch at that time was relatively easy, he pointed out, as a section from Cascade Gorge down to the Evergreen Ranch was built earlier by prison labor under Gov. Oswald West about 1914. All that was required here was to widen it on the same grade. William Grieve, father of James Grieve, was in charge of the prisoners, Rynning said.
    The road dealt no serious engineering problems, Rynning said, with the heavy rock work from Cascade Gorge down to Trail. The old dirt road in this stretch was followed "fairly close," he added.
    All of the persons traveling the old road agreed wholeheartedly on one thing; that is, there was plenty of dust. This got increasingly worse with the pumice or volcanic "froth" nearer where Mt. Mazama erupted, forming the crater for the lake.
    When the new roadbed was completed, Will G. Steel's prediction as superintendent of the national park in July 1914, in a Mail Tribune article, seemed realized. In that year he reported the Crater Lake Auto Stage (Hall Taxi Co.) as leaving Medford "loaded to its fullest capacity. . . . In a few years Crater Lake was bound to be the most famous resort in America."
    Now, it is annually visited by thousands of tourists over the Medford entrance road. However, it is not likely that many of the modern tourists achieve a thrill like Mrs. Root, who hiked to the rim "with not one man-made thing in sight."
Medford Mail Tribune, December 6, 1953, page 14


    "That'll be $1.25 please. Hope you find the road good over the summit."
    That's exactly what would have happened to you if you drove your buggy over the Siskiyou summit after 1859 and up to about 1913. It seems hardly possible that the old roads were financed in such a way with the current more indirect methods now in use. But it worked and was one way, at least according to records, to keep roads in fair shape and still make some money for the person that "owned the road."
    It seems hardly possible in a time of great public road projects that private persons controlled the roads on an original "pay as you go" basis. According to Jacksonville Museum records of the Siskiyou Wagon Road Company, the road was first opened for toll charges on Aug. 28, 1859, and two horsemen were the first customers at 25 cents each. The Lindsay Applegate family operated the road after moving from the Umpqua to the toll house near the present railroad location of Steinman.
Business Not Bad
    Business wasn't half bad. Everybody paid, evidently based on some index of road wear and tear. Prices started with 25 cents for a horseman to a drove of 700 sheep for $20. The most consistent revenue was the stage company, which paid a monthly rate, averaging about $80. At the end of the Civil War, this was just about the only revenue during the bad winter months. However, a year's total for 1864 was $3,738--a tidy sum in those times.
    Road maintenance was extremely hard work in those days. The Applegate cash journal and "Diary of the Weather," which is being preserved by Mrs. Myrtle Lee at the museum, reports that during the particularly stormy winter of 1871 the drifts were quite deep. On Feb. 21, 1871, the diary stated that the company "break (broke) snow all day with three men and two yoak (yoke) of oxen pulled the stage to the summit." They also reported "blasting" rocks out "of the canyon" on numerous occasions. The road in use at this time was evidently not the first road in entirety, as a diary entry of Dec. 28, 1868 reports of a trip to the summit of the mountain on "the old (1848) road" on which they "got two deer killed there yesterday by Frank French."
    Lindsay and Jesse Applegate made their first trip from Yoncalla in a party of 15 men over the Siskiyous (boundary mountains) into Mexican territory about 1846, according to a short essay by Frank L. Applegate, prior to the above-mentioned road. A path very near to the toll road was evidently used by the U.S. Exploring Expedition in 1841. A group led by Lt. Emmons passed over the boundary range into Mexican territory and passed by Pilot Rock. Charles Wilkes, USN, who recorded the adventure of the naval expedition, said that in places the group traversed ". . . a steep and narrow path, where a single horse has barely room to pass." Indians impeded their progress, he related, with the burning of trees to fall across the path "and many other impediments placed to prevent the party from advancing."
Sold Road in 1871
    Such were the hazards of early travel over the Siskiyous. The Applegates sold the toll road privileges to James Thornton in 1871, and Thornton in turn sold to the third and final owners, the Dollarhide family.
    A well-known native of the Ashland community, Clarence E. Lane, remembers may trips over the mountains. He related that in the early days the road "was traveled quite a bit. The Ashland band and ballplayers would often go over the mountains to Yreka."
    He remembers the old stage route, which went from Ashland, with as many as six stages leaving in one morning. First stop was either Casey's or Barron's, he related. They would then climb a small hill over to Wagner Soda Springs where the road forked for the Greensprings route to Linkville (Klamath Falls) or over the Siskiyous. "Depending on the weather, the stages would then leave the station. If it was snowing, sleds would be used from this point," he continued.
    The Siskiyou stage road would then wind up to a point beyond the present Steinman on the railroad right of way where the toll gate was located. According to the Applegate toll book and diary, various travelers would spend the night at the toll house. The road then wound up to the summit where the stages would meet in a widened area just this side of Cole's, the next stage stop, Lane said.
    It was a long time before the road was improved for all-weather travel. A "better roads" movement, in which Jackson County was the premier county of Oregon, saw action by 1913. Judge Frank L. TouVelle, Jacksonville, who was county judge at the time, recalls purchasing the toll road rights for the county from the Dollarhides for $1,600. TouVelle said that the dirt stage road was followed closely on the new grading project, as "there wasn't enough money to buy new right of ways."
Didn't Come Easy
    Although part of a historic link of Pacific Coast states, the new road didn't come easily, as attested to by articles in the Mail Tribune during the period.
    An Oct. 16, 1913 article reported that the only thing holding back the advertising for bids was securing rights of way "for the new road over the Siskiyous" and "for alterations along the present road, such as eliminations of sharp turns and the deeding of needed strips for a uniform width of 60 feet. . . ." Further, "in many places the present road is but 40 or 50 feet wide."
    On Nov. 20, the firm of H. A. Keasel and W. M. McDowell of a logging firm at Tacoma, Wash., was awarded the grading contract for $107,534.30--the lowest of nine bids. The award was the basis for elaborate plans by a committee headed by Benjamin Sheldon for the digging of the first shovelful of dirt of the new road. Accepting an invitation on the occasion was Samuel Hill of Seattle, called by the Mail Tribune the "most prominent good roads enthusiast of the Northwest."
    The M-T edition of Nov. 28, 1913 had this to say of the occasion: "In the presence of Gov. Oswald West and the state highway commission and a hundred prominent citizens of Jackson County, the first shovelful of earth in the construction of the Pacific Highway in Oregon was over, Kittredge, the resident engineer reported on Jan. 21 that plans for the Siskiyou camp for convicts and at Gold Ray quarry were abandoned "on account of the large number of unemployed in the county."
    Originally the road was to be 24 feet wide, with 16 feet of hard-surfaced road, and a maximum grade of 6 percent. However, on Feb. 11, the county court decided, along with the highway engineer, to pave only 8 feet in width over the Siskiyous with 8 feet graded on each side, according to the M-T. "This will cut down the cost and leave money enough to complete the grade through the county," the article added.
    Contractor Sweeney located his first camp at Steinman, with later ones at Siskiyou and also near Cole's or at Colestin where the heavy rock work is on the other side of the divide.
    Judge TouVelle accomplished one of his campaign promises with the depositing of cash from most of the $500,000 bond issue in Jackson County banks. That was the recognizing of county warrants at par value.
    A grand jury investigation was held on the contracting matter, but the evidence against the Portland contractors was not sufficient for indictment. Certain "highly scandalous unsigned letters" were referred to by the jury in regard to alleged attempts by the contractors to discredit TouVelle and Bowlby, according to the M-T.
    After the paving, the 8-foot stretch was not widened to 16 feet until 1920, according to County Engineer Paul Rynning.
Siskiyou County Work
    At the same time Jackson County was paving its stretch, Siskiyou County in California was working on its part of the Pacific Highway. The new road was the turning point in the history of two Siskiyou County towns as Yreka outbid Montague for the highway site. The old road passed through Montague in what was called a "disgraceful stretch of mire." The Siskiyou line met the Jackson County road a mile north of Cole on the mountaintop.
    Grants Pass in Josephine County was not interested in the Pacific Highway at this time, and Hill proposed that the county send its 1915 tourists to Crater Lake and thence through central Oregon over "good natural roads to Biggs. . . ." Hill suggested this route, as the Willamette Valley area had also "refused to cooperate" in his Pacific Highway plan. Grants Passers were even wooed by a "Lt. Marshall," who was really an escaped convict, who offered to re-route the highway via the Applegate and leave Medford off the line. Fortunately, he was discovered as an impostor.
    In the fall of 1933, what had been considered "modern" in 1913 was again out of date, and work began on the first unit of a new route that was above and to the west of the 1913 road. On Dec. 14, the M-T reported construction under way on the first unit by William von der Hellen and Pierson from Neil Creek to Wall Creek.
    This entirely new road was a considerably different one from the old type "which followed the line of least resistance," according to von der Hellen. He related that hard workers and new equipment were able to cope with the building. He termed some of the new roadbed as through "tombstone granite." He completed about five miles of the present road, with the remainder done in units. The road was completed to the state line in about four years, he added.
    This road is still modern and was actually one of the first attempts to straighten the Pacific Highway in Oregon. This project was continuing in Jackson County last summer, with the next county stretch to be from Blackwell Hill to Central Point.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 13, 1953, page 14


    Two Jackson County roads played a vital part in early-day history, although their present-day importance is overshadowed by other thoroughfares. These are the Dead Indian Rd. and Highway 238 via Ruch and Applegate.
    Within the memory of County Judge James Blin Coleman, there have been at least three roads over the Dead Indian route to Lake o' Woods and Ft. Klamath. The first road was the Civil War road in the early Indian days, he related, which was used by newspaper men who raced over it to Ashland to telegraph the message of Captain Jack's hanging Oct. 3, 1873 at Ft. Klamath
Remember Route
    The next road went on the left side of the ridge from the present one, according to County Engineer Paul Rynning, who surveyed the present route. Travel over the second road is remembered by several parties who took early wagon, buggy or car trips.
    This was really a tough trip, according to Rynning, as the grade up to the summit was 26 percent before it was reduced to 10 percent on the present road. In August of 1897, a party went over the route from the Rogue Valley to Lake o' Woods in a wagon owned by Barney Miller. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Lane of Ashland were among those making the trip, which lasted about 12 days on the road both ways, including their stay at the lake.
    En route, the group camped at Arthur Hunt's ranch near Beaver Creek, according to Lane. He described the road as "terribly rough" and "bumpy," being "all rock" in several places. "We didn't have any flat tires like modern cars, but a lot of loose wheels, which we bound down with wire," Lane continued.
Got Lost
    He also noted "sticky mud," which forced the driver to remove the brake blocks from the wagon. Upon arriving within sight of Lake o' Woods, Lane said that he and Jack Briggs took off ahead of the rest in their haste to get to the lake's edge. "It couldn't have been over 200 yards," he explained, "but we got lost. We fired our guns and those at the wagon returned the fire. A little later we came out about 10 feet from where we started, going in a complete circle."   
    The Ashlander related that travel over the road was very sparse, with cattle from the nearby ranches the chief users of the road.
    A few years later, in August of 1903, a group of four traversed the same road from the other end on a circle drive via Crater Lake. Making this journey in a covered buggy or "hack" were Chet Parker, Route 3, Box 361, Press Phipps of Medford and "Doc" Edwards and Art Anderson. The group accurately recorded their journey with numerous photographs which were printed by George Mackey, brother to Henry (Stovepipe) Mackey, famous Medford photographer, according to Parker.
Visited Ft. Klamath
    After visiting Crater Lake, the group went to the Ft. Klamath area and toured the buildings still standing. After viewing the old sternwheeler Jessie at Rocky Point on Pelican Bay, the group went on to Lake o' Woods, where they stayed overnight. Parker said that the group built a fire to ward off the mosquitoes, "but that they came right into the smoke and almost ate us up." It took the group two to three days to go from the lake into Ashland, he noted. He referred to the Dead Indian Road as a "cow trail," and remembered a few homesteaders along the route.
    While descending the steep road from the summit into Ashland, Parker said that they tied a log on the back of the hack to hold down the speed of the buggy on the grade. All members of the group were fully armed with rifles but didn't shoot a thing, he added.
    Coleman also remembered a Model T auto trip about 1918, which took about four hours to reach the lake. Rynning also noted the same type of vehicle use and said he utilized the same method as the buggy party by using a fir tree on the rear of the car to keep the rear end down while coming down the grade.
    The present road replaced the second road over a period of about 10 years, Rynning said. The first survey was made in the spring of 1920 and a section built the same year. Grading continued a section at a time until the 1930s. "The biggest change," he added, "was reducing the grade from Ice House Canyon to the summit by 16 percent." The whole road has never been paved, although about 4 miles of the lower end was oiled. The county crews are still working on it, the engineer pointed out, by improving the old alignment, widening and cutting off bad points.
Early Day Road
    One of the earliest roads in the county was the Ruch Rd. from Jacksonville. Kasper Kubli, a pioneer in the Applegate Valley, used a wagon road in the fall of 1852 and camped directly across the Applegate River from the present community of Applegate, according to his grandson, E. W. Kubli, who now lives one-half mile from the original pioneer homestead of the family.
    The grandfather operated a pack train from Jacksonville to Crescent City, Calif., which utilized the Applegate River road route and was the principal means of getting freight into booming Jacksonville. The route was precarious at the best, and at one occasion Indians raided the pack train, E. W. Kubli said, and his grandfather and the grandfather's brother were the only ones who escaped, although the brother was seriously wounded.
    During the same period from about 1852 to 1859, Peter Britt also operated a pack train over the same route, according to Mrs. Myrtle Lee, curator of the Jacksonville Museum. A Spanish pack box-type saddle for pack mules is now in the museum which was used on the route.
    Travel was apparently considerable, and settlement increased a few years later as the Kublis erected a trading post and stage house in 1857, which was operated until 1900. The house was located about 2 miles from the present Applegate community.
Just Trail
    E. W. Kubli reported he could remember when the road into Jacksonville was "just a trail. We used to pull the singletree out from the buggy when we went down the old Jacksonville Hill road because it was so steep," he related. He described it as a one-way road with "lots of places almost impassable." Kubli reported very little difference from the old dirt road to the present paved road down through the Applegate Valley. The main change was the rerouting of the road over Jacksonville Hill.
    The old route over the hill left Jacksonville by way of Oregon St. and is still in existence, meeting the present road at the top of the hill. At the top of the hill a highwayman once held up the stage going to the famous Blue Ledge copper mine in the early 1900s. The stage driver, Oscar (Duke) Lewis, is still a resident of Jacksonville.
    Travel to the Blue Ledge was very busy over the Jacksonville-Ruch section and then up the Upper Applegate Rd. where it branches at Ruch, according to Mrs. Harry Whitney of Jacksonville. Mrs. Whitney was an employee of the mine for a period, and her husband also worked there. She recalled about three stages a week to the mine. The first stop after leaving Jacksonville was the old Henry Bowden place, where the horses were watered and whiskey sold "by the gallon." Stops followed at Ruch, McKee (dinner served), Watkins and Joe's Bar. A place called Eileen, about one-half mile from the mine, was the last stop and first stop after payday.
    Mrs. Lee also recalled taking a stage out the Applegate as a young girl to stay a week or so at the Basye ranch. She recalled that the stage had to ford the Applegate in one place and she was "scared stiff."
Recalls Trip
    Early travel over the road to the Upper Applegate and main valley road is well remembered by Dave Dorn, who was born in the U.S. Hotel 75 years ago. Dorn, now night watchman at the Jacksonville Museum, lived on a mining claim in the Upper Applegate for many years, and was also road supervisor for Jackson County on the Jacksonville-Provolt section from 1918 to '19.
    At the time he was in charge of the road, the small creeks were forded and wooden bridges were over the larger streams. He recalls traveling down to the Josephine County line and "catching fits from the adjacent farmers who thought they weren't getting their share of road work from the taxes they paid." Dorn said they thought their whole tax bill went for road improvement and not other functions of government, also.
    Repairing roads in those days was "pick and shovel" work, he added, and he usually hired one or two men to help him. When the work got too heavy there were always men available living along the road who helped him. On really big jobs, he would use a team from a farm and haul a scraper along the road surface, Dorn said.
Three Tracks
    The road got very muddy in places, he continued, and when cars became frequent there would be "three tracks down the road. Two for the tires and one for the crankcase."
    The "straight up" portion of the old road was alleviated over Jacksonville Hill before the present road was paved. Rynning ran the survey over the hill and said "we thought it was a good job in those days." The same section is now being changed right now with the grading done from the top of the hill back towards Jacksonville for about 1½ miles, and paving is scheduled for next spring. The old "kinks" are removed.
    This section over the hill was the principal change over the old dirt road and very welcome at the time, according to Dorn. Heavy oiling of the road was done first from Medford to Jacksonville and from the top of the hill to Ruch about 1924, with the center section from the hill to Jacksonville completed about 1927, Rynning noted. Paving was later completed from Ruch to Grants Pass. The road was made a secondary state highway in 1928.
Tiller-Trail Route
    Another road out of the Rogue Valley, which is "modern" in vintage compared to those two, is the Tiller-Trail Highway. Completion of the route by the 1940s was done with much controversy, as it would leave out Grants Pass and other Highway 99 points. The road was oiled in sections during the '30s. Rynning pointed out that although the route has only one summit, it is higher than any one of the three on Highway 99.
    The route was early heralded in the Mail Tribune as shortening the distance between Medford and Portland by 40 miles and an hour in time, according to an article on July 11, 1929. The article noted that the Tiller-Trail route was the original road surveyed and was "once considered the most practical route for the present Pacific Highway." It was termed an "easy grade" and supported by Willamette Valley communities, Portland commercial interests and stage concerns. The route would also give a faster and shorter route to Crater Lake from these points, the proponents believed.
    However, the road never materialized as an arterial highway and is still in relatively little use, especially in the winter.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 20, 1953, page 14