Lane County’s Applegate Trails
Posted by: 
TheBeanTeam
N 44° 03.643 W 123° 05.836
10T E 492209 N 4878621
History of an early Pioneer trail in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Part of what is considered a "California Historic Trail".
Waymark Code: WM98K
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 03/20/2006
Views: 40
….we traveled along the base of the Calapooias, our course being nearly southeast, passing near a prominent peak since called Spencer’s Butte…..One of our party succeeded in capturing an old Indian, and representing to him by signs the course we wished to follow, the old fellow preceded us two or three miles, and put us on a dim trail which had been marked by twisting the tops of the brush along the route. It had only been used as a foot-trail and but seldom at that.
Lindsay Applegate
Recollections of 1846
Marker Text:
The Applegate Trail evolved into two separate routes in Lane County. The western route, originally a trappers’ trail, followed the Long Tom River and eventually became the preferred route of the Applegate Trail. The eastern route, however, carried the first Applegate Trail emigrants. This route was established in 1846 by Levi Scott, Moses “Black” Harris, Cornelius Gilliam and others from Polk county. Leaving the old trappers’ trail, the explorers cut across to what are today Eugene and Cottage Grove. They managed to find a new route across the Calapooya Mountains and into the Umpqua Watershed before the expedition collapsed. Returning for reinforcements, Jesse Applegate assumed leadership and together with fourteen others successfully linked the route with the main California Trail. The top of nearby Skinner Butte provides an excellent view of the explorers’ path through this region.
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