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Sign, "Barlow Road Route", The Dalles, Oregon.
Image taken September 28, 2011.
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Oregon Trail ...
The Oregon Trail ran approximately 2,000 miles from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains and then to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The trip took four to six months. Independence, Missouri, is considered the beginning of the Oregon Trail and Oregon City, Oregon, is considered the end. The trail was busy, lasting from the early 1840s and ending with the coming of the railroad at the end of the 1860s.
Large scale migration began in 1843, when a wagon train of over 800 people with 120 wagons and 5,000 cattle made the five month journey.
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Barlow Road ...
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The Barlow Road is a part of the Oregon Trail, being established in 1845, making its way around the south side of Mount Hood. This road provided an alternative to the dangerous and expensive route that used rafts to transport wagons down the Columbia River.
The Barlow Road began at The Dalles, headed south through Dufur and Tygh Valley, then turned west and north through Barlow Pass and Government Camp, passing through "Tollgate #5" and continued to the community of Sandy, where it turned west and ended up at Oregon City.
In 1992 The Barlow Road was added to the National Register of Historic Places (Event #92000334).
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Barlow Road History ...
"Sam Barlow, in the summer of 1845 arrived in The Dalles, Oregon from Missouri. He discovered another hazardous portion of the Oregon Trail. The Columbia River! This river must either be crossed twice or rafted down at exorbitant prices. He learned that he could follow an old Indian Trail around the south side of Mount Hood, a route that had not been used by fellow immigrants. The initial Barlow Road was used early in 1846, and was 80 to 90 miles in length. During the first year 145 wagons arrived by this new route, bringing to Oregon, and Sandy, nearly a thousand settlers with their droves of horses and cattle. About the best that could be said for improvements to it were the Laurel Hill section, with its 60% drop, was eliminated with switchbacks, and Mr. Revenue put a bridge over the Sandy River, and fording areas were improved. Railroads to California in the 1870's and then to Oregon in the 1880's eliminated most of the travel over the Barlow Road."
Source:
Oregon Historical Society website, 2009
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"The Barlow Road was the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail before reaching the Willamette Valley. This road provided an alternative to the dangerous and expensive route that used rafts to transport wagons down the Columbia River. But it was not free. The Barlow Road was the first place on the 2,100 mile Oregon Trail where tolls were charged. When the road opened in 1846, tolls were $5.00 per wagon and 10 cents for every head of livestock. Five dollars was about one week's wages, but consider the alternative -- floating down the Columbia River in boats or rafts cost nearly $50.00! By 1863, tolls had changed to $2.50 per wagon and team, 75 cents for horse and rider, and 10 cents for other livestock.
The Barlow Road operated under many owners as a toll road from 1846 to 1919. There were no tolls after 1919 when the estate of the final owner deeded the road to the State of Oregon. ..."
Source:
U.S. National Park Service website, 2009
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"Following an Indian trail, Barlow managed to get his wagons about halfway around the mountain before being forced to admit defeat. At the crest of the Cascade Mountains, Joel Palmer climbed the glacier now named for him and scouted a route off the mountain. Palmer saw that there was little chance of getting the wagons through, so the party sent some of their wagons back to The Dalles and cached the rest of their possessions at a spot they christened Fort Deposit. Most of the party and their livestock was able to enter the Willamette Valley by following the Lolo Pass Trail, an old Indian trail around the northwest flank of Mt. Hood that was too narrow and steep to allow wagons to pass. Thus free to proceed on foot, Palmer, Barlow, and Barlow's eldest son attempted to walk off the mountain.
Exhausted, footsore, and cold, Palmer and the Barlows stumbled into Eagle Creek and met local resident Philip Foster. Rejoining his wife and family in Oregon City, Barlow spent the winter contemplating his route over Mt. Hood. He approached the Provisional Government and obtained official permission to build the Mount Hood Toll Road in early 1846. The Provisional Government allowed him to charge $5 a wagon and 10¢ a head for livestock to use the Road.
With Philip Foster as his financial backer and a crew of forty men, Barlow hacked out a narrow road through forests, rivers, and marshy meadows from The Dalles to Oregon City, a distance of about 150 miles. Reuban Gant is recorded to have driven the first wagon across the new road in 1846; Barlow reported to the Oregon Spectator -- the first newspaper published west of the Rockies -- that 145 wagons and nearly 1600 head of livestock made it over the Road that first year."
Source:
Oregon-California Trails Association website, 2011, "Final Leg of the Oregon Trail"
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Mount Hood from Highway 26.
Parts of Highway 26 follow the old Barlow Road, part of the Oregon Trail.
Image taken August 16, 2009.
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Tollgate #1, Gate Creek, Tygh Valley ...
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1846 to 1852:
The first of five tollgates on the Barlow Road operated at Gate Creek, Tygh Valley, from 1846 to 1852.
(T4S R11E, Sec 35, Wasco County).
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Tollgate #2, Sandy River ...
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1853 to 1865:
After crossing the Sandy River, emigrants followed a long ridge called the Devil's Backbone to the lower crossing of the Sandy River. Here they encountered Francis Revenue's trading post and, from 1853-1865, the second Barlow Road tollgate.
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Tollgate #3, Summit Meadows ...
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The third tollgate was located at today's Summit Meadows, at the location wagon trains would pause and rest, preparing for the descent down Laurel Hill.
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Tollgate #4, Laurel Hill ...
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The fourth tollgate was located west of Laurel Hill, where the wagon trains regrouped after coming down the trecherous hill. A log cabin called Mountain House was built there to accomodate the travelers. The site is where the Stagecoach Road (1866 to 1925) rejoined the original Barlow Road, an area known as the "Meeting Rocks".
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Tollgate #5, Rhododendron ...
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1883 through 1918:
Between 1883 and 1918, the last and westernmost of the Barlow Road tollgates (Tollgate #5) was located near today's Rhododendron.
From the information sign, Tollgate Replica:
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"... Night of the second day brought us to the old Barlow Tollgate. It looked like any farm gate ... but it was locked and there was no way around it. Thick logs and brush barricated it on both sides ... We paid the 25 cents to pass through ... Lottie Maybee Morris, 1900".
In 1903, motorized autos began using the Barlow Road. On August 29, 1903, John B. Kelley drove the first car through the gate and up Mount Hood, returning to Government Camp with 50 pounds of snow.
In 1968 a replica tollgate was built at the location of the Tollgate #5 - a location easily found by large maple trees planted by a former tollgate keeper !!!
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Information sign, Barlow Road Tollgate Replica.
Image taken September 20, 2011.
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Barlow Road Tollgate Replica.
Image taken September 20, 2011.
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Barlow Road Tollgate Replica.
Image taken September 20, 2011.
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Barlow Road Tollgate Maples ...
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Bordering the Tollgate Replica are two large bigleaf maple trees (Acer macrophyllum), believed to have been planted by Daniel Parker, tollgate keeper from 1883 to 1902. The State of Oregon declared the two maples as "heritage trees" in 2007. During the summer of 2011 the Oregon Department of Transportation was forced to cut down the main trunk of the easternmost maple, leaving behind secondary trunks.
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"... The historic Barlow Road is a branch of the Oregon Trail that crossed the southern flank of Mount Hood. Today, a replica of the tollgate stands at the site of the original tollgate, which operated from 1879 until 1915. It is believed that two bigleaf maples were planted adjacent to the tollgate in the 1880s by Daniel Parker, the tollgate keeper at the time. Both tollgate bigleaf maple trees are at the end of their normal life span, but only one of them is leaning toward the highway and posing a hazard.
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The old bigleaf maple to be felled has several stems: a main stem, with a diameter of 25 inches, and three smaller 4- to 6-inch diameter stems growing from the base of the trunk. These three smaller stems, each about 25 feet tall, will be untouched by the project, while the decaying main stem will be reduced to a height of two to three feet. ..."
[U.S. Forest Service website, 2011, Mount Hood National Forest]
Originally the gatekeeper planted three maple trees, with the two parallel to Oregon Highway 26, framing the old toll house.
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Barlow Road Tollgate Maple.
Image taken September 20, 2011.
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Information sign, Barlow Road Tollgate Maples.
Image taken September 20, 2011.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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