Calendar

Past Activity

Exploring the Santiam Wagon Road

  • Start date: 06/14/2017

  • Start time: 12:00 AM

  • End date: 06/14/2017

  • End time: 11:59 PM

Description:

What is the Santiam Wagon Road? Where is it? Join this Obsidian bus trip to find out and explore the old road across the Cascades. Beginning at Sweet Home the road followed old Indian trails from the 1860’s until 1939 when the south Santiam Highway was completed. We will travel the highway in comfort, stopping at view points along the way. The drive up into the Cascades is always beautiful. The major stop for this trip will be at Fish Lake, the site of the most popular road house on the road. We’ll enjoy Fish Lake and a tour of the historic site hosted by the Friends of Fish Lake. Other stops will take us to the Sweet Home Museum and the Forest Service office to complete the story of the Santiam Wagon Road. It will be wild flower season too! BRING A SACK LUNCH.

Please make checks payable to: Obsidians Bus Trips Account
Cost: Members $50 Non-members $52 Due May 25
RESERVATIONS & MAIL CHECKS TO: Mary Lee Cheadle 541-689-1085
3225 Richard Ave., Eugene, OR 97402

  • Event Leader: West Mary Ellen

  • Assistant Leader:

  • Event category: Bus Trips

  • Area Type:

  • Departure Location: See Trip Description

  • Rating:

  • Roundtrip total drive miles:

  • Season: 2017

  • Permits Required:

  • Event Status: Passed

  • Supplies and Equipment Required:

  • participant prerequisites:

  • Conditions:

  • Total Distance:

  • Member Fees: 50

  • Elevation Gain:

  • Non-Member Fees: 52

  • Committee: Bus Trips

  • Junior member fees: —

Trip Report

The Sweet Home Ranger District hosted 31 Obsidians and friends June 14th to begin our effort to discover the Santiam Wagon Road. Personal stories from the road made our day of history more fun. Marcia Morse, longtime forest service volunteer and student of the trail, shared her collection of pictures and stories including from her own family experiences on the wagon road. Lina Cheadle’s 1910 letter to her son, Richard (later Mary Lee Cheadle’s dad), told the story of a family trip on the road from Cascadia to Sisters and back. They walked a lot. Our thanks to Charlotte Skvortsov for typing the letter written to her grandfather. And thanks to Mary Lee Cheadle and Janet Jacobsen for sharing information and stories. The original road from Albany to Sisters and beyond provided commerce in both directions. Today 19.5 miles of the wagon road is developed as a trail system, starting at the Mountain House trail head to a terminus at Fish Lake. A bus stop at the Tombstone Pass entry to the wagon road had wonderful spring wild flowers and snow to enjoy. We stopped at the Cascadia Road House location, one of the most popular, now a state park. From 1900 – 1941 it was a resort where people came for the “waters”. Mary Lee Cheadle remembers folks liking the mineral water and taking some home. It’s gone now, so no sampling. Our final stop was at the most popular road house at Fish Lake. Since the mid 1800’s thousands of travelers along with their livestock, pack animals and freight passed through here. Before the settlers, the native Kalopuya and Molalla Indians fished, hunted and gathered huckleberries here. By 1905 the US Forest Service had an outpost here and last was a remount depot until 2005. Efforts at historical interpretation, preservation and landscape restoration are the focus now. Rolf Anderson, President of Friends of Fish Lake and Jim Denney, McKenzie River Ranger District summer employee shared their knowledge and enthusiasm for the area, buildings and history. We concluded our day walking on the Santiam Wagon Road.

Members & Guests signed-up & waitlisted

No. Status Full name Phone Transportation Needed? Trip Fee # Can Take?
1 Signed-Up West, Mary Ellen 541-342-8672 N 52
2 Signed-Up Ewing, Joella 541-513-7896 N 50
3 Signed-Up Ewing, Jack 541-344-9197 N 52
4 Signed-Up Gadomski, Sharon 541-896-0936 N 52
5 Signed-Up Greer, Esme 281-701-0206 N 52
6 Signed-Up Greer, Joel 281-701-0205 N 52
7 Signed-Up Halpern, Betsy 541-729-3949 N 50
8 Signed-Up Jacobsen, Janet 541-206-1251 N 50
9 Signed-Up Northrop, Jim 541-343-3426 N 50
10 Signed-Up Payne, Don 541-452-3617 N 50
11 Signed-Up Phelps, Judy 541-726-0118 N 52
12 Signed-Up Prentice, Margaret 541-556-6596 N 50
13 Signed-Up Shirk, Velma 541-915-0747 N 52
14 Signed-Up Wallace, Barbara 541-933-3337 N 52
15 Signed-Up Dickerman, Betty 541-689-1462 N 52
16 Signed-Up Krentz, Alice 541-221-4898 N 52
17 Signed-Up Bolles, Shirley 541-359-9159 N 52
18 Signed-Up Carpenter, Jane 541-484-2575 N 52
19 Signed-Up Cross, Richmond 541-434-4154 N 52
20 Signed-Up Kropf, Earl 541-466-3391 N 52
21 Signed-Up Lynch, Marilyn 541-726-8009 N 52
22 Signed-Up Skvortsov, Charlotte 503-263-6315 N 52
23 Signed-Up Adamcyk, Thomas 541-302-8160 N 50
24 Signed-Up Allen, Ethel 541-736-0692 N 52
25 Signed-Up Arthur, Bill 541-844-5156 N 52
26 Signed-Up Beard, Barbara 541-994-2337 N 50
27 Signed-Up Beard, Paul 541-994-2337 N 50
28 Signed-Up Beard, Paula 541-968-0013 N 50
29 Signed-Up Bruns, Barbara 541-485-7285 N 52
30 Signed-Up Cheadle, Mary Lee 541-689-1085 N 52
31 Signed-Up Cutsforth, Sharon 541-735-4703 N 50