Applegate Trail

We only learned about this because we found a cache near the base of a trail marker designating the path as a National Historic Trail. If not for geocaching, again we would have missed out on something quite interesting.

I didn’t remember this but folks who traveled the Oregon Trail to the coast in the 1800’s could only complete the trail by loading their wagons and all their personal goods on a raft and run down the Columbia River, a very dangerous untamed river at the time. Many settlers lost everything, including their lives, trying to make this last mad dash to the Pacific. In 1843, the Applegate family navigated the Oregon Trail, and lost two of their children while trying to navigate the Columbia River gorge.

In 1846, Jesse and Lindsay Applegate set out to find a more southerly route to Oregon that would bypass the treacherous Columbia River. To do this, Jesse and Lindsay set out from Fort Hall Idaho on what was then known as the California Trail. Heading North along the Umpqua River they eventually crossed the Calapooya Mountains and entered the Willamette Valley. While they had managed to bypass the Columbia River gorge, the trail forged by Jesse and Lindsay Applegate was far from easy, and held its own severe threats for settlers attempting to follow it.

In Sunny Valley, a small town along the Umpqua River and the historic Applegate Trail we discovered a great museum literally filled with Applegate stuff. The museum not only had movies, dioramas and signage that helped you understand what being on the trail might be like, they had lots of actual things that had actually traveled the historic trail in the mid-1800’s. For example, this is the steamer chest that Jesse Applegate used to hold his most precious personal items as they blazed the trail.

And this was the violin that Lindsay Applegate played along the Trail when he needed some cheering up. Apparently, he was a very accomplished violinist.

In 1846 Jesse convinced about 150 immigrants to follow his trail rather than the Oregon Trail. While the path had been blazed, it had not been cleared enough in many places to allow for the passage of wagons and teams. Jesse and his crew worked to clear the road as they went, allowing the 150 to pass. One day, Jesse headed out to clear the trail and was never heard from again.

Near the museum, we found this early 1900’s era covered bridge. A 16-year-old young girl who was engaged to be married once she reached the coast died of scarlet fever here while attempting to cross the Applegate Trail. While she didn’t drown in the Columbia River, she still didn’t make it.

She was buried near the later site of the covered bridge. At the time, the settlers negotiating the Applegate Trail named the creek she was buried by Grave Creek. The name of the creek remains to this day.

Talk to you soon!