OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Subject:  Famous camping spot and the last sight of the Snake River for the westbound emigrants.
HISTORIC OREGON TRAIL
The last camp on the weary journey across the Snake River plains. Here the Oregon Trail left the Snake River and wound overland to the Columbia. Here, camped Wilson Price Hunt, December 23, 1811; Capt. Bonneville, January 10, 1834; Nathaniel J. Wyeth, August 25, 1834; John C. Fremont, October 13, 1843.

Subject:  Describes the history of the controversial ditch built from 1863 to 1878 to carry water for gold mining.
HISTORIC ELDORADO DITCH 1863-1925
A remarkable construction enterprise of its time, the ‘Eldorado Ditch’ carried water for placed mining from the Burnt River above Unity, over Eldorado Pass to Malheur City and the Willow Creek Drainage. Conceived and designed by William H. Packwood and constructed by Chinese labor, the ditch was started in …

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Subject:William Clark’s visit to this area in 1806 and his purchase of whale oil and blubber from the local Indians.
ECOLA
On January 8, 1806 William Clark and perhaps fourteen of the famous expedition reached a Tillamook village of five cabins on a creek which Captain Clark named Ecola or Whale Creek. Three days earlier, two men sent out from Fort Clatsop to locate a salt making site had brought back whale …

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Subject: Durkee was a favorite emigrant campground and later a relay and stage station.
HISTORICAL OREGON TRAIL
This spot was famous in early days as Express Ranch an important relay station on the Umatilla-Boise Basin Stage and Freight Route. It was also a favorite camping place for emigrants and teamsters
Hwy/milepost: Old 30 MP 327

TIC and ODOT sign crews install new Dayton marker

Courthouse Square Park Marker, installed June 2013

Dedication of the Courthouse Square Park marker in Dayton, July 18, 2013

Courthouse Square Park
Fort Yamhill Blockhouse
Courthouse Square Park is a monument to the civic and commercial aspirations of Dayton’s founders, Joel Palmer, his son-in-law Andrew Smith and Christopher Taylor. Palmer and Taylor, who settled here to farm in 1848, laid out the town site on …

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Subject:  A shortcut to the Barlow Road from the Oregon Trail
Samuel K. Barlow established a wagon road in 1845-46 from The Dalles across the Cascade Range. Many Oregon Trail emigrants preferred the new road to the perilous Columbia River route, which had claimed many lives. The Barlow Road allowed emigrants to drive wagons to the Willamette Valley for the first time.
By 1848 many overlanders left the Oregon Trail soon after …

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Subject: Describes three different Oregon Trail cutoff routes that wagon trails took from this location
Eager to save time on the Oregon Trail, emigrants often attempted shortcuts. Between 1845 and 1854, tree wagon trains left this campsite seeking a cutoff to the Willamette Valley
Sidebar #1
The Meek Cutoff of 1845
Frontiersman Stephen Meek persuaded over 1,000 people with 200 wagons to avoid the notorious Blue Mountains, Cayuse Indians, and Columbia River by turning west …

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Subject: Story of perserverance and recovery by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians.
The story of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is a tale of perseverance and strong recovery in the face of great loss. Epidemics and hostilities with miners let to large population declines. The tribe entered into a treaty with the United States in 1853, and ceded nearly 800 square miles for less than three …

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