Applegate Trail / Oakland History - Oakland, Oregon
Posted by: 
ddtfamily
N 43° 25.280 W 123° 17.947
10T E 475786 N 4807648
Informational marker mounted on a historic warehouse building
Waymark Code: WMG6C6
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 01/19/2013
Views: 2
This historical marker is mounted on the front of an 1870s wooden warehouse that was built by the Oregon-California Railroad near the site of the Oakland depot.
Marker Text:
The Applegate Trail
~Southern Route to Oregon~In 1846, Jesse Applegate and fourteen others from near Dallas, Oregon, established a trail south from the Willamette Valley and east to Fort Hall. This route offered emigrants an alternative to the perilous "last leg" of the Oregon Trail down the treacherous Columbia River.
The first emigrants to trek the new "Southern Road" left with the trailblazers from Fort Hall in early August 1846. With Levi Scott acting as a guide, while Jesse Applegate traveled ahead to mark the route, the hardy emigrants blazed a wagon trail through nearly 500 miles of wilderness arriving in the upper Applegate Trail in later years and contributing greatly to the settlement of southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley.
______________________________________OAKLAND
A Town is Born
Applegate Trail emigrants found the descent of Canyon Creek the most difficult in their travels. Weakened by sickness and hunger, and beset by the loss of livestock, some spent the winter of 1846-47 in this valley. Rev. Joseph A. Cornwall, unwilling to abandon his library, erected the first cabin, about a mile to the north, where he and his family waited for better weather and health before moving on. In 1851, Dr. Dorsey S. Baker established the region's first grist mill and town--Oakland--across Calapooya Creek from the Cornwalls' cabin. Construction of the Oregon & California Railroad in 1872 caused the relocation and founding of a new town by Alonzo F. Brown.
Click a photo to enlarge
Visit Instructions:
Include your thoughts and observations pertaining to this location and your visit. Provide any additional history that you are aware of that pertains to this location. If the marker commemorates a historic building tell us what it is used for now or share with us the circumstances of an earlier visit to bring this locations history to life.
Please upload a favorite photograph you took of the waymark. Although visiting this waymark in person is the only thing required of you to receive credit for your visit, taking the time to add this information is greatly appreciated.
Be creative.