Oregon Trail Cutoff to the Barlow Road
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Volcanoguy
N 45° 21.724 W 120° 47.020
10T E 673576 N 5025562
Beaver Board - Oregon History - Oregon Trail Cutoff to the Barlow Road
Waymark Code: WMXR2
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 11/05/2006
Views: 24
This “Beaver Board” sign on Oregon History is about the Oregon Trail Cutoff to the Barlow Road and is located along U.S. Hwy. 97 in a small community park in Grass Valley.
Marker Name: Oregon Trail Cutoff to the Barlow Road
Marker Text: Samuel K. Barlow established a wagon road in 1846 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 crossing the John Day River on a “Cutoff to the Barlow Road” through what is today Sherman County. Although emigrants complained of a scarcity of water and firewood, the trail was relatively easy until the canyon of the Deschutes River. Riley Root made this trek in 1848; he described the ordeal as “almost as difficult of descent and ascent, as the valley of Sinbad the sailor, with nearly precipitous rocks, from 1000 to 1500 feet high on every side....” The balance of the Barlow Road across the Cascade Range was equally arduous.
Despite its difficulty, Barlow’s Road was a success -- and the Cutoff to the Barlow Road shortened the distance to settlements in the Willamette Valley even more. This “shortcut” also contributed to the settlement of Sherman County, which later became known as the “Golden Land” because of its fields of golden grain.
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