...The old Hudson's Bay Company pack trail, called "the old California Trail" on early maps, ran south from the Marys River staying on the west side of the meandering swamp known as the Long Tom. Passing present Monroe it went almost due south through Lorane to Drain and Yoncalla in Douglas County.
This route later became - and parts of it are still known as - Territorial Road. It became a stage route between the Willamette Valley and California. The first telegraph line into the valley used this route, providing transcontinental service beginning in March 1864, when the mayors of Portland, Maine, and Portland, Oregon, exchanged greetings by wire. Cartwright's Mountain House south of Lorane, a Lane County historical site, was a stage stop and telegraph relay station on this route.
But this Territorial Road, which missed Eugene City by 12 miles, did not help much in providing communication with the rest of the valley.
Over on the east side of the valley, the old Molalla Indian trail also became a Territorial Road in 1851. It ran along the foothills of the Cascades through Silverton and Lebanon to Brownsville. It was extended south from Brownsville to cross the McKenzie at Spores Ferry and enter the Forks of the McKenzie and Springfield area. Skinner's ferry connected it with Eugene City.
Another wagon road used by some of the earliest immigrants coming into the valley from the south ran north from Skinner's through present Santa Clara and wandered off to the northwest to cross the troublesome Long Tom near Monroe and then on north across the flat, soggy prairie to Winkle Butte and Marysville.
A branch of this road turned northeast at Lancaster to ford or ferry the Willamette near Harrisburg. In seasons when it was usable it provided connection with New Albany and Chemeketa, but much of the time it was impassable.
In the 1920s these routes became the Pacific Highway, 99W and 99E.
The Oregon State Historic Preservation Office mentions some interesting history revolved around this historical marker on their inventory datasheet from 1976: