Barlow Road

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A section of the Barlow Road.

The Barlow Road was the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail, crossing the Cascade Range before reaching the Willamette Valley. It began near Tygh Valley and ended at Oregon City, Oregon.

It was named for Samuel K. Barlow, who crossed the Cascade Range on approximately this route in 1845 when be brought his family to Oregon. After leaving The Dalles, Barlow's party was accompanied by Joel Palmer, who was "instrumental" in finding a way around Mount Hood and in locating Barlow Pass.^[1]

Barlow opened the road in 1846, with the permission of the Oregon Provisional Government,^[2] as a toll road charging five dollars per wagon and ten cents for every head of livestock. Many emigrants who traveled along the Oregon Trail could not afford to use the Barlow Toll Road, and instead floated down the Columbia River to get to Oregon City. Both methods of passage connected The Dalles to the Willamette Valley.^{[citation needed]}

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From the summit of the Cascade Range westward to Sandy, the Mount Hood Loop Highway is in substantially the same location as the Barlow Road, though modern engineering has solved some of Samuel K. Barlow's greatest difficulties. East of the summit the Barlow Road has been in disuse for many years for a considerable distance down the eastern slope, especially where it traversed the canyon of White River. The Oak Grove Road from Salmon River Meadows to Wapinitia was not a part of the original Barlow Road, though frequently spoken of as such.^[1]

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The road was built with the financial backing of nearby resident Philip Foster and a crew of forty men. Five toll gates were eventually built along the route. The direction of travel was effectively one way until 1861, when a better road around Laurel Hill was built. The toll ended in 1915 when the right-of-way was willed to Oregon.^[2]

In 1992, the Barlow Road was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District. In 2005, part of it was incorporated into the Mount Hood Scenic Byway.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur [1928] (2003). Oregon Geographic Names, Seventh Edition, Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press, 52-53. ISBN 0-87595-277-1.
^ ^a ^b The Barlow Road, The Final Leg of the Trail. End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.

[edit] External link

Barlow Road, from a National Park Service website

	Pioneer History of Oregon (1806–1890)
Topics	Oregon Country · Oregon Treaty · Oregon missionaries · Executive Committee · Oregon Trail · Oregon boundary dispute · Pacific Fur Company · Provisional Government of Oregon · Hudson's Bay Company
Events	Treaty of 1818 · Russo-American Treaty · Champoeg Meetings · Whitman massacre · Donation Land Claim Act
Places	Fort Astoria · Oregon Mission · Fort Vancouver · Champoeg, Oregon · Fort William · Barlow Road · Whitman Mission
People	George Abernethy · Sam Barlow · Tabitha Brown · Abigail Scott Duniway · Philip Foster · Peter French · Joseph Gale · William Gilpin · David Hill · Jason Lee · Asa Lovejoy · John McLoughlin · Joseph Meek · Ezra Meeker · John Minto · Joel Palmer · Sager orphans · Henry H. Spalding · Marcus Whitman · Narcissa Whitman · Ewing Young
Oregon History	Native Peoples History · History to 1806 · Pioneer History · Modern History