An Alternate Route

Blue highways call to me but this time I was visiting friends along the scenic I-5 corridor. With traffic a whole lot thicker and faster than I like and necessitating a high state of alertness, I was ready for a change of pace by the afternoon. In Oregon just north of Grants Pass, at exit 71 to be exact, I saw a sign for the Applegate Trail Interpretive Center. Never heard of the Applegate Trail. I had a lot to learn.

Betty Gaustad, the museum’s founder, was a Minnesota farm girl who landed in Sunny Valley, Oregon, after college in California and work as a United Airlines flight attendant. She brought her mother from Minnesota to live with her. An avid history buff, the mother is the one who discovered their new home in Sunny Valley straddled the 1846 Applegate Trail. She encouraged her daughter to start a museum. The rest is history, literally.

Betty Gaustad was determined to make this major project the best that she could on limited funds. She mortgaged her own ranch, and created this complex of restored historic buildings with the help of private donations and public grants. The center has given the area an economic boost, with Gaustad using local businesses and workers whenever feasible

History Lesson
Seated in a tilted chair with his hands hooked in his bib overalls, Darrell Bell, a volunteer and loquacious teller of tales, greeted me. Bell has the background to back up his stories as his great grandparents “walked most of the way” on both the Oregon and Applegate trails from Missouri to the Willamette Valley. As a retired auctioneer, Bell knew where to acquire museum treasures and found several authentic covered wagons that are included in the interpretive displays. He was an interesting beginning to my journey into the past.

Sunny Valley neighbors became pioneers re-enacting the triumphs and tragedies of the Applegate Trail in a 15-minute introductory video documentary in the Camp Fire Theatre. Three screens of activity kept my attention and the program was absorbing enough that I sat through it a second time. This gave me a good background for continuing through the interpretive center.

Origin of the Trail
Many things happen because of tragedy. Three brothers, Charles, Lindsay and Jesse Applegate, migrated from Missouri to Oregon in 1843. Charles and Lindsay each lost a young son when their boat capsized near The Dalles on the treacherous Columbia River portion of the Oregon Trail.
In the spring of 1846, two Applegate brothers, along with Levi Scott and other pioneers who by then had settled into Oregon’s Willamette Valley, unsuccessfully sought a new and safer southern route. On a second attempt that year, they started near present-day Dallas, Oregon, traveled south along the present Interstate 5 and turned southeast at Ashland on roughly what is Highway 66 today. They crossed Oregon, a corner of California, and down into Humboldt (now Winnemucca), Nevada, establishing the alternative “Southern Route” or Applegate Trail. This joined the California Trail that extended northeast to Fort Hall, Idaho, and southwest to the California gold fields.

The first hundred wagons leaving Fort Hall and attempting the new Applegate Trail from Humboldt west suffered the heat of the desolate August desert, Indian attacks, rough wilderness and sorrow but they made it to the Willamette Valley by November, firmly establishing the southern route. It took them three months to travel roughly 500 miles. I traveled half of it in half a day, but then again, I didn’t promise to clear the brush and trees and build the road for those who followed, as did those who joined that first wagon train.

One sorrow was the death of 16-year-old Martha Leland Crowley from typhoid fever. She is buried east of the interpretive center near what would later be named Grave Creek in her honor. She was one of 15 members of her family, the eighth and last to die on the trail.

Subsequent Events
The interpretive center includes the history of Native Americans and trappers in the 1800s and describes events that occurred after the Applegate Trail was established. By the 1850s, gold and quartz were discovered in Josephine County, and by 1883, the railroad came through. The stories told at the center include those of the Applegate brothers; Levi and his son, John Morgan Scott, and Moses Black Harris, a freed slave turned fur hunter and guide.

I bought a book, Levi Scott, Oregon Trailblazer, a fictionalized narrative of Levi Scott’s life. It tells not only the story of the Applegate Trail but also of the opening of the State of Oregon to the early settlers. It is a fascinating book that begins when he was born in 1797. And I have the audacity to think I’ve had an interesting life!

In October of 2006, an Applegate Wagon Trail Re-enactment took place. The main event was the arrival of a wagon train from the south side of Mt. Sexton, along with entertainment, historic presentations, and of course, food. A recent conversation with Betty Gaustad revealed that another re-enactment, though not scheduled for this year, may happen again in the future. Other activities are in the works.

By the time I meandered through the center, looked at the outdoor exhibits, and photographed the 1920s covered bridge that crosses Grave Creek, it was getting late. I stopped at the Covered Bridge Country Store (also part of the complex) near the Interstate and bought a few supplies, running into Darrell Bell again. He gave me permission to park by the store for the night.

First, I turned on my generator-powered air conditioning and tossed a ready-made pizza in the microwave. I typed notes on my solar-driven laptop computer in my gasoline-driven self-contained motorhome that towed a car providing me with transportation for “shorter” trips. I was humbled at the sacrifices our ancestors made a short 160 years previously.

There is much more to Josephine County history than I can recount here. Stop. Spend a few days soaking up history. God Bless.

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If You Go
Applegate Trail Interpretive Center
Location: In Sunny Valley, 14 miles north of Grants Pass, Oregon, off exit 71 of Interstate 5
Summer Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily
Admission: $5.95 general; $4.95 for youths 13 to 18 and seniors 65 and older
Information: (888) 411-1846.

Autographed copies of Revised RVing Alaska and Canada ($16.95); Adventures with the Silver Gypsy ($14.95); Full-Time RVing: How to Make it Happen $14.95); In Pursuit of a Dream ($8), and Freedom Unlimited, The Fun and Facts of Full-timing ($9) are available through author Sharlene Minshall, Box 1040, Congress, AZ 85332-1040, www.full-time-rver.com or Amazon.com. Postage and handling are $4 for one book and $1 for each additional book.