Santiam Wagon Road Service Outing

In November, the Troop worked with the Sweet Home Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest in restoring parts of the old Santiam Wagon Road. This is a national historical trail, first built in the 1850's by a group of Willamette Valley businessmen in exchange for an 800,000 acre land grant. One of the very first aterials between the west and east side of the Cascades, the road was used to transfer goods and livestock between Albany, in the Willamette Valley, and Sisters, over the Cascades in Central Oregon. The road remained in service until 1935, when what would become US Hwy 20 was completed through the area.

In 1905, the Oldsmobile Company, then lobbying Congress for funds to improve the nations newfound highway system, sponsored the very first transcontinental automobile race. One of the final western legs of the race was over Tombstone Pass and down the infamous Seven Mile Hill on the Santiam Wagon Road. Narrow and twisting, with sheer drops down to the Santiam River, driving the wagon road in a 1905 Oldsmobile was a very "memorable" event. A race particpant, located in a nursing home in the 1970's, then in his 90's, recalled that the two most memorable parts of the trip for him were the interminable mud of Iowa and "that Seven Mile Hill on the Santiam Wagon Road".

The Troop setup camp at the Longnbow Organizational camp, a great facility with a covered cooking and barbecue area, and rustic adirondack cabins. The next morning, after an orientation by a ranger, the Troop grabbed picks and shovels, and proceeded to work on portions of the trail just north of the Mountain House way station. In most cases, the trail just needed edge maintenance to clear out the usual runoff material. In some places, falled timber needed to be removed, and one infamous stretch of trail suffered so much runoff that it became a mud bog. Here scouts virtually rebuit the trail and erected drainage ditches and culverts.

After a hard Saturday of work, Sunday brought a leisurely hike down several miles of the old wagon road. Winding through aspen groves and moss covered, ancient old growth forest (with many trees estimated at 800+ years old), it was a great way for the scouts to experience the difference between the ponderosa forests of the high desert and the "rain forest" of the west side of the Cascades.

To any Troop interested in a service project or in working toward their Historic Trails patch, we highly recommend the Santiam Wagon Road. Just contact the Sweet Home Ranger District in Sweet Home, Oregon for further details.

Ranger Brian McGinley of the Sweet Home Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest gives an orientation and shares some of the history behind the Santiam Wagon Road.

(L-R) Anders Meyerhoff, Adam Dickey, Ben Lewis, Bryce Merritt, and Eric Fredstrom employ their ingenuity in rebuilding a truly thrashed part of the trail. Trail maintenance costs the Forest Service about $3 per foot, and requires the same backbreaking labor these Scouts put in. Think about that before you cut that swtichback next time.

Can you imagine a 1905 Oldsmobile "racing" down this road?

Many parts of the Santiam River Road are easily accessible from US Highway 20, which follows the Santiam River.

The Santiam Wagon Road winds through what is known as the "Old Cascades", the old mountain range that existed prior to the volcanic action that created the current 10,000 foot peaks of the Central Oregon Cascades.

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