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Tracing lives on pioneers’ highway
Southern Oregon University senior Terra McLeod scans for artifacts with a metal detector along the Siskiyou Trail recently. In the background, from left, SOU junior Kimberly Harris, Orsola Silva and Keith Arnold dig up a horse shoe. They’re helping the Bureau of Land Management document the historic trail winding through the western edge of the new Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Field school helps document old trail By Paul Fattig HILT, CALIF. — Standing in the quiet shade of the massive western juniper blazed by an ancient ax, you can almost hear pioneers plodding along the old wagon road. There is the heavy clop of the oxen, the creak of a leather harness, the groan of a weary axle, the cry of a baby jostled in its sleep. "As the wagons came up the hill over these rocks, you get a sense the wagons were about to rattle apart," observed Mark Tveskov, assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Oregon University. "This whole area is littered with square nails, horse shoes, oxen shoes, mule shoes." Atop the hill, the historic wagon road generally known as the Siskiyou Trail levels off into a meadow just north of the Oregon state line. "You get up to this area, you find nothing," he said. "You can almost feel it. They are relaxing at the top." Nearly a dozen SOU students led by Tveskov are participating in a summer field school to help the Bureau of Land Management document the historic trail winding through the western edge of the new Cascade Siskiyou National Monument. The Southern Oregon Historical Society is assisting with the archaeological study. It was the principal north and south route between Oregon and California before the railroad was completed, before Highway 99 and Interstate 5 were built, explained Ann Ramage, archaeologist for the BLM’s Medford District. The trail was first used by Indians before the fur traders and later settlers began following their footsteps, she said. Settlers with their heavy wagon and oxen needed a defined route through the mountains. "They were using wagons because they were either settling or taking commerce to the Rogue Valley," she said. "Many of them were coming to stay." The juniper marking the trail is at least 200 years old, estimated Frank Lang, a retired SOU biology professor who is part of a science team doing research in the monument for the BLM. While it hasn’t been determined whether the old blaze along the trail was made by settlers, there is no question it was a route used by early-day pioneers, Lang said. "It probably started out as an aboriginal route," he said. "The Hudson’s Bay Co. people — Peter Skene Ogden — came over this way in ‘27. And there was a lot of use of it later in the 1830s and ‘40s with people running cattle back and forth. "This trail got so much use but it has been kind of neglected in terms of everyone’s enthusiasm for pioneer trails," he added. But it hasn’t been neglected by Richard Silva, 69, of Yreka, a trailblazer in retracing lost historic routes. Nearly a decade ago, the retired building contractor, whose forefathers settled in Yreka during the late 1800s, began mapping old trails according to standards set by the Oregon California Trail Association. Silva has traced the entire route of the trail, relying on old journals and the computerized Global Positioning System. He also has walked the old route. "This was the main wagon road from Oregon into California," Silva said, noting he calls it the "Oregon to California Trail" to differentiate it from the Oregon Trail. When he finds an artifact during his research, he leaves it in place. "Taking an artifact is like tearing a page out of a history book," Silva said. Education is the best way to protect historic trails, he said. "A trail can’t be put into a museum," Silva said. "It’s our heritage. We need to protect it." Tveskov agreed. He observes that the rubberized tracks of modern-day off-road vehicles have obliterated the old wagon ruts in some areas. Since the monument was created, the area is now off-limits to off-road vehicles. Although the materials found along the trail, everything from hand-forged oxen shoes to part of a pocket watch, will be housed at SOU, the Southern Oregon Historical Society will display some of the artifacts as part of an interpretive exhibit. In addition to being a route to the north, the trail was also used by early-day argonauts, he said. "Once gold was discovered in California, two-thirds of the population of Oregon — most were living in the Willamette Valley at the time — booked south on this very trail," Tveskov said. "That’s how they got to know the Rogue and Umpqua valleys." |
