The following are comments by our youngest explorer, Laura Rickey, age 7:
"I think this was the best camping place I have ever been to and the Oregon Trail was good and exciting. This was an adventure for me. This is the
place that I would like to visit again with my whole family. We would have
fun with my family together and they would see how much fun the trail is to
be on. Learning stuff about the people who came on the trail was great. The hiking was fun, but to see all the stuff they had to go
through, I could see how hard it was. They probably got used to the dust. With us, everyone was coughing because there was so much dust on our
first day of Oregon Trail road. Still, I think about the people who risked
their lives and the kids who died. But the people that made it were lucky
because they found the beautiful land. The end"
These are comments by our other young explorer, Ashley
Hirst, age 9, (Laura's cousin):
"I had a good time on the trip. We saw how long it took to go to Oregon in
the old days. I learned that there was a lot of dust on the Oregon Trail
and thought about how hard it was for the travelers. I liked learning about new stuff and Lewis & Clark's journey. And what the wagons looked
like. I had fun camping on the Trail and really liked the museum. The person in the museum showed us how the people lived back then. She showed
us how they really wanted to come here. The train ride we took from Portland to Tacoma was exciting. The end"
Report by JimTompkins
We congregated at Sorosis Park, high above The Dalles.
After inspecting the city from that high vantage point, we started our
eighteen person, ten vehicle caravan. An ominous beginning when it only
took two minutes to lose the last three cars at the first intersection.
We dropped down to 9th Street and picked up the Barlow Road as it
headed out of town. Heading south we attempted to follow the trail as
closely as possible. It didn't help when the fearless leader, with the
assistance of some unnamed roads, mistook Five Mile Creek Road for Old
Dufur Road and we took a two mile side trip.
After
following Eightmile Creek to Endersby, a jaunt through Dufur, then Hix
Road to Friend and Kingsley, it was out onto Tygh Ridge for a look
at the 1869 Immigrant grave on the State Antelope Preserve. We saw a
small herd of Antelope "loping" off just before arriving at
the grave.
Then we drove out onto the highest point above Tygh Valley to look at
the ruts cascading over the hills down to Tygh Creek. What a view.
l-r Roger Blair, Lethene Parks, Roy Schapler, Rich Herman, Tom Rickey,
Dick Parks, Susan Blair, Laura Rickey, Ashley Rickey, Muriel Carbiener,
Mel Ivey, Lois Smith, Stanton Rickey, Roger Riolo, Russ Smith, Gail
Carbiener, Addie Rickey missing - photographer (me)
An hour behind schedule we scrapped Shearers Falls and lunched at
White River Falls State Park. We all wondered why the convicts working
there all were yelling at the Parks. Lethene had snagged with her bumper
the cable fence they were erecting and was trying to back out with it.
We
then made the circle of Tygh Valley from where the wagons first entered
it, to where they exited up over Tygh Grade.Passing through Wamic, I
decided to loop around through Smock Prairie and approach the Barlow
Gate at Gate Creek from the south. I have never seen the Barlow Road so
badly rutted and in disrepair.
Since the Barlow Road was in such disrepair we spent most of the
White River segment on the hardtop of Hwy 48. We did poke in to the
Forest Camp on Cedar Creek.
Two hours behind schedule, we jumped ahead to Barlow Pass where the
group walked down to Pioneer Womans Grave led by Tom Laidlaw. Russ and
Lois Smith split off to meet friends from South Carolina.
A unanimous decision was made to go straight to dinner at Huckleberry
Inn in Government Camp. Russ and Lois and the South Carolinians were
already there. Then it was off to Still Creek Campground, (except for Roy and the Blairs who made other accommodations), a roaring campfire
sprinkled with jokes and stories of the Oregon Trail, animated by the
Rickey granddaughters interacting with old Billy Cannon.
The
next morning, early riser Tom scouted out a hiking trail from Still
Creek to Government camp which was also the Barlow Road. After breakfast
at Huckleberry Inn, about half the group hiked the Barlow down to Still
Creek on Tom's new trail. At the end of the trail was the old resort called Swim. After a lesson
from the Rickey girls on how to find a lodge and swimming pool, we
inspected the old wagon tongue grave marker. The girls were urged to
play dead and willingly complied.
The group then was off on the day's caravan down to nine cars as we
lost the Smths and Carbieners, but gained a Laidlaw. At Summit
Meadows we inspected the Summit House area, the graveyard, and then
headed for the cache pits area. Much to our surprise, the portion of Summit Meadows airstrip where
the cache pits are located was sealed off by the Forest Service.Walking in we were met by Jeff Jaqua, archaeologist for the Forest
Service at ZigZag Ranger Station. They were just starting a dig across the pits. Jeff Jaqua gave us a history of the area. In addition
to this being a Barlow Road campsite, it was also a CCC campsite during
the early days of the depression and then it was a WPA campground for
the workers building Timberline Lodge. He said he has seen garbage pits
at WPA camps dug in a similar trench formation, but not usually covered
over with logs and sealed with dirt. The archaeological dig will consist
of a 1 meter wide trench across the pit. He said the dig would take a
week, then following a brief vacation he will publish his findings. I
promised to keep in touch to see if my conclusion about Barlow Road
cache pits is trashed by a WPA garbage dump.
|
 Report
of Archaeological Dig
There are some strange L-shaped pits in one of the
campgrounds. Some of us believe they may be Barlow Road cache pits,
where pioneers buried valuables before going over Laurel Hill. The
intention was to return the next summer with an empty wagon to
retrieve them. This was a common practice. They look like tunnels,
but are too shallow. They could be garbage pits, but are covered
over and concealed too elaborately for garbage.
Anyway the US Forest Service had an archaeological dig under way at
the pit. The site has been an Indian campground, Barlow Road
campground, CCC campground, WPA campground for builders of
Timberline Lodge, a Forest Ranger station and an airstrip, so there
is plenty of uses to investigate. They had a 91 year old man who
used to live there when the site was the WPA camp. The hope is to
gather enough evidence to put the area on the National Register and
protect it.
The news article today was a preliminary report (the final report
won't be out until soil samples and dating come back - weeks) of the
dig. They found pieces of glass, square nails, and an old-style
deep-dish pie pan. There was some disappointment this was NOT a WPA
garbage pit, because that would have meant more artifacts. In his
quote the archaeologist (Jeff Jaqua) was careful not to mention the
possibility of buried Oregon Trail treasure. My reading of the
report says that the possibility this was an eroded or opened Barlow
Road cache pit cannot be eliminated. I am still optimistic.
The Forest Service is aware of BLM's discovery of unopened (and
full) cache pits at another location, not publicly disclosed. Maybe
this will lead to future digs.
Jim |
As we drove down to Kiwanis Camp Road to begin our Laurel Hill
segment it started raining, Oregon style, by the bucketfuls. We broke
into groups. Tom led the non-shrinkables up to Laurel Hill, while Jim
led the car cowboys over Devils Backbone. We met up again at Calamity
Janes hamburger place in Sandy, except for the Rickeys who headed into
Oregon City to catch a tour at the EOTIC. Tom took an ever decreasing
group down to Oregon City while Jim led the Blairs down to Foster Farm,
Holcomb Hill and the Abernethy Elm.
Bidding goodbye to the Blairs I went over to the EOTIC in time to say
goodbye to Tom, Rich and the Parks.
I then went inside and watched the Rickeys enjoy the living history
section of the center. So, another successful NWOCTA field trip is
history. It will be rememberable for the grave and view on Tygh Ridge,
the education of
the Rickey granddaughters and the chance to find out what is in the pits
at Summit Meadows. Until next time.
Jim
