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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend February 8, 2004 Pre-freeway valley was isolated By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Before Interstate 5 was punched in over the Siskiyous in the early 1960s, traveling south of the Rogue Valley was no easy feat. "People today don’t realize how truly isolated the Rogue Valley was," said historian Jeff LaLande. Indian trails provided links to the outside world. The north-south trail over what is now known as the Siskiyou Pass was used regularly by members of the Shasta Indian tribe living in the Rogue and Klamath river watersheds, he said. It was the Shastas who guided Peter Skene Ogden and the 40 members of his largely French-Canadian fur-trapping brigade over on Feb. 8, 1827, he said. That Indian trail eventually led to the creation of I-5 over the pass, albeit the transition took as many twists and turns as old Highway 99 over the mountain, according to historic accounts kept by the Southern Oregon Historical Society, the Mail Tribune and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Advertisement In a Jan. 3, 1968, column, Mail Tribune regional editor Marjorie O’Harra took readers along on the winding road that led to the broad interstate. In 1858, the Oregon Territorial Legislature gave Michael Thomas and Associates a 20-year franchise to operate what was called the Siskiyou Wagon Road Co., O’Harra wrote. Thomas sold the firm to pioneer Lindsay Applegate, who opened a toll route over the Siskiyous on Aug. 28, 1859. "The road made it possible for the California-Oregon Stage Company to operate between Sacramento and Portland with what was described as ‘comparative comfort, speed and safety,’ " she wrote. Sixty stage stations were established along the 700-mile route. One of the firm’s 28 big red and yellow stagecoaches could make the bouncing trip in a mere seven days. The stage company paid between $40 and $80 to use Applegate’s toll road; individuals paid 25 cents to cross on foot or horseback. "When the toll money collected amounted to a big sum, one of the Applegates would hide overnight in the woods with it," O’Harra wrote. "There were no banks. The tollgate keepers wore guns for protection against bandits." Oregon, which became a state on Feb. 14, 1859, determined that toll roads were county property but that they could be leased for a decade. Counties would then purchase the roads. The Dollarhides, a family which had bought the road from the Applegates, continued to operate the toll road at the end of the 10-year lease because Jackson County had no money to buy it. But travelers were beginning to resent having to pay the toll to use the road over the pass, O’Harra noted. With the Better Roads Movement sweeping the West in 1913, the state decided to build the Pacific Highway over the mountains, following the toll road. Property acquisition posed a problem when Dudley "Uncle Dud" Dollarhide agreed to sell only a portion of the toll road, according to O’Harra. "When construction crews dug across a grade that was still legally his, he objected — with a shotgun," she wrote. But after he lost the legal battle, he sold the last portion of his toll road to Jackson County for $1,000 in 1915. However, he operated a service station near the pass for years, taking care of boiling radiators and flat tires. In 1920, the road was widened from eight feet to 16 feet and paved. During the Great Depression, another major road improvement project began on the 16 miles north of the state line that included the Siskiyou Pass. Traffic began moving over what had become U.S. Highway 99 on Oct. 31, 1940. By the late 1950s, Congress approved the new federal system of interstate highways, paving the way for Interstate 5 to be built over the Siskiyou Pass in the early 1960s. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times