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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 In this view looking south, trucks traverse the Siskiyou Summit, the highest point on I-5 between Canada and Mexico. The first white men to cross the summit 177 years ago did so just a stone�s throw from the original Indian trail that crossed the pass. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Tales of the SISKIYOU SUMMIT A trek over the pass was different when Ogden first tried it in 1827 By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune The first Euro-American to cross the Siskiyou Pass didn’t roar over in a warm, comfortable SUV. Peter Skene Ogden plodded his way on horseback up a stream drainage now known as Cottonwood Creek, heading north on an ancient Indian trail with his rugged crew of fur trappers dubbed the "Snake Country Brigade." They camped within sight of the snow-covered summit ahead. "The country presents a gloomy and barren prospect," Ogden noted in a Feb. 8, 1827, journal entry. Breaking camp at 8 a.m. the next day, Ogden and his men huffed and puffed on up to the pass, reaching it at 2 p.m. "Succeeded in crossing the mountain with grater facility and less labour than expected," Ogden wrote. "The greatest depth of snow did not exceed more than a foot." Advertisement That passage 177 years ago today was in the same area where Interstate 5 traffic now roars over the summit, observed Jeff LaLande, local historian and author of "First Over the Siskiyous," a well-regarded book about the adventurous mountain man. "We don’t know the exact spot where he crossed, but it was within a strong stone’s throw of where I-5 is now," said LaLande, who is also an archaeologist for the Rogue River National Forest. Ogden’s party arrived at the pass on Feb. 8, not the following day as his journal indicated, LaLande said. Apparently, the weary traveler’s journal leaped ahead a day that February during his exploration of the Oregon country. At 4,310 feet above sea level, the I-5 summit is the highest point on the freeway between Mexico and Canada, a site that has been challenging travelers ever since Ogden’s pioneering trip. The pass known as the Grapevine north of Los Angeles is about 100 feet lower. Ogden, for whom Ogden, Utah, was named, wasn’t the first traveler to take the natural route through the Siskiyous: Native Americans had blazed the north-south trail thousands of years earlier, LaLande said. Although today’s travelers with their superior horsepower don’t face the same challenges that threatened early- day adventurers, they have their moments, particularly when the weather goes south as it did late in December. Hundreds of holiday travelers were stranded on the slopes approaching the pass when a monstrous snowstorm swept into the region on Dec. 28. An elderly Oregon man died of a heart attack while waiting with his wife in their car stranded in the northbound lane. The dangerous weather conditions prompted the Oregon Department of Transportation to close the interstate from the south Ashland exit to the stateline for nearly 20 hours. The California Department of Transportation also temporarily shut down its northernmost portion of I-5. Yet, despite its challenges during stormy weather, the interstate is a vast improvement over rough predecessors. Beginning with the Indian trail, it evolved into a wagon road, then a stagecoach route, a narrow state highway and finally the broad interstate. Construction on the 11.5 miles of I-5 from the south Ashland interchange to the state line over the summit began in the early 1960s. Total cost was $21.9 million, a paltry sum in today’s economy. When the Siskiyou Pass was opened for traffic on June 21, 1966, motorists crossed at a point 157 feet lower than the old Highway 99 route. Construction workers used explosives to blast a 200-foot-deep slot through 160 feet of solid rock at the pass. Some 2 million cubic yards of material were removed from the slot alone; 13 million cubic feet of earth and rock were moved in the entire 11.5-mile section. As a result, the spot where Ogden once stood on the pass is likely no longer there. One of the people who worked on the I-5 construction project over the Siskiyous is retired surveyor Vern Neiswanger, 73, of Medford. He was chief of the survey crew that marked the interstate path over the summit, working on the project in 1961 and 1962. The old highway snaked its way up from Highway 66 to join what is now I-5 near Callahan’s Restaurant, he said, noting he worked on the I-5 route from that point south to the state line. "That old highway was pretty narrow and steep," he recalled. "But that’s what I remember about working on the new section: the steepness. "Those canyons like Bear Canyon were so steep to climb," he added. "It’d sure tire you out." The surveyors’ job was to rough out the route on the ground, marking the way for the construction crew following at its heels, he explained. "It was really great to work up there," he said. "When Medford was socked in with fog, we’d go up there on the Siskiyous and it would be 60 degrees with the sun shining." The surveyors worked on the route mostly in the summer and fall when no snow blocked their progress, he said. Retired construction worker Howard Nelson, 81, of Talent, was a superintendent of one of the crews working on the Siskiyou project in 1963 and 1964. "The weather shut us down a lot," he recalled. "When it got to snowing, we had to quit. "And there was a lot of snow up there in the winter of ‘64," he added. "Of course, that was the year of the flood." He was referring to the 1964 flood, which swept into the lowlands after abnormally warm rains melted much of the mountain snowpack. Although there was no flooding high on the mountains, the deep canyons were a challenge for his crew, he said. "It’s steep, awful steep," he said. "And that rock was hard. The crew did a lot of drilling and shooting to get through it." Crews drilled into the rock, packed it lightly with explosives, then "shot" it off. The debris was used to fill the deep canyons, he said. "Yeah, once in a while I still think about all the work we did up there," he said. So does Medford resident William McKern, 76, a retired ODOT construction inspector. He recalled the crews did a good job. "Trying to keep the traffic going while they were working on it was a challenge," he said. "Every once in a while we’d get a runaway freight truck that would lose its brakes. "Of course, the weather was also a problem at times," he said of mountain snow. Although Ogden and his party crossed the pass during an abnormally mild winter, the mountain man noted with appreciation the change in weather once they descended from the Siskiyous into what is now the upper Bear Creek drainage. They followed a small stream for three miles before camping, Ogden scribbled in his journal. "All here looked like summer," he wrote. "Grass green and four inches in length. Oaks here being nearly double the size of any I have seen this season. "Induced to suppose the Climate is milder," he concluded. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] 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