Siskiyou Trail facts for kids

The Siskiyou Trail was an important path that stretched from the Central Valley in California all the way to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Today, the main highway called Interstate 5 follows much of this old route. This trail was first used by Native American tribes. They created footpaths through river valleys. Later, these paths became the shortest and easiest way for early settlers to travel between California and Oregon.

How the Siskiyou Trail Began

The first Europeans or Americans to use parts of the Siskiyou Trail were probably hunters and trappers. They worked for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in the 1820s. These trappers explored the rivers of Southern Oregon and Northern California looking for animal furs.

The HBC had a main base called Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River. This was in what is now Washington state. From 1825, HBC groups started exploring south towards California. A leader named Alexander McLeod led these trips. He reached the Klamath River in 1827 and the Sacramento River in 1828. In 1829, he led the first HBC trapping trip into the Sacramento Valley. This allowed later groups to go as far south as French Camp, near modern-day Stockton.

McLeod's explorations helped create the Siskiyou Trail. It connected Fort Vancouver with the Sacramento Valley. At first, people called it the California Brigade Trail or the Southern Party Trail. McLeod and his team reported that Native Americans south of the Umpqua River had never seen white people before. Even though the 42nd parallel (the border between California and Oregon today) was the edge of Mexican California, the Mexicans didn't know much about the area. So, HBC trappers traveled freely.

Other HBC trappers like Peter Skene Ogden and Michel Laframboise also used the Siskiyou Trail early on.

Important Journeys on the Trail

In 1834, a man named Ewing Young brought horses and mules from California missions to sell in Oregon. He used the Siskiyou Trail for this journey. Later, in 1837, Young returned to California. He bought 700 cattle and drove them all the way to Oregon using the Siskiyou Trail. This huge task took almost three months. It helped make the trail wider and more established. This also helped new American settlements in Oregon grow stronger.

In 1841, a group of scientists and mapmakers from the United States Exploring Expedition traveled down the Siskiyou Trail. They were the first to study the region scientifically.

The Gold Rush and Trail Changes

The California Gold Rush started in 1848. This led to a huge increase in people using the Siskiyou Trail. When gold was found in Siskiyou County in 1851, especially in Yreka, thousands of miners traveled the trail. They were all hoping to find riches.

The mountains along the trail were very rugged. Because of this, people could only travel by mule trains or horses. Early travelers could go about 20 miles (32 km) in a day. They would stop at inns along the way. Some of these inns were at Portuguese Flat, Upper Soda Springs, and Sisson in Northern California. It wasn't until the 1860s that toll roads were built. These roads were wide enough for stagecoaches. This allowed stagecoaches to travel the entire length of the Siskiyou Trail without stopping.

The first telegraph line connected towns along the trail in 1864. Development sped up even more when the Central Pacific Railroad track was finished in 1887. This railroad also followed the path of the Siskiyou Trail.

The Trail's Route

The old Siskiyou Trail started at the Hudson's Bay Company headquarters. This was at Fort Vancouver in southern Washington. It ended near the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In California, the trail went through or near cities like Redding, Dunsmuir, and Yreka. In Oregon, it passed through or near places like Ashland, Grants Pass, Roseburg, Eugene, Salem, and Portland.

The trail used the valleys of several rivers to connect Oregon and California. These rivers included the Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue, Klamath, Shasta, and Sacramento rivers. This helped travelers get through the tough mountains of Northern California and Southern Oregon, known as the Siskiyou Mountains. The trail reached its highest point at the Siskiyou Summit. This is about 4,310 feet (1,314 m) high, just north of the Oregon-California border. It also passed famous spots like Mount Shasta, Upper Soda Springs, Castle Crags, and Sutter Buttes.

Modern Roads Following the Trail

Between 1869 and 1887, the Oregon & California Railroad Company built a railroad along this historic route. It crossed the Siskiyou Summit in 1887. In the mid-1910s, the first major highway for cars, the Pacific Highway (later called U.S. Route 99), made it easy to drive along the trail's path.

Then, in the 1960s, Interstate 5 was built. This major highway follows the route of the original 1820s Siskiyou Trail. About 4 miles (7 km) north of the California border, and just south of Ashland, Oregon, I-5 crosses the Siskiyou Summit. This is the highest point on Interstate 5, at 4,310 feet (1,314 m) high. The railroad and the interstate highway sometimes go a little differently from the original trail. This is because of modern building needs and engineering.

See also

In Spanish: Camino Siskiyou para niños