Tygh Valley

Tygh Valley. The Oregon Trail. "After descending a long, steep, rocky and very tedious hill, we have campt in a valley on the bank of Indian (Tygh) Creek, near some Frenchmen who have a trading post. There are also a good many Indians encamped around us." -- Amelia Stewart Knight, Emigrant of 1853 , Tygh Valley's name is inherited from this area's original residents, the Tygh Indians, who camped and traded with the early emigrants here. , 1845 Oregon Trail pioneers followed a wagon road here from the Dalles. Their route crossed Tygh Ridge and tumbled down to the valley floor just across from today's Wasco County Fairgrounds. , By 1850, some Oregon Trail travelers used a shortcut from the John Day River. It came across the Deschutes River and west to Tygh Valley. In doing so, the emigrants bypassed The Dalles and avoided many miles. , When leaving the valley on the new Barlow Road, travelers used many of the draws to the West especially the one near the fairground.