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Keno in Klamath County, Oregon — The American West (Northwest)
 

The Applegate Trail

Southern Route to Oregon

 
 
The Applegate Trail Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Douglass Halvorsen, April 5, 2014
1. The Applegate Trail Marker
Inscription. In 1846, Jesse Applegate and fourteen others from near Dallas, Oregon, established a trail south from the Willamette Valley and east to Fort Hall. This route offered emigrants an alternative to the perilous "last leg" of the Oregon Trail down the treacherous Columbia River. The trail also offered a potential escape route, free from Hudson's Bay Company control, should Britain and the United States begin warring over control of Oregon.

The first emigrants to trek the new "South Road" left with the trailblazers from Fort Hall in early August 1846. With Levi Scott acting as guide, while Jesse Applegate traveled ahead to mark the route, the hardy emigrants blazed a wagon trail through nearly 500 miles of wilderness arriving in the upper Willamette Valley in November. Emigrant travel continued along the Applegate Trail in later years and contributed greatly to the settlement of southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley.

Rocky and Deep

Applegate Trail emigrants crossed the Klamath River after months of weary travel. With Siskiyou Mountains looming ahead, emigrants forded the Klamath River near this site at what Tolbert Carter, an emigrant of 1846, call "one of the worst crossings that wagons ever made."

The ford was rocky and deep, with swift current, and I, by the advice of someone, crawled
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on the back of Bill, my big near ox, and rode across the river. I did that for the reason that the current might catch the light wagon and turn it over.

George Riddle, Recollection of 1851

 
Erected by Bureau of Land Management.
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: ExplorationRoads & Vehicles. In addition, it is included in the Applegate Trail series list. A significant historical month for this entry is August 1846.
 
Location. 42° 8.216′ N, 122° 1.812′ W. Marker is in Keno, Oregon, in Klamath County. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Keno OR 97627, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 4 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Klamath River Crossing (here, next to this marker); a different marker also named Applegate Trail (about 400 feet away, measured in a direct line); Topsy Grade (about 500 feet away); Chase Stage Station (approx. 0.9 miles away); Second Klamath River Ford (approx. one mile away); Spencer Creek Crossing / Camp Day (approx. 1.1 miles away); Cooper Stage - Station Site (approx. 3.1 miles away); Bear Valley (approx. 3.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Keno.
 
More about this marker. One of two interpretive displays facing the Klamath River at Topsy Reservoir
 
The Applegate Trail Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Douglass Halvorsen, April 5, 2014
2. The Applegate Trail Marker
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on January 19, 2018. It was originally submitted on January 17, 2018, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. This page has been viewed 257 times since then and 13 times this year. Photos:   1, 2. submitted on January 17, 2018, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 28, 2024