River Road

River Road. Historic Trail to Modern Highway. Roads and rights-of-way were serious public considerations on the Oregon frontier. Market roads, territorial roads and county roads were the lifelines of commerce and communication. River Road - the road upon which you are standing - was once a Kalapuya Indian trail, and in 1846 it became part of the Applegate Trail. With the discovery of gold in 1848 the trail quickly became the "Road to California." River Road became part of the Territorial Road from Eugene to Roseburg during the 1850s, a stage route in the 1860s, and was Cottage Grove's first main street. During the 1910s it became part of the Pacific Highway, a major north-south corridor which, in time, reached from Canada to Mexico. , ...a survey...has been made, and a good and practicable route found and marked out, according to the road laws, leaving John Cochran's on the coast fork said road passed through a thickly settled country to the foot of the Calapooya Mountains. , Ascending the mountains there is no trouble in making a good road as it is a gradual ascent to the summit.... -- Joseph Latshaw, Surveyor, Eugene City, October 1855