McKenzie River - History

History

For around 8000 years, the McKenzie River has been home to local Native American peoples of the region. In more recent history, the area has been populated by the Kalapuya and Mollala peoples, whom spent their summers in the high Cascades and their winters in the lower valley. This way of life continued until the mid 1800s, when many of native locals were relocated to reservations.

The first recorded exploration occurred in the spring of 1812 by the Pacific Fur Company, as part of a larger exploration led by Donald Mackenzie. The company had, in 1811, established a post at Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River as part of the Astor Expedition. Mackenzie, the following spring, formed an exploration party and explored the Willamette River. The party named the north fork of the Willamette after Mackenzie. However, much of the river would be largely unvisited by white settlers and explorers until October 1853, when a group of Oregon Trail settlers became lost trying to cross the Cascades into the Willamette Valley via the Elliott Cutoff.

Major crossing along the McKenzie River started in 1910 with the first automobile crossing over the McKenzie Pass. However, crossing along the river was limited to summer due to winter conditions closing the pass. Year round travel was not possible until 1960 with the completion of the Santiam Pass.

Read more about this topic:  McKenzie River

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.
    Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)