Wagons, Ho!

FISH LAKE: Buckskins and burros were among the sights, while the Crazed Weasels and a curved dash Oldsmobile provided background sounds to round out Saturday’s Santiam Wagon Road Exhibition. The event offered opportunities to learn more about a unique route between Albany and Bend that sent settlers eastward to reach the rich pasture lands of Central Oregon and marketplaces in Idaho.

Native people had long been accessing the area to hunt, forage, or trade long before Andrew Wiley, John Gray, and John Bradenburg made forays into the zone in 1859. Their exploits resulted in the formation of the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road Company. After dynamiting through obstacles, their new wagon road continued to be the primary way to cross over the mountains until it was surpassed with the completion of Hwy. 20 in 1939.

As the forest continued to swallow up the old roadbed,, it might have been lost to antiquity. But in the last 20 to 30 years, volunteers have restored about half of the old route to the point where it can now be navigated by horse-drawn wagons or early-era autos.

Both were displayed during the celebration with docents wearing period costumes or sessions with live-action pack trains and wagon rides.

Also on hand was a 1902 Oldsmobile commemorating the cross-country race that passed through the area in 1905. While the motorcar’s motor gave off a low-volume purr, tunes from the Civil War to the 1920s suffrage movement wafted out from the tent, shading the Crazed Weasels musical duo.

To view some videos from the event, go to tinyurl.com/ykadwak2