|
The Dalles Military Road, also known as The Dalles – Boise Military Wagon Road, was a mid-19th century wagon road surveyed and barely built by The Dalles Military Road Company between 1868 and 1870. To qualify for government land grants, the company was supposed to build a wagon road from The Dalles, Oregon to Fort Boise in Idaho. However, the company's road, on which it spent about $6,000 and for which it received nearly of public land, consisted largely of existing wagon roads and rudimentary trails. In particular, the company took credit for building a well-traveled and pre-existing wagon road between The Dalles and Canyon City, Oregon. It also built a road from Canyon City to the Oregon-Idaho border near Vale, Oregon. The claims of a good wagon road were greatly exaggerated. These claims involved not only the company but Oregon officials, including the governor. The road was used by wagons pulled by oxen or mules to haul food and other supplies to military forts and stations spaced every 30 miles or so along the route. In 1990, it was still possible to travel nearly the entire length from Canyon City to near Brogan, Oregon, (where the route becomes Highway 26), in a stout 4 wheel drive , tall vehicle. The traces you can still see show the hurried building and poor planning. Steep grades, large rocks, poor water, and swampy areas all contributed to a rough trail. Most of the road is still used by ranchers, fishermen and hunters, however our modern 4 wheel drive vehicles are much better suited to the Rocky climbs and dry stretchs. Not much is left of any of the forts east of Canyon City. After the need for the road diminished and then numerous lawsuits, the company went bankrupt and abandoned it to the elements. Public discontent with the fraud, the road, the land grants, and the way the grant lands were re-sold and managed led to a Federal lawsuit about 20 years later. In the suit, the U.S. Attorney General argued that the land had been privatized through fraud and should be returned to the public domain. The suit was dismissed in 1893, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with lower courts that since Oregon's governor had certified the road as authentic and complete in 1870, the grants were valid and could not be reversed. ==Route== In general, the road followed existing trails and roads, linking The Dalles to Fort Boise. Between the end points, the main existing route passed through or near places that in the 21st century such as Antelope, Mitchell, Dayville, Canyon City, Brogan, and Vale, Oregon The fraction of the route used by a stage line that began operation in 1864, is referred to simply as ''The Dalles – Canyon City Wagon Road'' in the ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. The dictionary entry says that "numerous freight wagons, pack trains and tramping feet of miners moving to and from the John Day Valley, gradually hammered it into a fairly good road." Points along the road included Sherars Bridge, Burnt Ranch, Antone and Braggs Ranch, in addition to Mitchell and the end points. The continuation of the wagon road for which The Dalles Military Road Company claimed credit is shown on an ''Atlas of Oregon'' map angling east and southeast from Canyon City, hitting As averred in a later court case about The Dalles Military Road, "the maps or plats referred to in the certificate of the governor showed the line of the pretended road to be " long.〔 An article in ''The New York Times'' in 1888 cited a letter from William Vilas, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, who said in part: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Dalles Military Road」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|