Wagons Ho! Aldridge Road Multi-Cache

When roads were surveyed in Oregon during the 1800s and early 1900s, the surveyors would blaze and scribe certain trees with the letter "R" (for "road") as was required by law. These "R trees” and other blazes on trees along these routes are still used by surveyors today to retrace the original surveys of these old roads.

This cache will take you to an “R Tree” scribed in 1892 along the A. Aldridge Road.

Prior to 1916, all county roads in Oregon were created by the petition process. As more people homesteaded in this area , the need grew for a network of roads from one settlement to another. A group of citizens would identify the general route for a road they desired and then submit a petition to the County Commissioners requesting that the road be surveyed and opened for travel. After a bond was posted the Commissioners would order the road to be surveyed by the county surveyor and “viewed” by a group of unbiased citizens, the Road Viewers. After the route was examined, the surveyor and road viewers would submit a report to the Commissioners and let them know if they thought the road was in the best interest of the public. After a series of public hearings, the Commissioners would weigh the pros and cons of the creation of the road and either declare it opened or deny the petition.

In 1892 Alvin Aldridge and a group of citizens petitioned the Crook County Court (Deschutes County was still part of Crook County until Dec. 1916) to open a road from Little Bear Creek at the base of the Maury Mountains to John Sisemore’s Farewell Bend Ranch on the Deschutes River (the Farewell Bend Ranch later became the location of the Brooks-Scanlon lumber mill and once the mill closed down the area became the tony shopping district now know as the Old Mill District). The 1892 petition described the general route of the road as:

Commencing at the crossing of the north fork of Bear Creek on the E.G. Conant County Road at Louis M. Hodges place in Section 18, Township 18 South, Range 18 East, thence westerly down the north fork of Bear Creek and crossing main Bear Creek at the north end of J. M Faught’s field in Section 17, Township 18 South, Range 17 East, thence northwesterly to a point about 15 rods north of the southwest corner of Section 36, Township 17 South, Range 16 East, thence northwesterly on the most practical route about 5 miles and thence westerly on the most feasible route to the center of Section 5, Township 18 South, Range 12 East.

The petition was signed by a couple dozen landowners who lived along the road. These old roads were usually named after the chief petitioner. In this case, A. Aldridge.
The Aldridge Road was surveyed June 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, 1892. The surveyors were Knox Huston, Crook County Surveyor; J. B. Vanderpool and Frank Poindexter, chainmen; and J. H. Jones, marker (the guy who blazed and marked the trees) and the Road Viewers were John Sisemore, J. R. Allen and Joe Dobson.

THE CACHE
To get to the published coordinates, turn south on the BLM road at Mile Post 6.1 of Alfalfa Market Road (waypoint "BLM Road"). At the published coordinates you will find a power pole with a small CEC sign that has 6 digits on it. Assign the numbers on the sign, from left to right, the values of A through F to calculate the coordinates for the R Tree. (A = first number on the sign, B = second number on the sign, et cetera).

A  B  C  D  E  F
_  _  _  _  _  _

To get the Latitude of the R Tree, do the following math -

LATITUDE = 44°0W.XYZ’

WHERE:
W = F-4
X = F-2
Y = F-4
Z = F-2

Answer 44°0 _. _  _  _'

Now that you've figured the Latitude, clean your slates and, and using the same criteria of the numbers on the sign ((A = first number on the sign, et cetera)., calculate the R Tree longitude

LONGITUDE = 121°0W.XYZ’

WHERE:
W = C-3
X = C-2
Y = C-3
Z = C-0

Answer 121°0 _. _  _  _'

You can hike from here to the R Tree or get there by driving on existing roads (high clearance and/or 4x4 rig recommended).

The R Tree is right next to a dirt road. The R is in a 4" deep blaze about 3 feet up from the base of the tree. On a hot day in June of 1892 Jason Jones hacked this blaze and then scribed the "R" into the tree. He had been walking and blazing trees for about 28 miles at this point and had 13 more miles to walk before he got to cool his feet in the river at the Farewell Bend Ranch. Benjamin Harrison was president of the US. No airplane had ever soared through the Central Oregon sky. Jason had never heard the racket of a radio or seen the flicker of a TV screen. In 11 years the first electric light would be switched on in Bend followed the next year by the audacious sight of the first automobile sputtering into town.

To find the cache, you will need to note which side of the tree Jason scribed the "R" on.

IF it is on the NORTH side of the tree, the cache is 220 feet DUE NORTH of the R Tree
If it is on the EAST side of the tree, the cache is 180 feet DUE EAST of the R Tree
If it is on the SOUTH side of the tree, the cache is 120 feet DUE SOUTH of the R Tree
IF it is on the WEST side of the tree, the cache is 460 feet DUE WEST of the R Tree
(all distances and bearings approximate).

In addition to scribing R Trees, the surveyors would occasionally hack 3 notches into trees bordering the road. A good example of one of these 3 notch trees is about 350 feet west of the R Tree you just found. Once you notice these 3 notch trees along you’ll see them EVERYWHERE along this road.

This small segment of the Aldridge Road is very near to, and possibly on, the route of the 1853 Elliott Wagon Train.