Applegate Trail Kiosk
Oregon Trail immigrants met a formidable challenge at the rugged Cascade Mountains near Mount Hood and had to complete the 80-mile trip from The Dalles to Fort Vancouver through the dangerous Columbia River Gorge in crude rafts. Many lost their lives on this part of their journey. An alternative, less dangerous route for pioneers was needed.
In 1846, the Applegate brothers and others scouted for a less perilous route. Branching off the main route of the Oregon Trail at Fort Hall, Idaho, this new route provided a southern entrance to the Willamette Valley and avoided the treacherous Columbia River Gorge. In Benton County the Applegate Trail followed ancient Kalapuyan trails and portions of the Oregon-California Pack Tail used by fur traders and trappers from the Hudson Bay Company. The Applegate Trail became a wagon road around 1848. It wound along the foothills of the Coast Range and avoided brushy, swampy lowlands. The California gold Rush further defined the route for stage coaches and wagons. Today Highway 99W generally follows the Trail.
Congress designated the Applegate Trail a National Historic Trail on August 3, 1992.