The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903Oregon Historical Society
History
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon -- History -- Periodicals
North Santiam. The suggestion was made that this arm of the stream
trended so far southward that it would probably be found to reach the
summit by a greater meander and consequently afford a more gradual
approach to this supposed lower point of the summit, and therefore be
more favorable for railroad purposes. The order was made in accordance
with the suggestion, and Capt. L. S. Scott, Geo. S. Downing, and John
Minto were appointed viewers and T. W. Davenport surveyor. After some
loss of time by efforts to locate a line of communication, Minto took
one comrade and went eastward through the old pass, taking the
altitude of it as he went and finding it, according to an ordinary
barometer, such as is used by railroad surveyors, to be five thousand
five hundred and thirty-six feet above the sea, and proceeding
southward and then westward on the same day found the instrument to
read at the point indicated by Judge Waldo, four thousand nine hundred
and eleven feet above the sea. From this point a line was struck and
surveyed, which by way of the southeast branch of the North Santiam,
connects with the original survey by an easy grade for railroad
purposes and of which the projectors of the Corvallis and Eastern
railroad were immediately informed. An examination of the whole route
from Gates to Summit via the last viewed section, was made by Colonel
Eccleson, civil engineer, and Summit was reached by a fraction over a
two per cent grade. Construction began at the Summit with the least
possible delay and rails were hauled by wagon from Albany and laid in
order to hold the pass. From the pass westward more than half of the
right of way was cut and much of the grade made ready for the ties
between this lowest pass and the junction with the original Marion
County survey at what the party making it called Independence Valley,
directly south of and as the bird flies about eight miles from the
apex of Mount Jefferson. From Idanha, the terminal of railroad track
laid, four miles east of Detroit, fully twelve miles of right of way
and grade were constructed when work was suspended by the original
railroad company. From Mill City eastward to the Summit, the company
appropriated fully ninety per cent of the original surveys made at the
cost of Marion County. This need not be objected to, but in addition
to this these railroad promoters often exercised an assumed right to
name points that will be of permanent interest which they did not
discover. This seems hardly fair. From my point of view the Hon. John
B. Waldo, who first observed the apparent lowness of the pass, and
called my attention to it, is more entitled to have his name attached
to it than Col. T. E. Hogg, whose name I understand was given to by J.
I. Blair, the railroad magnate of New York, who was one of the chief
supporters of Colonel Hogg's enterprise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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