Joseph Sherar (November 16, 1833 – February 11, 1908) was a 19th-century wagon road builder who, with his wife, Jane, owned and operated a

Deschutes River Deschutes River may refer to: *Deschutes River (Oregon) The Deschutes River in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many ...

toll bridge and a nearby

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

station and hotel in

Wasco County Wasco County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,213. Its county seat is The Dalles. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. The bridge and buildings were slightly downstream of Sherars Falls, the river's lowermost waterfall, and a traditional fishing spot for the native inhabitants of the region. Sherar improved the bridge and about of the existing wagon road that crossed it. He and his wife, Jane, operated the Sherar Bridge Hotel from 1871 until their deaths in 1907–08. A concrete bridge has since replaced Sherar's wooden bridge and carries Oregon Route 216 over the river near the waterfall.

Early life

Sherar was born in Vermont in 1833 after his parents had immigrated there from Ireland with their first three children. When he was two years old, the family moved to St. Lawrence County in the U.S. state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where Sherar spent the next 20 years. In 1855, Sherar left New York and traveled to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where he tried mining, hauling goods by pack animal, and then farming along the

Klamath River The Klamath River (Karuk: ''Ishkêesh'', Klamath: ''Koke'', Yurok: ''Hehlkeek 'We-Roy'') flows through Oregon and northern California in the United States, emptying into the Pacific Ocean. By average discharge, the Klamath is the second larges ...

before moving to Oregon in 1862. Operating out of

The Dalles The Dalles is the largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,010 at the 2020 census, and it is the largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River between the Portland Metropolitan Area, and Hermiston ...

, Sherar developed a business hauling supplies over primitive trails to mining camps to the southeast. He and his associates are credited with naming several locations, such as Bakeoven, along their route. In 1863, Sherar married Jane A. Herbert. Born in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

in 1848, she had moved to The Dalles with her family in 1850. Selling the pack train business in 1864, the Sherars moved to Dufur, then Tygh Valley.

Sherars Bridge

In 1871, the Sherars bought land and an existing bridge over the Deschutes River, southwest of

Grass Valley A grass valley (also vega and valle) is a meadow located within a forested and relatively small drainage basin such as a headwater. Grass valleys are common in North America, where they are created and maintained principally by the work of b ...

. They spent about $7,000 for the properties and later spent another $75,000 improving the wagon road leading to it. The bridge site, below Sherars Falls, was an established site for crossing the river, by boat through the 1850s and by bridge after 1860. The waterfall was a traditional fishing site for the Tygh people (Western

Sahaptin The Sahaptin are a number of Native American tribes who speak dialects of the Sahaptin language. The Sahaptin tribes inhabited territory along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Sahaptin-s ...

Indians), who used wooden platforms and dip nets to catch

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

and

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

migrating upriver.

Sherar built a stagecoach station and hotel near the bridge, which came to be known as Sherars Bridge. He replaced the existing bridge with a sturdier version, ran it as a

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or ''toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road. ...

, and used the income to offset the cost of improving and maintaining the structure. The road, known as ''The Dalles – Canyon City Wagon Road'', was part of what had been used in 1868–70 in the land-grant scheme called

The Dalles Military Road 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 c ...

. Sherar, employing local Indian laborers, gradually improved the road for on either side of the river. By 1893, the Sherar Bridge Hotel had become a three-story, 33-room inn well-known to travelers to and from central Oregon. The bridge remained important throughout the couple's lives. Jane Sherar died in 1907 and Joseph a year later, before railroad traffic along the river made the bridge less important. Subsequent owners kept the hotel open until a fire destroyed it in 1938. Today, Oregon Route 216 crosses the river over a concrete bridge downstream of Sherars Falls. It is the river's lowermost waterfall, plunging into a horseshoe-shaped trough near the bridge. The waterfall, which is still a tribal fishing site, is on the

Warm Springs Indian Reservation The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Tribes Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and Pa ...

Post offices

In 1868, Ezra L. Hemingway, an earlier owner of the bridge, had established a post office named Deschutes on land he owned next to the bridge. Joseph Sherar became its postmaster in 1872, and in 1883 the post office was renamed ''Sherars Bridge''''Oregon Geographic Names'', p. 281 or ''Sherar Bridge''. The post office shut down in 1907, reopened in 1922, and was finally closed in 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherar, Joseph Oregon pioneers Oregon postmasters 1833 births 1908 deaths People from Vermont American people of Irish descent People from Sherman County, Oregon