Oregon Route 58 (OR 58), also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18 (see

Oregon highways and routes The state highway system of the U.S. state of Oregon is a network of highways that are owned and maintained by the Highway Division of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Highways and routes The state highway system consists of abo ...

), is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

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 route, signed east–west, runs in a southeast–northwest direction, connecting

U.S. Route 97 U.S. Route 97 (US 97) is a major north–south route of the United States Numbered Highway System in the Pacific Northwest region. It runs for approximately through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, primarily serving in ...

north of Chemult with

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

south of Eugene. It links the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

and

Central Oregon Central Oregon is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Oregon and is traditionally considered to be made up of Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties. Other definitions include larger areas, often encompassing areas to the north towards the ...

, crossing the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

Willamette Pass Willamette Pass () is a mountain pass crossing the crest of the Cascade Range in Oregon, United States. It is less commonly known as Willamette Summit. The pass is traversed by Oregon Route 58 and by Union Pacific's (ex-Southern Pacific) Cascad ...

. OR 58 is generally a modern two-lane highway with a

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expres ...

of 55 mph (88 km/h), built through the

Willamette National Forest The Willamette National Forest is a National Forest located in the central portion of the Cascade Range of the U.S. state of Oregon. It comprises . Over 380,000 acres (694 mi2, 1,540 km2) are designated wilderness which include seven ...

in the 1930s. OR 58 is a designated

freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including transp ...

route, forming one of several connections between I-5 and US 97, which leads back to I-5 at

Weed, California Weed is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a total population of 2,862, down from 2,967 in 2010. There are several unincorporated communities adjacent to, or just outside, Weed proper, inclu ...

. This is a popular alternate route for

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

s on the I-5 corridor, avoiding the steep

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also ref ...

s and winter closures of I-5 over

Siskiyou Summit Siskiyou Summit (also Siskiyou Mtn. Summit; also referred to as Siskiyou Pass) is a summit (high point) on Interstate 5 (I-5) in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is distinct from Siskiyou Pass, which is a nearby, historical mountain pass. Siskiyou Su ...

. The highway is also on the National Highway System, and is classified as an

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

southeast of Odell Lake. (US 97 is also classified as such south to the state line, and in California it is part of the Freeway and Expressway System.) This matches the general routes of the 1887

Oregon and California Railroad The Oregon and California Railroad was formed from the Oregon Central Railroad when it was the first to operate a stretch south of Portland in 1869. This qualified the railroad for land grants in California, whereupon the name of the railroad so ...

over Siskiyou Summit and the 1926

Natron Cutoff Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate ( Na2CO3·10H2O, a kind of soda ash) and around 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda, NaHCO3) along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfat ...

along OR 58 and US 97; the latter is now part of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

's I-5 Corridor rail line, while the former is the

Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad The Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad is a Class II railroad operating between Northern California and Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was previously a mainline owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between Eugene and Weed, California ...

shortline.

Route description

Oregon Route 58 begins (at its western terminus) at an interchange with

and

Oregon Route 99 Oregon Route 99 is a state highway that runs between the southern border of Oregon, and the city of Junction City. Oregon Route 99 was formed from parts of the former U.S. Route 99; it shares much of its route with I-5, but much of it is also ...

near Goshen, located between the cities of Eugene and Creswell. It heads due southeast from there, following the course of the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

into the foothills of the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. The highway passes several lakes, including Dexter Lake and Lookout Point Lake, and provides access to the town of Lowell. Further into the mountains, it passes through the cities of Oakridge and Westfir. It continues into the mountains, up the Salt Creek canyon, to the summit of

, after which it descends into central Oregon. Oregon Route 58 terminates at an interchange with

. Oregon Route 58 is of high importance as a freight corridor. It is the primary route between the

and south-central Oregon, including the

Klamath Falls Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city was ...

region. It also is the preferred route to points further southeast, including

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. Finally, it is an important alternate route for traffic moving up and down the West Coast, as bad weather frequently closes

at the

during the winter. The

I-5 Corridor main line through Oregon and

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 ...

roughly follows OR 58 and US 97. While a rail line exists through Siskiyou Summit, it is difficult for trains to use even in good weather, due to an excessively steep grade, and is often uneconomical to use in winter weather. It is common for West Coast truck traffic to prefer OR 58 and US 97 to Interstate 5 for the same reason. Two scenic byways—the West Cascades Scenic Byway and the

Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway The Cascades Lakes Scenic Byway (Forest Route 46) is a National Scenic Byway in central Oregon in the United States. It runs for in the rugged country of Deschutes and Klamath counties on the east side of the Cascade Range. It offers partic ...

—intersect with OR 58.

History

By the 1850s, Emigrant Pass, slightly south of OR 58's crossing at Willamette Pass, was being used by

emigrant Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

s to the

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Ori ...

as a way over the Cascades. In October 1853, a party of 1,500 was almost stranded at the pass, but was saved from a

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in th ...

-style tragedy by nearby settlers who had begun to improve the route up the

Middle Fork Willamette River The Middle Fork Willamette River is one of several forks that unite to form the Willamette River in the western part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is approximately long, draining an area of the Cascade Range southeast of Eugene, which is at th ...

earlier that year as a shortcut between the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what ...

near

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

, and the Willamette Valley. In July 1865, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

authorized the construction of the

Oregon Central Military Wagon Road The Stone Bridge is a causeway built by the United States Army in 1867. It crosses the marshy channel that connects Hart Lake and Crump Lake in a remote area of Lake County in eastern Oregon, United States. It was later incorporated into the O ...

from Eugene to

Fort Boise Fort Boise is either of two different locations in the western United States, both in southwestern Idaho. The first was a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading post near the Snake River on what is now the Oregon border (in present-day Canyon County ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. To finance the construction, the government offered

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

s along the route. Eventually, the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road Company would build of road and claim about . However, scandal and lawsuits regarding the quality of the road and its route reduced the amount of land actually

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

by the company to approximately . Today, Oregon Route 58 follows the first leg of the Oregon Central military road from Eugene over the Cascades to Central Oregon."Oregon Central Military Road"
, Oregon State Office, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of Interior, Portland, Oregon, 17 September 2009."Oregon History: Uncle Sam's Handiwork"
''Oregon Blue Book'', Oregon State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, State of Oregon, Salem, Oregon, 17 September 2009.

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Unblushing Land Frauds
March 21, 1888, p. 1 The

Oregon State Highway Commission The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depart ...

added the Willamette Highway No. 18, from Goshen via Oakridge to

Crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

, to the state highway system on November 24, 1922. The road was entirely unimproved when it was taken over, and improvement progressed slowly from the Goshen end.

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

, tp://ftp.odot.state.or.us/ROW_Eng/HistoryHighwaysOregon/BiennialCollectionMaps.pdf maps from the biennial reports 1922-1932

History of State Highways in Oregon
January 2007, pp. 161-162 The roadway received the signed Oregon Route 58 designation in 1932, when the Oregon Route system was first laid out. A major realignment, crossing the Cascades at

rather than Emigrant Pass, was designed in 1933, and incorporated a number of " half viaducts" built into the hillside and one

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

(the

Salt Creek Tunnel Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantiti ...

) in order "not to scar the hillsides more than is absolutely necessary" through the

. An opening ceremony for the highway, thought at the time to be the last major highway that the state would build, was held on July 30, 1940.

Salt Creek Half Viaducts
accessed October 2007 The road remained partially oiled gravel until the mid-1960s.

, tp://ftp.odot.state.or.us/ROW_Eng/HistoryHighwaysOregon/HighwayListByYear.pdf lists of highways from the biennial reports 1942-1965

Major intersections

References

External links

2005 Oregon Highway 58 Conditions Report
*

Salt Creek Half Viaducts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Route 058

058 58 may refer to: * 58 (number) * one of the years 58 BC, AD 58, 1958, 2058 * 58 (band), an American rock band * 58 (golf), a round of 58 in golf * "Fifty Eight", a song by Karma to Burn from the album ''Arch Stanton ''Arch Stanton'' is the sixth ...

Transportation in Lane County, Oregon Transportation in Klamath County, Oregon