Siskiyou Pass
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Siskiyou Pass (sometimes called Siskiyou Summit) is a historic mountain pass in the
Siskiyou Mountains The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal subrange of the Klamath Mountains, and located in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately from east of Crescent City, California, northea ...
of Jackson County. It is the most used pass 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 sove ...
of
Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
. The
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
(HBC) made the
Siskiyou Trail The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path. Originally based on existing Native American foot trails winding their way through river valleys, t ...
over the pass before pioneers traversed it with their wagons, while still later it evolved into a stage road, a railroad line, and a highway route. The name Siskiyou is believed to be derived from Cree, meaning "bob-tailed horse". Siskiyou Pass is west of the summit (high point) of
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 Californi ...
, which is known as
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 S ...
(though sometimes it is referred to as "Siskiyou Pass").


Geography

The pass is situated in Jackson County on the road and rail transport link between Oregon and
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. It measures above MSL. Situated along Oregon Route 273 (also known as Old Highway 99), it is north of California state boundary, and west of the I-5 summit feature, Siskiyou Summit. To the west, there is a mountain with a "rounded-top" known as the Ogden Hill, which rises to an elevation of . Pilot Rock is nearby, named for its use as a visual guide for traversing across the pass. Tunnel 13 on the
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 s ...
line, which is now operated by 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, Califor ...
, summits at Siskiyou Pass.


History

Its historic use as a pass is traced to European Americans who ventured into this region during the late 1820s. The first person noted with crossing this pass was Peter Skene Ogden, an HBC fur trader, who led his group of trappers traveling from south to north in February 1827. The hazards and extreme winter climate was experienced in 1829 when
Alexander Roderick McLeod Alexander Roderick McLeod ( 1782 – 11 June 1840) was a fur trader and explorer in British North America who began his career with the North West Company in 1802. McLeod became a trader and brigade leader with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) ...
encountered a severe blizzard while traveling from
Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading post that was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was located on the northern bank of th ...
via the
Rogue Valley The Rogue Valley is a valley region in southwestern Oregon in the United States. Located along the middle Rogue River (Oregon), Rogue River and its tributaries in Josephine County, Oregon, Josephine and Jackson County, Oregon, Jackson counties, t ...
. It forced him to turn back from the pass. HBC started using the pass as a trail for wagons in the later part of the nineteenth century and then converted it into a stage road, and eventually to a railroad line. The pass was beset with security issues as local Indian tribes attacked the foreign agencies operating on the route including robbing rail cars. Between the 1890s through 1910s, the motivating force changed to locomotive driven snow plowers to push the ice packs and pave way for traffic to pass that could reduce the time of travel which otherwise used to take months in the initial years of travel. By the 1940s, a guardrail system was implemented along the highway, using short, white posts. It is the most used pass in the state.


Road

The pass contains a hazardous stretch of the road starting from Milepost 18 of northbound I-5, which has a steep slope of 6%, negotiating a height of in a short road length of . The descent along this highway is considered the most dangerous, particularly on foggy nights when visibility is almost next to nothing. In spite of the hazards involved, 13,000 trucks ply this route every day. To address emergency situations for drivers, escape ramps have been provided at Mileposts 6.3 and 9.5. An extensive warning system has been devised and put into effect to make truckers be aware of what they are likely to face on this pass. The precautionary measures including chaining truck tires along road shoulders, providing designated inspection sites, as well as avoiding travel during night and early morning hours in winter months. It is also recommended that drivers listen to updated weather information and road conditions on the radio before and during the entire journey through the pass.


Rail

The Oregon & California Railroad proposed an alternate route for the Oregon and California rail connection, which would have avoided Siskiyou Pass. However, Oregon politicians decided in favor of the present rail route. When Tunnel 13 was completed in 1887, beneath the Siskiyou Pass, there was finally a rail link between Oregon and California. In the 1920s, the Southern Pacific Railroad constructed the
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 ...
, a faster, cheaper route between the two states. The rail route is currently owned by 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, Califor ...
. By 2011, almost ten years had lapsed since trains crossed the pass. The pass was reopened to rail traffic in 2015, linking
Weed, CA 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 ...
and
Eugene, OR Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, E ...


See also

* List of mountain passes in Oregon


References

{{Coord, 42.05056, -122.60167, type:pass_region:US-OR, display=title Mountain passes of Oregon U.S. Route 99 Landforms of Jackson County, Oregon