The Myrtle Creek Ruts: Applegate Trail Wagon Tracks Cut Into Oregon Bedrock

Beside a roadside pull-off at Myrtle Creek, Oregon, a wayside exhibit called Lasting Impression stands at the foot of a grassy slope, with rock outcrops up the hill and a worn trail — wagon ruts — climbing straight ahead. It was made by the City of Myrtle Creek, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe and the National Park Service, for the California National Historic Trail. The Park Service published an audio description of it in March 2024.

The Lasting Impression exhibit at the Myrtle Creek ruts. NPS.

The ruts

The ruts on the hill are among the best surviving physical traces of the Applegate Trail. This wagon road brought Euro-American emigrants to the Willamette Valley from the south, branching off the California Trail. From 1846 into the 1850s, thousands of people and wagons came north along it, and their wheels wore grooves into the bedrock. In 1853 prospectors began pouring into the hills and valleys looking for gold.

The Cow Creek Umpqua

The panel also tells of the Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe, who have lived here since time immemorial, with a deep culture and a commitment to keeping their way of life by managing their natural resources. The emigrants brought epidemics, depleted resources and attempts to drive the Cow Creek Umpqua from their land. The panel describes them as a resilient people who remain strong, but for whom the trail's legacy will always be part of their history.

A small map on the panel shows the Cow Creek Umpqua ancestral territory — much of what is now western Oregon, from the California border to just south of Eugene, with Myrtle Creek near its middle — and the route of the California National Historic Trail. Coming up through Nevada to northeastern California, the trail splits: one branch turns back south into California, and the other, the Applegate Trail of 1846, runs west and then north toward Eugene, through Cow Creek Umpqua land, taking emigrants to the Willamette Valley while avoiding the dangers of crossing the Columbia River.

The panel

A photograph of the slope fills the background, with three covered wagons added climbing it. A black bar across the top carries "Myrtle Creek" and the California National Historic Trail logo, with the names of the three partners. A QR code links to the audio description at go.nps.gov/LastingImpression.

Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.

Sources

• National Park Service, California National Historic Trail, "Myrtle Creek Ruts Exhibit Audio Description," March 26, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/myrtle-creek-ruts-exhibit-audio-description.htm