Articles from the Historical Society in Josephine County Oregon

Pack Trains

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THE CRESCENT CITY TO JACKSONVILLE TRAIL
Information compiled by Willard Street

After crossing Oregon Mountain the trail crossed the west fork of the Illinois River just below the confluence of Whiskey Creek; it continued down the west fork to three quarters of a mile west of O'Brien. The trail forked here. One branch continued on the west side of the west fork to Kerby, across what is now called Sauer's Flat, up Reeves Creek, down a branch of McMullen Creek, across where Lake Selmac now is, to Samuel Mooney's donation land claim, crossed Deer Creek valley to H.W. Wixom's donation land claim. The other fork continued on to Waldo, then across Illinois Valley, crossing Althouse and Sucker Creeks, up Bear Creek (a tributary of Sucker Creek), and followed down Thompson Creek, and across Deer Creek valley to Wixom's donation land claim. From Wixom's it went up Crooks Creek, over Mooney Mountain, down Cheney Creek to the Applegate valley.

These were trails, not roads. There was no road over Mooney Mountain until 1900 when the county built the Mooney Mountain road.

By the spring of 1855, there were from 50 to 200 mules daily traveling the inland trails from the coast. Some of the stopping points were the mining communities of Waldo, Allen Town, Browntown and Kerby. Because of its strategic location on the south side of the Applegate River, Wilderville and the small community of Murphy became a major stopping point on the way to the mining communities of Williamsburg (Williams, OR) and Jacksonville to rest the animals and feed the packers. ... Continued - Page 2

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