John Day Fossil Beds Historic Resources Study

Chapter Five:
TRANSPORTATION (continued)

Cultural Resources Summary

Transportation played a pivotal role in the development of the upper John Day basin and, from an early date, fostered two types of cultural resources which have left traces on the landscape today: transportation infrastructure; and commercial establishments that catered to the traveler.

Fig. 36. "City Hotel and Harness Shop" at Mitchell (City of Fossil Museum).

The 1860s gold rush to the Canyon Creek district triggered the overnight opening of a busy supply route from The Dalles to the mines along a largely unimproved dirt wagon road. Before the close of that decade, the route was surveyed, mapped, and partially improved, as The Dalles-Boise Military Road. It remained in heavy use for over fifty years. Remnant sections of both roads — sometimes divergent but more often overlaying one another — have been found in Wasco, Sherman, Wheeler and Grant counties (Nielsen et. al. 1985). All along this major route every fifteen to twenty miles arose stage stops, such as Burnt Ranch at the mouth of Bridge Creek, offering basic services to travelers. Settlement in small valleys tributary to the John Day in the 1870s and 1880s stimulated the construction of secondary mail and stage roads, cable ferries — such as that operated at Clarno — and rudimentary bridges. In 1905, nearly every tiny community in Wheeler County — including Mitchell, Fossil, Twickenham, Richmond, Waterman, and Caleb — boasted one if not two hotels (Shaver et al. 1905: 648-656).

Fig. 37. Sidewalk Café (c. 1945) in Mitchell; F.K. Lentz 1996 (National Park Service).

Railroads left a more limited but enduring mark on the land in Grant and Wheeler counties; both the Kinzua and the Sumpter Valley Railroad operated for only a few decades (Culp 1972: 97; Oliver 1961: 193). Motorization ushered in the construction of multiple graded roads, paved highways and bridges. Motor car travel spawned roadside services offering gas, food, and lodging. Most services, such as the Sidewalk Café in Mitchell, hugged the highway at the center of small towns. Others, such as Scotty's Gas Station and Store at the junction of the John Day Highway and the Ochoco Highway, sprang up at rural crossroads.

A few surviving cultural resources associated with transportation in the Grant and Wheeler area are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. These include:

• The Sumpter Valley Railway Passenger Station, built in 1910, now home to the Dewitt Museum in Prairie City.

• The Sumpter Valley Railway Historic District, restored and operational, in the vicinity of Sumpter and Whitney in neighboring Baker County.

Oregon State Inventory of Historic Places listings from Grant and Wheeler County in the category of transportation include:

• The Prairie City Hotel, 1910, in Prairie City.

• The Kimberly Road Segment of the Spray-Long Creek Wagon Road, ca. 1890.

• The Central Hotel, ca. 1880, in Mitchell.

Area tourism literature listings, in addition to places identified above, include:

• The Shaniko Hotel, at Shaniko, the terminus of the Columbia Southern Railroad.

• Stage Stop Site, ca. 1918, at Service Creek.

• Ferry Crossing Site, ca. 1900, at Spray.

• The Union Pacific Depot, built 1906, in Condon, now the Gilliam County Depot Museum.

• The Oregon Trail John Day River Crossing at McDonald's Ford, east of Wasco in Sherman County.

The most significant transportation resource located within the Monument and in very close proximity to its boundaries is the alignment of The Dalles-Boise Military Road. From John Day, the road followed the general route of what is now U.S. 26 to Dayville, branching off to the west on what is now Grant Co. 40, past the Mascall Overlook, through the former village of Antone, continuing over the hills and dropping down into Mitchell. From Mitchell, the old road ran northwest down Bridge Creek along the general alignment of what is now Bridge Creek Road (Wheeler Co.), passing through the south-easternmost corner of the Painted Hills Unit, and continuing to the mouth of Bridge Creek at the John Day and on to Antelope. The location of the military road (and its antecedent The Dalles to Canyon City Road) was field inspected, but not mapped, by Neilsen, Newman, and McCart in 1985.

Fig. 38. Grant Co. 40, following the old alignment of The Dalles-Boise Military Road — view to the west off U.S. 26 near Picture Gorge; F.K. Lentz, 1996 (National Park Service).

Key recommendations for further investigation of cultural resources associated with the context of Transportation are:

1. Further document the establishment, routing, construction, and maintenance of The Dalles-Boise Military Road. Models for such studies are those mounted for the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road (Beckham 1981) and the Coos Bay Wagon Road (1997).

2. In addition to a thorough literature search, undertake a field survey to ground-verify, photo-record, and map surviving remnants of the road. Such a study, if sponsored jointly with the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office and the Bureau of Land Management, has the potential to identify intact segments along the length of the route that may be eligible for National Register listing.

3. Intact segments in Grant and Wheeler counties in the vicinity of the Monument should be proposed for nomination to the National Register.