OTIC Text:
Philip Foster’s place on Eagle Creek was the emigrants’ last stop before reaching Oregon City and the end of the Oregon Trail. Weary pioneers could rest here, buy food, or sample one of Mrs. Foster’s famous home-cooked meals before moving down the road. The (last) Foster house, built in 1882, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
MARKER TEXT:
Philip Foster FarmPhilip Foster, his wife Mary Charlotte, and their four children arrived in Oregon City by ship via Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands in 1843. Soon after arriving, Foster and his brother-in-law Francis Pettygrove opened a store. Both men played important roles in Oregon’s early history. Pettygrove platted (and named) Portland and Foster served as the first treasurer of the Provisional Government in 1844 and 1845. Besides running the store, Foster founded a flower mill and a cattle company with Dr. John McLoughlin, exported peas, salmon, and cedar shingles to Hawaii, and partnered with Sam Barlow in the construction of the Barlow Road.
Foster’s December 29, 1845 store ledger showing Barlow provisions and Barlow’s September 1, 1846 singing over toll collection to Foster.In 1847, Foster astutely acquired property in Eagle Creek along the Barlow Road, and relocated his family and store there-- all the better to sell provisions to arriving emigrants before they reached Oregon City. Foster’s Place became a welcome sight for pioneers struggling off Mount Hood after their 2,000 mile journey from Missouri. Many of those who traveled the Barlow Road wrote of Foster’s farm in diaries. Some recorded the pleasure of tasting fresh fruit for the first time in months, others of their gratitude for being able to get sick relatives under a real roof, still others of Foster’s prices.
“... have just halted at the first farm Philip Fosters to noon and rest awhile, and buy feed for the stock. Paid 1 ½ dollars per hundred for hay. Price of fresh beef sixteen and eighteen cents per pound, butter ditto, eggs 1 dollar for a dozen, onions 4 and 5 dollars per bushel. All too dear for poor folks so we have treated ourselves to some small turnips at the rate of 25 cents per dozen…”
--William Wright Anderson
September 10, 1848
“Foster has a beautiful farm, very level what he has cleared… Here they (emigrants) may witness the fruits of thrift and industry; a farm of 500 acres well fenced, 100 sown with wheat, 10 with potatoes, the prairie is covered with 100 head of cattle, together with horses, sheep, and swine in abundance…”
--Samuel Chenery Damon,
1849
Fellow ship passenger and Hawaiian missionary
“Camped to night at a farm, the mans name is Foster from the state of Maine was kind and entertained us very fine. I could not walk strait after not being in a house for so long when to got up to go across the floor I was like an old sailor that that not been long in a long time. They had about 2 hundred bushels of peaches which looked delightful.”
--Amelia Hadley
June 23, 1851
“I arrived at Mr. Fosters a short time before sunset, this is the first house that the emigrants comes to in the valley, here I saw the first signs of civilization since I left St. Joseph, some five months ago, much poultry, hogs, fruit trees, and so forth. Here I will record as I have often heard Mr. Foster spoken of in very censorious terms. I take pleasure… to set down to his credit. Mr Johnson told Foster he had no money, no oxen, no horse, and no way to get his group out of the mountains. Foster replied that he had rented out his oxen and Foster replied: I have none but my favorite mare that I have allowed nobody to ride but myself, but stay til morning and you shall have her, and you shall be welcome to make my home your home until you can get further.”
--Neill Johnson (recollection)
1851
Philip Foster may have been an opportunist, but his was no rough and tumble outpost. Foster built a gristmill on Goose Creek and in 1850 entered a partnership with Noyes Smith, Francis Pettygrove, and Jotham S. Bridges to form the Eagle Creek Milling (lumber) Company at the mouth of Eagle Creek. The Fosters had five more children, and together with neighbors Church, Glover, and Forrester established the Philip Foster School District.
The Eagle Creek area grew steadily with a new 1871 school, post office, a family doctor (C.B. Smith), and a drug store. Foster, now nearing his seventies, sold his store in 1873 to German emigrant Henry Wilburn, who proceeded to build a bigger enterprise (the site at the corner of Hwy 211 and Old Eagle Creek highway), and a two-story meeting and dance hall in the rear, known as Wilburn Hall. It is likely that Willburn Hall became a place for socials, grange meetings, political meetings, traveling “medicine shows,” dances, etc. It may have also served as a church, but there is no evidence to corroborate this.
Mary Charlotte Foster died in 1880 and Philip Foster in 1884. Following are their obituaries as written in the Spectator:Mary Charlotte Foster Pioneer Gone Died of typhoid fever at Eagle Creek, Clackamas County, Oregon, October 7th, 1880. Mrs. Mary C. Foster, wife of Philip Foster, aged 69 years, 8 months and 7 days.
Mrs. Foster was born in Calais, Washington county, Maine, January 30th, 1811 and was married to Philip Foster July 9, 1834, and has lived in Clackamas county since May of 1843. She was the mother of nine children, 5 of whom survive to mourn their loss. She has one brother on this coast, Francis W. Pettygrove, of Port Townsend, W.T. Mrs. Foster was well known in Oregon and respected by all who knew her, was a faithful wife, a fond mother, a kind neighbor and a friend to all, and will be missed by all who knew her. Port Townsend and W.T. papers please copy.
Philip Foster In Memorium Died. On Monday, March 17, 1884 at his residence in Eagle Creek in this county, Mr. Philip Foster, aged 79 years, 9 months and 1 day. On Friday March 14th, Mr. Foster was in his usual health, went around as was his wont in the morning, came home at noon and sat down and ate a hearty meal. After dinner he lightened his pipe and called to his son, Egbert, to prevent him from falling which was done. He was kindly taken care of but never regained consciousness again.
Mr. Foster was born near Bangor, Maine, June 18, 1805. He married Miss Mary C. Pettygrove at Calais, Maine who was a sister of Francis Pettygrove, of Port Townsend, Washington Terr. with whom he left Maine for Oregon around the Horn in April, 1842, arriving in Oregon City, May 1843. He took up the claim on which he died in 1847 and has lived here ever since. His house was the first one the old immigrants, who came the plains across, encountered after they left the Missouri River. There is hardly one among the old pioneers but what will remember Mr. Foster. It was as his old place they got their first fruit or vegetables after the dusty, weary journey over the overland route, and many will remember the pleasant days spent at his place resting themselves, cattle and horses, before their destination was reached. The view of the farm from the hill beyond, to the tired emigrant, was that of a perfect paradise, being then as now, one of the most beautiful spots in Oregon. Mr. Foster, as well as his late wife were ever generous and hospitable and their many acts of kindness remain who partook of it. Mr. Foster leaves five sons, one daughter and 26 grandchildren to mourn the loss of a kind and indulgent parent, as well as an upright and good citizen. Oregon and Banogor, Maine papers please copy.
HISTORY’S MYSTERIES
History is fluid. Lore passed down through generations can be picked up and written as fact. It takes diligence to sort through recollections, diaries, biographies, documents, and archeology to piece together the past. Sometimes ambiguities can be explained or solved; many times not. Foster Family LoreIn 1845 Philip Foster’s young sons, Frank, aged six, and George, aged 10, saw two strange men coming towards them on the top of the hill. Foster, who was building a gristmill on Goose Creek (Just north of here), thought the boys were seeing things, but went to investigate.
The men were staggering, seemingly exhausted, and were identified as Sam Barlow and William Rector, Foster took them to his house where they ate and rested before continuing their journey to Oregon City by horseback with the help of Foster.
Discrepancies Official documents, Joel Palmer’s diary, and William Rector’s own recollection show that: -Barlow’s and Rector’s “lost” ordeal occurred on the slopes of Mt. Hood near Lolo Pass and Zigzag, not at Eagle Creek.-Philip Foster’s Willamette Falls store ledger confirms that Barlow bought provisions in Oregon City on Dec 29, 1845, and in March 1846.-Joel Palmer’s diary of October 30, 1845 notes: “To the left of the trail we saw a house at the foot of the hill… The claim was held by a man named McSwain.”-The Foster family did not live at the property at the time. Documents show that McSwain sold his claim at Eagle Creek to Philip Foster in January 1847. Perhaps it will never be known from what incident the Foster family story may have sprung.
The Curious Case of Noyes Smith aka Egbert OlcottNoyes Smith was listed as coming to Oregon in 1844 at age 39, a merchant born in Connecticut. He apparently prospered in Oregon City. When the territorial mint closed in 1849, Smith became a member of the short-lived Oregon Exchange Company which minted $55,000 in five and ten dollar gold tokens as currency, known as “Beaver Money.” Rumors about Smith’s possible misuse of funds and disappearance as a bank officer from the east came to light, but there is no record of inquiry. There is also no record of when he reverted to using his supposed real name, Egbert Olcott. It is unknown when Foster and Smith/Olcott crossed paths and not known whether it was an inside joke that led Foster in 1850 to name his newest son Egbert Noyes Foster. Documents show that lumber was obtained for the Foster District first schoolhouse in 1851 from Foster’s Eagle Milling Co. On Eagle Creek from none other than partner Egbert Olcott.
Noyes Smith, does not appear in Oregon’s 1860 census; Egbert Olcott does. An Egbert Olcott, born in Connecticut, worked as a cashier at Waltervliet Bank in New York. The bank failed in 1841. Plenty of time for a name change and a disappearance to Oregon?
THE BARLOW ROAD
The Dalles (see map far right) The overland Oregon Trail came to an abrupt end at the Columbia River where Native Americans had enjoyed a thriving civilization- a major Indian fishing and trading confluence- for over 10,000 years. By the time the emigrants began arriving in 1843, most of the native population had been decimated by smallpox. Here, near the Wascopam mission, arriving emigrants faced playing exorbitant prices for transport down the treacherous river rapids to complete their journey to Oregon City and the luch “promise land” of the Willamette Valley.
Sam Barlow
In September 1845, a feisty Kentuckian, Samuel Kimbrough Barlow, his wife Susannah, and five children, along with 13 wagons, arrived to a chaotic scene of wagons and emigrants awaiting transport down the river. Sam Barlow was unwilling to pay the price, or face the rapids. He was determined to find an alternate route to Oregon City. However, there was one obstacle: Mt. Hood. Barlow apparently declared that: “God never made a mountain but what He provided a place for man to go over or around it.”
Local Indians and cattle drovers were already using an established trail across the north and west slopes of Mt Hood to Oregon City, but it was too narrow and steep to support wagons. Barlow hoped to find a more moderate incline on the south slope of Mt. Hood. Barlow and Harrison Lock, with seven additional wagons headed south along a well-traveled Indian trail skirting the eastern edge of the mountain determined to find a new route.
Joel Palmer and his 23 wagons joined the Barlow party. Barlow, Lock, and Palmer explored possible routes, but it was the younger, heartier, Palmer who confirmed a likely course from a vantage point high on Mt. Hood. Leaving the wagons and families in camp, Palmer proceeded on horseback with his companions to Oregon City, while Barlow and new arrival William Rector began blazing a trail through the dense forest following Indian trails that dead-ended at huckleberry patches and hunting grounds. Days later, lost, and on the brink of starvation and exhaustion, Indians and drovers near what is now Lolo Pass and Zigzag found Barlow and Rector. They were guided to Oregon City on a well-traveled trail, where they secured provisions and returned to the encampment.
Most of the wagons retreated to The Dalles, but Barlow was determined to forge ahead. Barlow’s wagons and belongings were left behind at what they called Fort Deposit to be retrieved in the spring. Barlow’s party set out in the snow on oxen, horses, on foot, and “one woman riding a cow” and arrived safely in Oregon CIty on Christmas night 1845. Earlier, Barlow petitioned the Provisional and Territorial government December 6, 1845 to build a road across the mountain: “I hereby report that I have viewed and marked by blsing (sic) and cutting away bushes and logs a rout (sic) or line for a road beginning at the dalls (sic) Mission thence to… valley of Clackamas…” Barlow and Foster became official partners May 23, 1846.
In September the new partners opened the Mount Hood Road, also known as the Barlow Road. Foster would collect the tolls from gatekeepers. “Be it known that Philip Foster is authorized to receive toll of all persons traveling on the road through the mountains as my partner.”
--September 1, 1846
Samuel K Barlow
The Spectator newspaper in 1846 noted tolls as: “For each wagon… 5 dollars. For each head of horses, mules, or asses, whether loose, geared, or saddled… 10 cents. For each head of horned cattle, whether geared or loose… 10 cents.” By 1863 tolls were discounted: Wagon and Team 2.50 Man and Horse .75 Pack animals and packs 0.25 Loose Horses packs and mules .10 Cattle .05 Sheep 0.025.
That last leg of the overland Oregon Trail around Mt. Hood, though perilous, became the preferred route to Oregon City. It is estimated that nearly 10,000 emigrants a year passed over Barlow’s toll road between 1846 and the 1860s. Barlow soon left the road enterprise to Foster, settling with Susannah and their family near Canby, whence the town, Barlow. After Sussanah’s death he remarried and moved to Canemah, just south of Oregon City. He died July 15, 1867.
Gate Creek
This was the first tollgate before the mountain crossing began. The toll was referred to as a “death fee.” It seemed offensive in the extreme to the emigrants to pay a fee for a passage of which some may not survive.
Devil’s Half Acre
This large meadow near the head of Barlow Creek may be the site of Ft. Deposit. It was not an open area until forest fires in the 1860s created a clearing. The heavily forested spot was one of despair for the exhausted emigrants with low supplies and little food for their stock. Still, it’s likely they built their timbered structure chinked with moss and mud to store their goods and wagons, before the steep climb to Barlow Pass. William Berry stayed behind to guard the supplies through the winter of 1845.
Barlow Pass Summit
On October 11, 1845 Barlow, Lock, and Palmer left their encampment on the eastern prairie and trudged over glaciated ridges, ravines, and rocky screes and eventually found an Indian trail leading around Mt. Hood at the timberline. The following July, work crews began building a road by axe, saw, and fire. Deep wagon ruts can still be seen on the mile hike from Barlow Pass to the Pioneer Woman’s Grave.
Pioneer Woman’s GraveIn 1924 a survey crew building the Mt. Hood Loop highway discovered a wagon tongue marking the grave of an unknown pioneer woman buried in a wagon box. Since the discovery, rock cairns serve as a memorial. About 50 yards west of the grave is the East Fork of the Salmon River where the wagons forded the rushing river.
Summit MeadowsFrom the heights of Mt. Hood, Palmer spotted “several small prairies” that appeared accessible to the wagons. On investigation, Barlow, Lock, and Palmer found that a larger meadow was a favorite tribal encampment with easy access to huckleberry grounds. The men feasted on “whortle berries” and decided the prairie, with lush grasses and a clear mountain stream, would be a welcome relief for the emigrants and their stock. A “corduroy” road of logs was built across the swampy grounds for access. In the 1870s, tollgate keeper Perry Vickers had a primitive log lodge and cedar shake tepee as a concession for campers. Across the road from the meadow is a small pioneer graveyard with four tombstones enclosed by a picket fence.
Government Camp
The site was named after a small command of the First U.S. Rifles who arrived enroute from The Dalles to Oregon City in 1849. Bogged down in the alpine meadows and unable to move forward with winter setting in, they abandoned their 45 wagons and livestock. Nearly two-thirds of their mules and horses died. Getting out of the rugged mountain terrain with belongings, animals, and wagons intact was always an ordeal. “Every now and then we would come upon either a broken wagon which was still on good condition and sometimes full of baggage, or sometimes the carcasses of several oxen or horses left by the emigrants. This last part of the Oregon Trail is undoubtedly the most terrible that can be found.
--Father Godfroi Rousseau
1848
Laurel Hill
This horrific descent off the southwestern slope of Mt. Hood was named after native rhododendron that resembles laurel. Laurel Hill was a series of three chutes, the worst, a 60% incline. The oxen could not withstand the severest slope, so some wagons were dismantled and sent skidding down the slide. Other wagons were lowered by ropes snubbed to large trees or lashed to cut drag trees. Sam Barlow’s son, William, noted that they slid down the hill “like shot off a shovel.” “We looked in dismay and the cattle seemed to moan in distress! But others had descended, so must we…”
-- J.H. Brown
1847
“Started early and traveled over the worst road. There were many wagons abandoned and left and a great number of dead cattle which caused a terrible stink all along the way. Camped at the foot of Laurel Hill. Oh! What a hill.”
-- Charles A. Brandt
September 22, 1851
It should be noted that the chute designated by the historic marker on US Hwy 26 is now considered by archeologists to be a rock borrow site used to build the Mount Hood Loop highway in 1924. The longest and steepest chute, likely the one mentioned in emigrant diaries, is west of the highway’s runaway truck ramp and connects with Bridal Veil Trail where there were known wagon ruts and emigrant encampments. As terrifying as it was, crossing the mountain and the descent from Laurel Hill was favored to navigating the Columbia River rapids.
Tollgate
A replica of the last tollgate stood between two large maple trees planted by tollgate keeper Daniel Park, one of which still remains. Barlow’s famous toll “road” was little more than a crude, rock and dirt trail until the 1880s and emigrants complained mightily. “Sam Barlow was the most unpopular man in all Oregon so far as the emigrants were concerned who crossed over this road…”-Emigrant P.C. Davis. Toll keepers had troubled collecting fees. Gatekeeper Thos. A. Bell writes notes on scraps of paper to Philip Foster regarding emigrants who refused to pay the tolls: “Mr. Foster, There is great trouble in collecting toll from travel east of the mountains. Men coming in complain very hard of the mud holes on the summit. Mr. Foster, James Winson drove around the gate and threw down the fate and fence after being forbid. He had 100 head of cattle, 5 riding horses and 2 pack horses.”
Promissory notes for toll payment were also written to Barlow and Foster. “One day after date Value received I promise to pay Sam K Barlow and Philip Foster fifteen dollars and thirteen cents in currency at cash value”
-- H. Harman Shelton
Sept 7, 1847
Lolo PassHere, near Zigzag, the wandering, starving, nearly freezing Sam Barlow and WIlliam Rector were rescued by drovers and Indians traveling across the western slope of Mt. Hood via Lolo Pass. From this point on, the route to Oregon City was well traveled. Rector recorded their ordeal recalling: “...we will get to the trail early tomorrow but he (Barlow) insisted that it was very likely that he would never be able to get out of these mountains and made the solm (sic) request that if (he) should get disabled… I would knock out his braines (sic) with the axe…” Exasperated with his constant whining, Rector told Barlow not to worry if Barlow became disabled: “I will kill and eat you!”
Rock Corral
Two enourmas rocks form a natural corral along the Sandy River. It was a major emigrant encampment and retreat before the last mountain obstacle- Devil’s Backbone.
Devil’s Backbone
Most of the Barlow Road followed Indian paths that were known to follow ridges, rather than valleys. The wagons made the last difficult climb as the road soon became a wicked, twisting switchback ascent to the high rocky forested ridge and then down again, only to encounter a toll gate bridge on the Sandy River at Revenue’s Place before a steep climb out of the canyon.
This 12 mile stretch took two hard days of travel. “...(the trail) was very narrow with just room enough for wagons and teams to pass. On either side there was immense canyons so far down we could not see where they terminated…”
--Charles Howard Crawford
1845
In 1883 Adolph Aschoff settled the town site of Marmot. Marmot flourished here with a store, post office, and hotel. Marmot is no more, having declined when the 1924 loop highway bypassed Devil’s Backbone.
Francis Revenue’s PlaceFrancis Revenue and family arrived via the Barlow Road in 1853 and staked a homestead claim along the Sandy River. Revenue established a trading post and built the first bridge using his own funds. The bridge was the site of the second tollgate on the route, which remained until it was lost to high water in 1865. The city of Sandy, established in the 1870s on top of the Sandy River ravine, was first called Revenue.
Philip Foster’s Place
As the emigrants descended into the lush valley of Eagle Creek they encountered their first real civilization at Foster’s place. Here, they would find fresh fruit and vegetables, a store for provisions, pastures for stock, home-cooked meals and even primitive cabins for rent. “After six distressing days of hardships and suffering we got to Foster’s and camped at this haven of rest for weary emigrants. We rejoiced to know that we had at last arrived in Oregon settlements after five long months. We got vegetables from Mr. Foster and had a regular feast. When we were all seated around enjoying our evening meal father looked over the group and said to mother, “We must thank God, Ann, for we are all here.”
-- Martha (Gay) Masterson
1851
Feldenheimer’s Ford
From Foster’s Place to Oregon City the route wound down a hillside crossing Eagle Creek, then took a steep descent to cross the shallow, rocky Clackamas River and ascended up the steep bank on Feldenheimer’s property. The crossing here became known as Feldenheimer’s Ford. An easier route headed west downriver to Barton, where the emigrants could pay to cross on Latourette’s rope-operated ferry.
Baker Cabin
After traveling the Barlow Road in 1846, Horace Baker and Jane Hatten settled on the banks of the Clackamas River near Carver, where Horace, being a stonemason, found large basalt cliffs to quarry. He sent fine stone blocks all over the territory for buildings, bridges, and roadways that can still be seen today. Apparently, he was so busy he didn’t have time to build a proper house for ten years. Neighbors took pity on Jane and built the unusual cantilever hand-hewn log cabin in 1856.
Oregon City- The End of Oregon Trail
After their 2,200 mile trek, the emigrants would reach their long-sought promised land of the Willamette Valley. At Oregon City they would find news, stock up on provisions, strike out for new homesteads, and register land claims. By the 1880s, the “one-way” road west over Mt. Hood was improved and open to traffic traveling both directions. Laurel Hill was blasted, opening passage to stage coaches and freight wagons. Hotels sprang up at Marmot, Welches, and “Sumate Prairie” (Summit Meadows), which became a burgeoning vacation village. The Barlow Road was the main circuit over Mt. Hood and toll gates were in operation until 1915. The Mt. Hood Loop Highway, built in 1924, followed much of Barlow’s road, as does US Highway 26.
On September 8, 1919, the Barlow Road was donated to the people of the State of Oregon. The deed clause reads: “To Have and To Hold unto the said State of Oregon, with all its mountains and hills, its forests and vines, its flowers and shrubs, its valleys and dells, its crags and rocks, its gorges and canyons, its glaciers and snow-fields, its rivers and streams, its lakes and springs, its animals and birds, its tempests and storms, its lights and shadows, its trails and paths, and the beauties and grandeur of Mount Hood: for the use, benefit and pleasure of all forever.”
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