Trail History
Early History
Native Americans
A variety of Native American groups inhabited and utilized regional areas along the Columbia River for thousands of years before European settlement. The Chinook and Clatskanie Indians were the primary people that occupied Columbia County.
The Chinook Indians lived along the banks of the Columbia River and the coast of the Pacific Ocean. They were superb canoe builders and navigators, masterful traders, skillful fishermen and planters. The Meier site, the subject of an archaeological excavation that documents an early community on the lower Columbia River, is located near Scappoose, on the margin of the Columbia floodplain. The site, named for the farmer who once owned the land, contains the remains of a single, large, 90-by-55-foot Chinookan plankhouse, with associated yard and midden deposits. (Midden deposits are mounds of artifacts discarded by humans occupying a site, usually for an extended period.) The site is significant for Oregon and Northwest history for many reasons. Evidence for the house is remarkably well preserved, despite the site having been plowed. That circumstance allows the house and its internal arrangements to be reconstructed in greater detail than is typical. The site is rich in ecofacts and artifacts, allowing detailed analysis of how daily life was organized in the house. Finally, the house was occupied during the period when Europeans entered the region.
The Clatskanie Indians primarily occupied densely forested uplands and associated small prairies where they could subsist on deer, elk, edible roots, and berries. Their territory included the Upper Nehalem drainage and the headwaters of the Klaskanine and Clatskanie Rivers. As the map below suggests, the Clatskanie Indians may have used parts of the current Crown Z Trail to reach Sauvie Island.
European and American Settlers
In the early 1800’s, Great Britain and the United States were vying for control over the lands west of the Rocky Mountains In 1825, the Hudson Bay Company established Fort Vancouver to take advantage of the fur-rich lands and compete with American competitors. The Fort Vancouver site was selected on the north bank of the Columbia River. It grew to become a center of intense activity and influence. As the shipping and receiving depot, Fort Vancouver was the central business hub for the Columbia Department. Chief Factor McLoughlin occupied the pinnacle of the regional organizational chart, while the middle tier held Chief Traders, who commanded trade houses or trapping expeditions. Numerous clerks completed the ranks of the "gentlemen" who kept accounts and helped oversee the trade at the various posts. Most of the "managers" were natives of England or Scotland. Many of the fur agents lived with tribal or mixed-blood wives in a form of common-law marriage known as "the custom of the country" in recognition of the distance from clergy or civil officialdom. Their children often worked in the trade as laborers or sometimes as clerks. The labor force, referred to as "the men" or "the servants," included Orkney Islanders, French Canadian voyageurs, Iroquois Indians who had migrated west, and Hawaiians who had been recruited by ships' captains en route to the Columbia. Local tribesmen served as hunters, interpreters, horse tenders, and guides, and independent trappers were sometimes hired as seasonal labor.
In 1828, John McLoughlin assigned his stepson, Thomas McKay, to establish a horse ranch and farm on the Scappoose plains northeast of the present day Scappoose airport. It had been an area where the Indians gathered because it was free of the dense forests common to other areas along the Columbia River. Soon other settlers moved in and the rich natural resources of the area offered livelihoods for loggers, brick makers, blacksmiths, shingle millers and dairy farmers. More and more settlers continued moving in, spurred by the Land Donation Act of 1850. As immigration increased, lasting settlements began to appear throughout the Oregon.
Railroad Logging
In 1905, Simcoe Chapman and his son Fred, opened a logging camp and named it Chapman, Oregon. Shortly thereafter, they incorporated the Portland and Southwestern Railroad and began constructing the rail line in 1906. This railroad was built for the sole purpose of transporting timber and grew out into the woods in a spurt-like fashion as the railroad explored its way up the valley. Originally, the Portland and Southwestern planned to build the railroad from Chapman Landing all the way to the Pacific Coast at Nehalem. The general procedure was to purchase the right-of-way, construct a segment of the rails, log the land, then build a camp and move on to open up other areas. There were a total of nine such camps built along the railroad during its use. This build-and-log method significantly slowed the railroad construction process. The first eight miles was completed from the Multnomah Channel up to the base of the hills two miles beyond Chapman, which had a population of 400 people at that time. Unfortunately, the terrain beyond Chapman was more difficult. The grade was steeper and construction costs were higher. It proved too expensive for the Chapmans so they sold out to Henry Turrish in 1910. By the time Henry Turrish bought the railroad, the decision to cross the divide of the Coast Range was imminent. Building the railroad directly over the top of the divide was not practical so planning for a tunnel began. Work began on the tunnel in 1910, eight years before the tracks reached its eastern portal in 1918. While the tunnel was under construction, a group of lumbermen from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, purchased Turrish’s holdings and reorganized the whole operation as the Nehalem Timber and Logging Company. The tunnel and rail line were in use until 1943. During this period it changed ownership twice more. The Clark & Wilson Lumber Company succeeded the Nehalem Timber and Logging Company in 1927. They, in turn, were succeeded by the Crown Zellerbach Corporation in 1944. The Crown Zellerbach Corporation discontinued rail use in the corridor, pulled up and salvaged the tracks and ties, and converted the railroad to a logging road. Use of the tunnel was discontinued and a new road was built over a different pass around that section.
The Beginning of the Scappoose Vernonia Highway
VERNONIA EAGLE -Volume 5, Number 51, Thursday, July 28,1927
In the interest of determining the feasibility of establishing a new market road between Scappoose and Vernonia, through the Chapman district, representatives of the three places were accompanied by the county roadmaster on a horseback trip over the trail between Chapman and Vernonia Sunday.
Those making the trip were W. W. Weist and Ross Shreve of the Scappoose Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Kingsley, Chas. Snupe and Mr. Knott of Chapman, and E. L. Smith, Wm. Aspland and Emil Messing of the Vernonia Chamber of Commerce, and G. G. Hall of St. Helens, county roadmaster.
The Vernonia men met the Scappoose delegation at the latter place at 8:20 Sunday morning and the five drove to Chapman. At the Kingsley place, which is the end of the road, the nine men mounted horses and started towards the tunnel of the logging railroad a short distance away. This was to avoid climbing the high hill at that place. The tunnel is 2000 feet long.
From the Kingsley place to Vernonia by the trail was estimated to be 12.5 miles which would make the total distance from Scappoose to Vernonia 23 miles. The rich fertile land that lies in this section is among the best in the county, according to Mr. Messing, who stated that he had never seen crops of better quality in any locality. Approximately 65 families now live in the Chapman district, and the only thing that prevents 1000 families from living in the section is suitable roads to market. Mr. Kingsley has an eight-year-old apple orchard that is in the best of condition. With an elevation of about 750 feet and plenty of rain, with but little cold weather, it is believed to be ideal for the growing of fruit and small fruits as well as many other agricultural commodities.
The Chapman district has a good school which last year housed 56 pupils. Mr. Messing stated that from one place where they stopped their horses to view the country there were at least 10,000 acres of rolling hills that could be seen which is ideal for agriculture and is now uninhabited because of lack of roads.
Some thought the proper place to bring the road in to connect with the present highway would be near the Parker place, three miles east of Vernonia. Others thought the road should come out by the J. Burtraw place. one mile east of town. The expense of cutting, grading and surfacing the 12.5 miles of new road was roughly estimated by County Roadmaster Hall to be about $10,000 per mile.
Others in the party thought it might be done for much less. It was the consensus of opinion that it would be practicable to have a market road running directly from Vernonia to Scappoose through Chapman and thus open up this rich new section to the new settlers coming to Oregon and looking for. just such places.
A detailed report will be made at the next Chamber of Commerce meeting here August 4.
Why there is a Crown Z Trail today
First initiated in 1993, purchase of the Crown Zellerbach Logging Road was not completed until December 2004, after Columbia County was successful in obtaining grants for the purchase of the trail. In 2005, the Port of St. Helens donated the Chapman Landing property for a future trailhead, park, and water connection on the Scappoose end of the trail. Many people worked for many years to overcome many obstacles to make it happen. Read the complete story of the Crown Zellerbach Trail Concept and Development Plan.