Wire Trail

Original Wasco County Courthouse Facebook Page, February 16, 2020

News of the outside world was slow to travel to The Dalles in the 1860s. It came via steamboat from the west or the Emigrant Road from the east. The first telegraph line was strung between Troutdale and The Dalles in 1868 following an old Indian trail. Members of Troutdale Historical Society have traced the trail and found poles from the original installation. Dave Wand is an electronic engineer who spent his career locating, building, and maintaining cell phone towers. His sister Helen is a lab technician who writes novels and serves on the historical society board. Joining Dave in wire trail study and bushwhacking adventures is Larry McGinnis whose credentials are in surveying, including surveying for transmission lines. They combined their skills over several years tracing the path of the early telegraph line.

Telegraph poles from 1868 can still be found in the Columbia Gorge. The first line was strung that year between Troutdale and The Dalles following an old Indian trail.

Clarence E. Mershon, East of the Sandy: The Columbia River Highway

According to pioneer lore, an Indian trail came through the Gorge on the south side of the Columbia River. The trail connected two important Indian trading sites: Celilo Falls east of The Dalles, and the Oregon City Falls on the Willamette (Multnomah) River.

When a telegraph line was strung through the Gorge to connect Portland with points east, the line followed this ancient trail, and thus, the trail became known as the 'wire trail.' Crossing the Sandy River in the vicinity of Troutdale, the wire trail followed the east bank of the river to a point about 150 yards west of the bridge, where it left the river bank to ascend the bluff to the relatively flat bench above.

Crossing the Sandy River in the vicinity of Troutdale, the wire trail followed the east bank of the river to a point about 150 yards east of the bridge, where it left the river bank to ascend the bluff to the relatively flat bench above...

Once on the flat, the trail continued across the present Seidl Road, angling in a southeast direction. It crossed Ogden Road below what is now Hurt Road and slightly above Mershon Road. From a point just east of the Klinski farm, Wand Road followed the path of the wire trail to the point where it [Wand Road] makes a near 90 degree turn northward.

At that corner, the wire trail continued almost directly east along the boundary between the Jasper Mershon and Sakajiro Takeuchi family properties. Native artifacts have been found on the Mershon place at a spring below (south of) the trail.

In this section, the trail followed the rim of the flat above Mershon Road where the sidehills slope to the south toward Springdale. Coming off the flat, the Dunn family driveway (where the Matsuba family lived prior to World War II) followed the former trail to a point close to the intersection of Mershon and Chamberlain Roads...

From this point eastward, the trail is part of or ran nearly parallel to Mershon Road until it reached the present route of the Columbia River Highway about a mile west of Corbett. It crossed the former Kincaid place (now owned by the Bates family) [in 2001] and Mershon Road in the vicinity of the present location of the Corbett Christian Church... According to Clara (Lasley) Salzman, a partially imbedded insulator in the old maple tree in front of the church at its former location marked the trail through Corbett.

... Thence, the Columbia River Highway followed the ancient pathway rather closely until it reached Chanticleer Point (now Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Overlook) ... Chanticleer Point and Dalton Point, near Bridal Veil, have also been rich sources of Native artifacts...

At the Overlook, the highway and the wire trail part, as the wagon road from Chanticleer to Rooster Rock essentially followed the wire trail to the riverbank below... From Rooster Rock, the trail apparently continued eastward along the river bank to Latourell, Bridal Veil, Warrendale and beyond. From Latourell eastward, it is certain that the highway intercepted the trail at many points.

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