Emigrant Pass is a gap in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon.[1] It is about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) west of Summit Lake on the border between Klamath and Lane counties.[2] Originally called Willamette Pass, it lay along a primitive road that paralleled the Middle Fork Willamette River to near the crest.[2] The gap's name was changed in 1960, when the mountain pass used by Oregon Route 58 north of Odell Lake was named Willamette Pass.[2]
| Emigrant Pass | |
|---|---|
  location in Oregon | |
| Elevation | 5,650 ft (1,722 m)[1] |
| Location | Klamath and Lane counties, United States |
| Range | Cascade Range |
| Coordinates | 43°28′00″N 122°08′21″W / 43.46667°N 122.13917°W |
By the 1850s, Emigrant Pass, slightly south of Willamette Pass, was being used by emigrants to the Oregon Territory as a way over the Cascades. In October 1853, a party of 1,500 was almost stranded at the pass, but was saved from a Donner Party-style tragedy by nearby settlers who had begun to improve the route up the Middle Fork Willamette River earlier that year as a shortcut between the Oregon Trail near Boise, Idaho, and the Willamette Valley.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b "Emigrant Pass". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). United States Geological Survey. November 28, 1980. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
- ^ a b c McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. p. 330. ISBN 0-87595-277-1.
- ^ Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Oregon (1940). Oregon: End of the Trail. American Guide Series. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort. p. 411. OCLC 4874569.
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