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The Oregon Surveyor

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Vol. 40, No. 2

Lost & Found,

continued

surveyed in the 1880’s and 1890’s. It was a nice

change of pace to traverse on the “east side” over

the gentler open pine and oak country, somewhat

reminiscent of the “Little House on the Prairie”

landscape. This range line was originally established

by U.S. Deputy Surveyor LaFayette Cartee in

mid-October of 1860 and I was eager to search

for some of the earliest corners established in the

Oregon Territory. These wood posts were set just

three weeks before Abraham Lincoln was elected

president of the United States some 155 years ago!

Also, the historic Barlow Road (circa 1845) crossed

the range line within the three mile segment we were

retracing and finally seeing its location and condition

would be a bonus.

In 1860, the General Land Office was preparing this

area of the Oregon Territory for future settlement.

The first Surveyor General for Oregon, John Bower

Preston, was born in Granville, Vermont in 1817 and

with his family moved to Warsaw, New York and

then later to Rochester. In 1836, his parents

relocated to Will County, Illinois where

young Preston joined them shortly after

the Panic of 1837 which devastated farmers

and merchants throughout the East. He may

have been apprenticed to a civil engineer and

possibly also to a lawyer, as he was trained in

these pursuits. The year 1845 found him as a

resident engineer, supervising the construction

of the south segment of the Illinois-Michigan

Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan.

In November of 1850, President Millard Fillmore

appointed Preston as the first Surveyor General of

Oregon and in early 1851, he and his family, which

now included wife Lucy and their 8-year old daughter

plus Lucy’s sister and brother, left New York and

traveled by steamer to the Isthmus of Panama, where

they then traveled on barges, towed by steamboats,

60 miles to near the Pacific shore. Then it was north

by steamers to San Francisco and eventually to

Oregon City where he established his office. Starting

on June 4, 1851, from a point near present day

Portland OR, the Willamette Meridian was run north

110 miles to Puget Sound (near present day Olympia,

WA) and also 244 miles south (with several offsets

along the way) to the California border. The base lines

were run east and west from the “Initial Point” (near

Portland) to complete the initial framework for the

township and sectional surveys to follow. By 1860,

most of the lands suited for agriculture on the west

side of the Cascade Range had been surveyed. The

east side of the range was now being readied for an

influx of homesteaders.

One of those intrepid adventurers was a Kentuckian

by the name of Samuel Kimbrough Barlow,

descended from the hardy Scotch, who was captain

of a company of immigrants, leaving Independence,

Missouri in May of 1845, westward bound for western

Oregon and the promise of free land. The “Donation

Act” was later passed by Congress only months

prior to John Preston’s appointment and departure

for Oregon City. Barlow and his followers finally

arrived at The Dalles, Oregon in late September, with

winter fast approaching. The area was named by

French-Canadian employees of the Northwest

Company who first arrived in this area

in about 1825. Thus “The Dalles”

comes from a French

The 1846 Barlow Road wanders easterly through the range line

gate as it passes Dave Simes (instrumentman on left) and Troy

Hatfield (head chainman on right)

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