This is a continuation of my posts about the Willamette Valley & Cascade Mountain Wagon Road.
Before the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain wagon road was built, or not built as the case may be, a number of families had started farms near the route of the road in the Prineville area. They planned to claim their lands as homestead as soon as the federal government did a land survey. But once the survey was done, about three dozen of them found themselves on odd-numbered sections that were automatically given to the road company.
This 41-page document published by the House Committee on Military Affairs contains W.F. Prosser’s report on his examination of the wagon road. Click image to download an 11.7-MB PDF of this report.
The wagon road company offered to sell them the land for $1.25 an acre. This, said the company, was the same price the government sold its land for, but homesteaders only had to pay a filing fee that worked out to less than 20 cents an acre. Angered, the settlers sent an 1880 letter to the Department of the Interior arguing that “has never built or constructed any road as the laws of this State requires roads of that character” and that in the 300 miles from Smith’s Rock to the Snake River “there has been no attempt to open or construct any road by the above named company or anyone else.” Continue reading
