Lane County Historian OREGON & CALIFORNIA ft.ft1 Co. NO. 14. TIMESCIIEDUL1C. NO. Ii. r O TAKE EFIrEcTSUNDAY, OCT')BEIt 15Th. 187, tt(I O'Clock A. M . for the govuri.inuiit end in- forriia lou of u.Iployed only; the Conu ,a,iy reei,rve the right to vtry tiucrofroni sn circuuieteiicre may require. Daily Tralne will run betwecu PORTLAND AND EUCENE CITY AS FOLLOWS: LLV1 ARRIVI Portland 6:30 AM. ICuigeun City 7:30 P.M. 1:00 P.M.Eugene City 8:00 P.M. Eugene CIty 6:00 A.M.Portland 1:00 P.M. Eugene City 6:4 AM. " .. 8:00 P.M. Tho 1:00 P M Train from Portland, and the 6:00 A. M. Train from Eugene City are Paseouger Trains and run Daily. The 6:30 A. M. Train from Portland ad the 6:45 A. M. Train from Eugene City are Freight Trains (with Passenger Care attached) and run Daily (except Sunday). Oregon & California B. K. Ferry makes connection with all Regular Traine. Trains No. 6 and 0 are freight Train., and do not car- ry passengers. Clo.e connections are made at UGENE CITV with the Stage. 01 the Oregon and California Stage Company. - Tickets for sale over the Stage Line to the below given points: Its OaaeoteOaklaod, Boeebnrg, JaobsonviUe. Its CtuoateiYroka, Buttevihie, Soda Springe, Sac. rameuto Ferry, Pitt Biver, Bed Dm8, Tehama, Shasta, Caltahan'. Ranch, Fort Jones. Storage will be charged on all freight remaining in Warehouse ovor 24 hour,, except when through Bills of Lading are given. Freight will not be Received for Ship- ment after 5 o'clock P. M, Tickets for sale at Company'. Office, Cor. F aad Front ate., at the Ferry Land.. tug, Portland. U. TRHCLSEN, Gen'i Supt. J. C. IIILDRETH, Lest. Rapt. B. P. ROGERS .29dtf Gen'l Freight and Passenger Agent. The first railroad schedule showing service to Eugene City, effective October 15, 1871. Copied from an advertisement in the "Oregonian." LANE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Vol. XVII, No. 1 Eugene, Oregon Spring, 1972 LANE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Mrs. C. A. Huntington, 740 West 13th Street, Eugene, Oregon 97402 President Stuart W. Hurd, Rt. 2, Box 345, Eugene, Oregon 97401 Membership Secretary LANE COUNTY HISTORIAN Inez Long Fortt (Mrs. James G. Fortt) -----------Editor 3870 Watkins Lane, Eugene, Oregon 97405 The Lane County Historian is a quarterly publication of the Lane County Historical Society, a non-profit organization. Membership in the Lane County Historical Society includes subscription to the Lane County Historian. Annual dues: $3.00; family membership: $5.00. CONTENTS ALL ABOARD FOR EUGENE CITY By Gilbert Hulin, Secretary of the Willamette Pacific Chapter, National Railway Historical Society; Editor of Willamette Pacific Chapter Newsletter EARLY DAYS ON LOWER LAKE CREEK 13 By Dale Steinhauer, Graduate student, University of Oregon; Grandson of Herman Steinhauer, great-grandson of Thomas Pope, Lower Lake Creek pioneers, 1877 An Oregon & California Railroad passenger train waits at New Era in 1870, a year before tracks extended south to Eugene City. Southern Pacific Collection 2 AfL4oarcI/or Cuene (i * By Gilbert Hulin "From Sacramento to Portland posed locations on opposite sides in Seven Days" by Inez Fortt, pub- of the Willamette River. lished in the Spring Issue, 1971 of the Lane County Historian is a Throughout the mid-1860's the story of the stagecoach e r a i n two Oregon Centrals were in com- Western Oregon. "All Aboard for petition for the federal land grant Eugene City" continues the story to build the railroad to California, of early transportation in Oregon and it was up to the Oregon legis- with the arrival and the expansion lature to make the choice. Gaston's of the railroads. "West Side" company was awarded the franchise at first, but the "East The driving of the Golden Spike Siders" contested the decision, con- at Promonotory Point, Utah, on tending that the "West Side" com- May 10, 1869, theoretically linked pany was not legally organized at the East and West by rail. A size- the time. able railroad network was develop- ing east of the Mississippi River to While surveyors trod both sides funnel travelers and immigrants of the valley, the battle continued to the new transcontinental line, in the legislature. The struggle for but west of Omaha the Union Pa- supremacy was won by the "East cific and Central Pacific t rae ks Side" company in October, 1868, were an isolated projection across after Ben Holladay, fresh from fin- the frontier. Other trackage did ancially successful exploits with the exist here and there, but connec- Pony Express and Overland Stage, tions w i t h the transcontinental cast his lot with the "East Siders." route were nonexistent and pas- Gaston, meanwhile, was without sengers who wished to continue substantial finances and much of their journey beyond Sacramento the support promised him failed to had no choice but to return to high- materialize. way or water transportation. A provision of the land grant Oregon, on its tenth birthday in called for the completion of 20 to 25 1869, knew of railroads primarily miles of track by the end of 1869. as promoters' dreams. The only Despite a struggle against Clacka- tracks which had been in practical mas River floodwaters that washed operation were a trio of portage out the railroad's first bridge, a lines shuttling river traffic around train was operated on Christmas falls and cascades at Celilo, Bonne- Day, 1869, to save the land grant ville and Oregon City. and definitely establish the "East T w o promoters dreamed of a Side" Oregon Central as the win- railroad which would extend south ner in the state's first great rail- from Portland through the Willam- road battle. ette Valley and California to make Before construction was resumed a connection with the Central Pa- in 1870, Ben Holladay had forced cific's transcontinental line. Joseph Elliot out of the organization, ar- Gaston and S im o n E 11 i ot each ranged for the sale of mortgage formed companies bearing the Ore- bonds to German and English cap- gon Central Railroad name, but italists, acquired control of Gas- they were better known as the ton's "West Side" Oregon Central, "West Side" and "East Side" lines, and reorganized the company as respectively, because of their pro- the Oregon & California Railroad. 3 The pace of construction quick- in the fall of 1870 usually remained ened in 1870 and on September 5 in effect only a few days, rarely of that year the Oregon & Califor- more than two or three weeks, be- nia Railroad publishedi t sfirst fore a new schedule boasting a schedule in a front page advertise- new railhead superseded the old ment in the Portland Oregonian. table. "Two daily trains" were listed in The rails reached the State Fair- each direction between East Port- grounds at Salem on September 29, land and Waconda (about a mile 1870 and were in downtown Salem from Gervais), where the stages a week later. Trains were running of the 0. & C. Stage Company of- to Jefferson by late November and fered close connections to and from into Albany on Christmas Day. Southern 0 r e g on and California In early 1871, construction south points. of Albany slowed briefly w h i 1 e A s t h e railhead continued to the opening of a Willamette River push south through Salem, Albany, bridge at the north end of the line Eugene, Roseburg and A s h 1 an d moved the terminal f r o m E a st over the ensuing 17 years, the stage Portland to Portland proper. By transfer points accommodated the May the daily express trains were extension. delivering California-bound passen- Prior to the start of scheduled gers to the waiting stages at Hal- service on the railroad on Septem- sey. ber 5, 1870, the 0. & C. stages had On June 25, 1871, schedule No. advertised a schedule of 24 hours 13 of the Oregon & California Rail- from Portland to Eugene City, a road advertised through trains to five day service to the California Harrisburg. The tracks were now railhead at Chico and five and one- on Lane County's doorstep and the half day service to San Francisco. local railroad era was about to be- Within 13 months, the trip to Eu- gin. gene City would be r e d u c e d to Construction halted on the east "only" seven hours on the train. bank of the Willamette River at The 0. & C. Railroad schedules Harrisburg for over three months Locomotive No. 3 of the Oregon & California Railroad poses with its three car train near New Era in 1870. Southern Pocific Collection 4 while a m a o r drawbridge was a.m. and arrive in Salem at 10 built. The structure was ready for a.m.; leaving Salem on the return use as October arrived, but by then trip at 5 p.m. and arriving at Eu- the tracklayers were compelled to gene at 8:40 p.m. This will give lay 17 miles of track in five days our citizens an opportunity to visit in order to reach Eugene City by the State Fair and return the same the promised date of Sunday, Oc- day, having seven hours in which tober 8, 1871. to see the sights." Eugene City had two newspapers The railroad reached E u g en e at the time, the Oregon State Jour- City the day after the publication nal and the Eugene City Guard, of these stories, but as no local both weeklies, each published on newspaper would be printed again Saturday.