First Annual Mountain Boomer Day-February 2

First Annual Mountain Boomer Day On February 2^nd

Brightwood, OR. The First Annual Mountain Boomer Day Celebration will occur on February 2, 2012 at Barlow Wayside Park beginning at 9:30 a.m. Celebrants expect to see our own Boomer or Mountain Beaver show up to see if his shadow is visible and thereby determine whether there will be six more weeks of winter.

“Some think this day is all about another kind of rodent made famous by Bill Murray in the movie Goundhog Day,” notes Mitch Williams, a Barlow Wayside Park mover and shaker.. “In fact. February second began in England as ‘Hedgehog Day.’ Here we have Barlow Boomer and we so look forward to seeing him again.”

Everyone is invited to participate in the Boomer Day festivities. In addition to waiting for Barlow to show, a mile walk through a section of the new park is planned.

Mountain Beavers are also known as Boomers or Ground Bears or Poor Folks Guinea Pigs. The Mountain Beaver doesn't actually belong to the beaver family. It's considered to be a primitive rodent. In most cases Mountain Beavers have a brown fur, but in some cases they will be blackish or reddish. The tail is short. The weight generally ranges between 500 and 900 grams (18 to 32 oz). The length of a male Mountain Beaver is between 30 and 50 cm.

They live in burrows that have specialized chambers for food. They usually eat ferns or other fleshy herbs. The Mountain Beaver breeding season happens during the first three months of the year and each litter has 2 or 3 newborns. Their lifespan is between 5 and 10 years. For more information on Mountain Boomers, see http://viewfromcrutchersbench.blogspot.com/2011/04/mountain-beaver-or-boomers-or-ground.html

“Since February is breeding season for mountain boomers, we will be very lucky when Barlow makes his appearance,” explains Nancy Hegg of Brightwood, who knows and named our community’s own Barlow Boomer. “He might be joined by his beloved partner, Belle Boomer,” she continues.

Naming Names

Naming Names

I’m doing a bit of historical research for some future blog postings and found a reference to all of the prior names for first paved road we come to.  Now all of these names are white man names.  However, I imagine the Clackamas Indians had a name for their path between the Sandy River and the foothills to the north.  Probably something like “Ancestors to the North Keep Me From this Crazy River Path”.  And their name more than likely stayed the same for 1000 years or more.

Come 1840’s and Sam Barlow pioneered this part of the Oregon Trail.  He went to the Oregon Territory Governor and sought permission to charge tolls.  So the name of the road became Barlow Road.   The revenue he collected helped to clear and maintain the road.  According to a pamphlet titled Barlow Road (issued jointly by the Clackamas County Historical Society and Wasco County Historical Society in 1974) the part of the Barlow Road that starts from E. Lolo Pass going west to Rock Corral, had the following names:

The name in the early 1900’s was known as Hackett Road, later North Brightwood Road.  Recently it was designated Truman Road at the time the road from Lolo Pass to Zigzag was designated the Lolo Pass Road.

Now the road is known as E. Barlow Trail Road.  So sometime after 1974 the County renamed this stretch of the road again.  And got it wrong.  The historical purists point out that the Road was never called a “Trail”.  The Barlow Road was part of the Oregon Trail but never called a trail … until recently.  The footprints of the indigenous peoples are long gone, the wagon wheel ruts can be seen in some spots, and, when we are lucky, we have yellow and white painted lines on long strips of asphalt.  I wonder what the name will be changed to when this stretch of road is renamed next time.

A GUIDE TO PRESERVING AND MAINTAINING THE BARLOW ROAD HISTORIC CORRIDOR

CARING FOR YOUR PIECE OF HISTORY

A GUIDE TO PRESERVING AND MAINTAINING THE BARLOW ROAD HISTORIC CORRIDOR

“My heart arose in gratitude to God that we had been spared to reach this land!  Six long months have elapsed since we left our native land, and now after having passed through dangers seen and unseen, sickness, trial and difficulty, toil and fatigue, we are safely landed on the Pacific shores!”

Ester Hanna September 16, 1852

The Barlow Road in Clackamas County

Many early pioneers recorded their journey along the Barlow Road, the westernmost segment of the Oregon Trail, in their diaries and journals.  In doing so, they not only documented their daily life along the trail, but described the location of this historic roadway.

With this information and physical evidence from the historic roadway, history buffs, property owners and archeologists have been able to determine the location of the Barlow Road in Clackamas County. The preservation of the Barlow Road began with the pioneers, has been managed through numerous property owners and historians, and is now the responsibility of the current land owners.

In 1993, the Barlow Road Management Plan was adopted by the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners through an extensive public process. The Plan outlined ways to preserve the Barlow Road for education and enjoyment today and in the future, and identified the need to develop a brochure to aid property owners in maintaining their portion of the Barlow Road.

Today there are traces of the original Barlow Road on only 11 miles of the total 50-mile Barlow Road Historic Corridor in Clackamas County. Much of the road has vanished (often in recent years) due to residential and commercial development, agricultural use and natural erosion. The low visibility of many of the remaining traces also makes them vulnerable, particularly when involving a variety of property

owners who may be unaware of the remnants, have varying degrees of interest or do not know how to care for the road. Therefore, the following information is provided to help protect and preserve existing road remnants and the historic landscape to avoid further loss.

Eight Simple Guidelines

1.         LET LOW NATIVE GRASSES GROW

Native vegetation helps prevent erosion of the land.

2.    LEAVE THE LARGER TREES (over 18 inches in diameter) These trees help date the road and may determine when the road was abandoned.

3.    LEAVE ROCKS AND BOULDERS IN PLACE

Rocks were often moved by pioneers to make way for their wagons.

4.     DO NOT DISTURB THE SURFACE OF THE ROADWAY

Leave the soil and original grade of land intact for research purposes.

5.     PRUNE TREES IF NEEDED

Prune during the spring or fall to avoid damage to their natural growth pattern.

6.     REMOVE SEEDLINGS, FALLEN TREES AND BRUSH FROM THE ROADBED

This should not be done with heavy equipment, which may disturb the road surface.

7. SEARCH FOR ARTIFACTS Look for nails, barrel rims, horseshoes, ox shoes, signs of structures, etc. on the surface and for 200 feet either side of the trail. Leave objects where they are found, but mark the spot or document the object’s location so it can be used in the future by research historians. Seek assistance when unable to determine the historical nature of possible artifacts. Contact the Clackamas County Department of Transportation and Development with any information which can be included with other Barlow Road documentation.

8. REMOVE NON-HISTORIC ITEMS

Remove any trash or objects foreign to the historic character of the roadbed.

Preserving the Road

Preservation, in general, means the least change and the most respect for historic sites which, in this case, is primarily the land and vegetation itself.  The Barlow Road, being the final segment of the Oregon Trail, is different from other portions in the United States because it traverses through land forested with Douglas-fir. Most wagon ruts are no longer visible and vegetation is often very dense. The road now appears as a flat open swale or depression of land roughly 8 to 10 feet wide, often overgrown with brush or berries with larger trees and sometimes boulders on either side of the swale. In order to retain the atmosphere of what the settlers may have seen along the way, the width of the road and its contour should not be altered. The older trees and plants should be preserved because the trees can help date the trail and the other native vegetation protects it from erosion. Therefore, the property can be maintained with a small amount of effort.

Not every property along the Barlow Road Historic Corridor has clearly visible remnants of the road. However, those properties with little physical evidence are important because they are part of the historic corridor and contribute to the continuity of the entire Barlow Road.

Why Preserve?

Preserving historic roads creates a connection with and appreciation for how people traveled and lived during the Western emigration. The remaining bits of evidence along the road may be few and far between, but they are elements of an important chapter in Oregon history. Each property is part of a network that makes up the history of the Barlow Road, and the Barlow Road Historic Corridor can only he managed through a partnership with the property owners. Participation in this preservation program is voluntary. Property owners who are active in maintaining their land should be praised for their dedication and hard work, and encouraged to continue their efforts. Property-owner stewardship is essential for saving this invaluable and irreplaceable piece of history and the only way to keep the Barlow Road Historic Corridor intact for future generations.

For more information, contact:

Historic Resource Planner Clackamas County Department of Transportation and Development

www.co.clackmas.or.us

Special thanks to: Mazamas US Forest Service

Cover Photo: Oregon Historical Society Negative Number OrHi 178 Lot 606

Published 1983. Revised 2008.