MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — In Southern Oregon, researchers are looking for bits of the old Applegate Trail, which for a few years was an alternative route for white settlers coming to the Willamette Valley.
The Oregon transportation department is preparing for work on Interstate 5, so it’s hired staff members from Southern Oregon University to find the exact location of the trail. The interstate highway generally follows the trail’s route from Grants Pass to Eugene.
The trail diverged in the 1840s from the Oregon Trail in what’s now Idaho. It headed southwest through northern Nevada and then sliced through the northeast corner of California into Oregon.
Archaeologist Chelsea Rose tells the Medford Mail-Tribune that some sections of the trail have survived because they are well hidden.
