Nostalgia & History > Pengra Pass Helpers

Here is the SP 7319 West at Dougren, OR cutting in the 9 unit TEBU set for helpers on it's way up Pengra Pass on 6-25-88.

---

Here's the helper set awating the 7319's arrival

---

SWEET STUFF! Kodachrome SP 40R with a lean mean BN green guy and a high nose ex-Southern flared 45 to boot! And how bout those two cars right behind the Southern 45 - got any up close pictures of those eight door SP 86 footers?!?

Sorry, didn't get a shot of the box cars.

t

Always good to see photos of the area. Don't understand why you've called it Pengra Pass, the topo maps and hikers call it that. Never heard it called that by anybody else until recently. Of course jdb still has maps that show the hiway through there.

TCnR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Always good to see photos of the area. Don't
> understand why you've called it Pengra Pass, the
> topo maps and hikers call it that. Never heard it
> called that by anybody else until recently. Of
> course jdb still has maps that show the hiway
> through there.

B. J. Pengra came to Oregon in 1853 and for a time was a newspaper publisher. In 1862 he became surveyor general for Oregon. He was an early advocate for a railroad up the Middle Fork of the Willamette, over the Cascades, and heading for the Humbolt in what is now Nevada. He surveyed a road over the Cascades to the SOUTH of Diamond Peak and while doing so discovered the pass to the NORTH of Diamond Peak that is presently called Pengra Pass. He did not survey any route over that pass. In 1926 the railroad was completed by tunnel under the unnammed pass to Cascade Summit. In 1927 Mr. Lewis McArthur suggested to the USBGN that the pass be named for Mr. Pengra. Mr. McArthur knew that Pengra was a pioneer railroad enthusiast and early advocate of a railroad to Nevada. At the time he was not aware that Pengra was the actural discoverer of the pass.

In 1940 ("I" think it was 1941) the present paved road (OR58) over the Cascades was completed. It followed the Willamette River from Goshen and the locals started calling it the Willamette Pass Highway. This pass is about a mile north of Pengra Pass that the railroad tunnels under and about 10 miles north of the the pass that Mr. Pengra had surveyed and where the first road was built. That first pass was named Willamette Pass. Popular use of the name "Willamette Pass" for the new road caused it to be so named in 1960. The old Willamette Pass that everybody has forgotten was renamed Emigrant Pass.

Before Highway 58 was completed there was another road that went over the mountain. In 1939 or 1940 Hwy58 had been completed as far as the railroad trestle over Salt Creek. Just downstream from that was a log bridge across the creek and the road headed up the canyon to where Cruzatte is. It continued on past Abernethy and came out at the present Willamette Pass where Hwy58 had been completed on to Hwy97. That was known as the Salt Creek Detour and I've never understood why it was called the "Detour" when it was there first. I'm guessing that it may have been built to aid construction of the railroad in the 1920s. If so it might have been considered a detour, or alternate route, for the old Willamette Pass road south of Diamond Peak. (and it did run up Salt Creek)

B. J. Pengra had another location on the railroad named for him. When the Lookout Point Dam was built the railroad was relocated from present Fall Creek Junction to near Lookout at the upper end of the lake. On the old line just west of Lowell at MP605.4 was the station of Pengra. It is less than three miles from Dougren where the photos above were taken. There was a post office there from 1925 to 1943. A DeLorme Atlas shows Old Pengra Road but not Pengra. A Benchmark Atlas shows Pengra. Present day claim to fame is one of Lane County's classic covered bridges.

My mothers, fathers, parents arrived in the Willamette Valley in 1853. They were in the only wagon train to cross central Oregon, the Cascades, and enter the southern end of the Willamette Valley. That crossing of the Cascades was near the old Willamette Pass. My great grand parents took a donation land claim in the 1850s at a location that became (guess what?) Pengra.

The station of Pengra is less than 10 miles from Natron on the "Natron Cutoff" and rails would have reached there in 1910 or 1911.

Some of these dates are taken from the Southern Pacific in Oregon by Austin and Dill. It looks like they got a lot of their information from Oregon Geographic Names by Lewis McArthur. I note that Austin and Dill spell it Pengre in one place and Pengra in another. I've never seen the Pengre spelling anyplace else.

jb

PS: When the railroad was rerouted because of the Lookout Point Dam some of the new right of way was purchased from Douglas Green. He stipulated that a location be named for him. Douglas and Green were already in use, hence Dougren.

I grew up at Jasper, between Natron and Pengra on the old line and between Natron and Dougren on the new line.

Interesting, didn't know the origin of Dougren either. Interesting being able to find your folks background as well. When does your book come out?
Still don't think the RR route should be called Pengra Pass. My exposure has been that the RR didn't call it anything, except by siding location. The Dispatchers were referred to as Hill Dispatcher and CTC Eugene (60's, 70's and 80's until DS numbers came out, same time as DTC in other areas and the big move from Eugene to the Rosville modulars, I think anyways). Never heard the route called Natron Cut-off except in books. Have some info from the 20's, have to look that up. Curious about the Trains articles in the 60's also. Perhaps it was the route 'over' Cascade Summit, don't know for sure and much of the infrastructure has been removed.

TCnR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Still don't think the RR route should be called
> Pengra Pass. My exposure has been that the RR
> didn't call it anything, except by siding
> location. The Dispatchers were referred to as Hill
> Dispatcher and CTC Eugene (60's, 70's and 80's
> until DS numbers came out, same time as DTC in
> other areas and the big move from Eugene to the
> Rosville modulars, I think anyways). Never heard
> the route called Natron Cut-off except in books.

My exposure to this was the railroad going through my back yard at MP613. Natron is at 615. The railroad started at Woodburn, ran through Springfield and ended at Natron. In 1910 they started at Natron to extend the line over the Cascades to replace the Siskiyou line. The first station south of Natron was Jasper. The Jasper depot was about 500 feet from where my mom lived. Once they started running trains she would go into Springfield and catch the streetcar to Eugene. (this railroad did NOT go to Eugene, Springfield Jct to Springfield came later) My folks had a store and the Jasper Post Office was in the back corner. My mom was postmaster. There was a section house at Natron and a couple of the guys on the section gang ran a monthly tab for groceries with my dad. One of them had four daughters and two of them baby sat me. Another gentleman on the section gang was the grandson of the first settler in Pleasant Hill. His son married a girl I graduated from High School with and had a career with the SP. (retired when things turned yellow) While I was still in school I cashed their SP paychecks when they came in to pay the monthly grocery bill. The Post Office contracted with a local to meet two trains and deliver mail to/from the Jasper depot. His grandsons were my age and when they visited I would jump in the back of the Model "T" and go along. The Shasta Daylight picked up and threw off first class mail on the fly. Train 20 (I NEVER heard it referred to as the Klamath) would stop for parcel post and ANYTHING in Monkey Wards or Sears catalogs would come in. Those were the people I grew up around. The Natron Cutoff was a term that was used by the above people. I never heard the term Pengra Pass. As I said, after the highway was built it was simply called the Willamette Pass by the locals, the railroad went up the same canyon, and that was the Willamette Pass also. The Jasper Grade School was a two room school and I had two teachers for eight grades. No running water, no telephone. The playground had a ball field and when the third baseman overthrew first the ball went out on the track. The only field trip I can ever remember taking was to go out on the tracks and find these black rocks, bring them back into the classroom, put them in the stove, and watch them burn. (in Oregon a stove burns wood)

TCnR, on one of your trips to the far north you should see if you can get your hands on a book: Oregon Geographic Names by Lewis A. McArthur & Lewis L. McArthur. Now in its seventh edition. (Powells and the Oregon Historical Society have it for sure)

When the Lookout Point Dam was built that really put a scar on the landscape. The new bridge at Fall Creek Junction was really something in those days. Through Dougren and Trent was a fairly easy grade but Dexter was a different story. This monster fill spanned Lost Creek Valley and seemed to be in everbodys back yard. You don't notice it so much now with 50 year old trees. High above the south end of the dam was a rock peak known as Eagles Rest. That is where the Corps of Engineers got the rock for the dam. Trees have softened the hole they made in the north face but you can still tell there is chunk missing. They had a conveyor belt from the top of the mountain down to the cement facility and the way they controlled the speed of the belt was to put generators on it and generate electricity for the plant. (dynamic brakes) To get the cement out to the dam was a cable system between two towers. There was a fixed tower on the south side and on the north side was a tower riding on two sets of railroad tracks. These tracks were on a curve that was the radius from the fixed tower. By moving the tower on the north side, cement could be dumped anywhere on the dam. The outer set of tracks was level and the inner set was tilted about 20 (?) degrees toward the tower so the tower pushed into it.

A regulating dam was built downstream and that caused Lowell to be relocated. The road from Lowell to Hwy58 was flooded and you can tell where the old road was by the location of the classic Lane County Covered Bridge that looks like it is floating on the lake.

The phone system at Jasper in the early 50s were farmers lines with ten parties on each line. You turned a crank on the side of the phone and asked Alice to connect you with the doctor. About 1951 or 1952 while the Lookout Point Dam was under construction *TPC* ran a cable on the railroad telephone poles. Coming out of Springfield, Jasper was the first community they came to and we were the first to get four party lines with dial phones. The folks store was close enough to the tracks that a pole wasn't needed to reach the store. *TPC* put a pay phone on the front porch of the store that was the first pay phone I had ever seen. For a while that was the closest (12 miles?) pay phone to the Lookout Point Dam construction and the manager would spend hours at a time on it. For us locals, to pay a dime for a local call was an extravagance and this guy was talking long distance!!!!

*TPC* The Phone Company

jb

Thanks guys, sorry about hi-jacking the thread. Interesting stories John.