Emigrant Pass (Oregon)

Emigrant Pass is a gap in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon.[1] It is about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) west of Summit Lake on the border between Klamath and Lane counties.[2] Originally called Willamette Pass, it lay along a primitive road that paralleled the Middle Fork Willamette River to near the crest.[2] The gap's name was changed in 1960, when the mountain pass used by Oregon Route 58 north of Odell Lake was named Willamette Pass.[2]

For other places with the same name, see Emigrant Pass.
Emigrant Pass
location in Oregon
Elevation5,650 ft (1,722 m)[1]
LocationKlamath and Lane counties, United States
RangeCascade Range
Coordinates43°28′00″N 122°08′21″W

By the 1850s, Emigrant Pass, slightly south of Willamette Pass, was being used by emigrants to the Oregon Territory as a way over the Cascades. In October 1853, a party of 1,500 was almost stranded at the pass, but was saved from a Donner Party-style tragedy by nearby settlers who had begun to improve the route up the Middle Fork Willamette River earlier that year as a shortcut between the Oregon Trail near Boise, Idaho, and the Willamette Valley.[3]

References
  1. "Emigrant Pass". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). United States Geological Survey. November 28, 1980. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  2. McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. p. 330. ISBN 0-87595-277-1.
  3. Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Oregon (1940). Oregon: End of the Trail. American Guide Series. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort. p. 411. OCLC 4874569.


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