52 
RAILROAD REPORT-ROUTE WEST OF CASCADE RANGE. 
At Rogue river, near Evan’s ferry, a bridge about 120 feet in length would be necessary. 
The water flowed with a rapid current over a rocky bed. It was not generally more than three 
feet in depth near the ferry, but deep holes rendered it dangerous to attempt to ford the stream. 
The banks were bordered by bluffs from five to fifteen feet in height, and wood and stone for the 
construction of a bridge were at hand. 
From this point a railroad could follow the line of survey to Fort Lane, and thence up the 
valley of Stewart creek to Camp 78 A, near the foot of the Siskiyou mountains. An average 
ascending grade of thirty-eight feet per mile, would be required. The labor of construction 
would be light. 
It is considered that a railroad from Vancouver to Camp 78 A, is practicable in the immediate 
vicinity of the route examined by my party. The construction, for a portion of the line, 
would be very costly, but the expense would doubtless be greatly reduced by further examination. 
From Camp 78 A to Fort Reading, however, the obstacles encountered were very great, and 
although it is highly probable that a practicable line, which can even be approximately located, 
exists, still no such route was actually surveyed. If, however, a connection could be made between 
this camp and the route surveyed east of the Cascade Range, some of the most difficult and 
expensive work upon that line would be avoided, and the settlements in southern Oregon be 
benefited by the road. The lateness of the season, and the loss of the escort, rendered any 
survey of the Cascade Range, near the head of Stewart creek, impossible; but there are very 
good reasons for believing this connection to be eminently practicable. There is a low pass 
between Mount Pitt and Klamath canon, by which a good emigrant road now crosses the range 
and strikes Stewart creek near Camp 78 A. Several persons well acquainted with its character 
informed me that, according to their judgment, the pass was very favorable for a railroad. 
Lieutenant Crook, the quartermaster of our expedition, had travelled through it; and his opinion 
was, that it presented no greater obstacles to the construction of a railroad than many other 
portions of the route, which actual survey demonstrated to be practicable. This wagon road 
crosses Lost river at the Natural Bridge, and the connection with the route east of the mountains 
would be made by the railroad near this place. The approximate distance from Camp 78 A, to 
the Natural Bridge, is seventy miles. Of this distance about thirty-eight miles were examined 
and found to be practicable for a railroad, by Lieutenant Williamson, while passing with a 
detached party round Lower Klamath lake. The altitude of his camp B, near the entrance of 
the pass, was 3,733 feet. That of Camp 78 A, was 2,195 feet. The distance between these 
camps is about thirty-two miles, in a direct line; but the windings of the road would probably 
increase the travelled distance to about forty miles. Hence an approximate average rise of 
about thirty-eight feet per mile would be necessary, without taking into account that required 
to pass the dividing ridge. 
The first obstacle encountered on my route from Camp 78 A to Fort Reading, was the Siskiyou 
mountains. The pass surveyed through this chain was very unfavorable for a railroad. From 
the camp the line would follow a branch of Stewart creek for 3.7 miles, with an ascending 
grade ol 120 feet per mile. A tunnel, about six miles in length, would then be necessary. 
The surface rock is a conglomerate sandstone. An ascending grade of about 137 feet per mile 
would be required in the tunnel, which would pass 1,461 feet below the summit of the mountain. 
A modification of this grade, so as to form a summit near the middle of the tunnel, might be 
advisable, in order to insure drainage during the excavation. For 1.1 miles from the northern, 
and for 1.3 miles from the southern entrance, shafts of less than 600 feet in depth could be sunk. 
