Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
November 26, 2015
By Pat Edwards
I hope that everyone took some time this past week to contemplate all the things in life that we can be thankful for. Sometimes it’s easy to allow the trials and tribulations to take over the focus of our lives, but there are usually multiple “some things or some ones” that we can add to the blessings’ side of our lists. Thanksgiving is the time to make a point of recognizing them.
Be sure to mark you calendars for the Lorane Grange Christmas dinner on Sunday, December 13 at 1:30 p.m. Turkey, gravy, ham, and potatoes are furnished by the grange, everything else is potluck. He community is invited.
Thanks to quite a few of our Groundwaters’ Lane County Authors for participating in the West Lane Holiday Bazaar the weekend of the November 21. We were set up at the Applegate Regional Theater on Central Road and we had a successful sale. We really appreciate the support shown by the community, too.
If you are at the Holiday Market at the Lane County Fairgrounds, Joe Blakely, Jo-Brew and I are sharing a booth there to sell our books. So far, we’ve been very successful and Jo’s and my Highway 99 books as well as Joe Blakely’s “Oregon’s Coast Highway” and other books are selling quite well. Stop by our booth (#206) in the southeast corner of the Holiday Market building just to say “Hi” if nothing else. It’s always fun to see people we know.
I don’t have any more community news to report that I didn’t cover in last week’s column, so I’ll include a short piece from one of our Highway 99 books.
An excerpt from OREGON’S MAIN STREET: U.S. Highway 99 “The Folk History”:
“After 1865, the stagecoaches no longer used the steep Territorial Road to cross the Calapooya Mountains, past the Cartwright House/Mountain House Hotel and Lorane on their way to Eugene City. Instead, they were rerouted by way of an old road which wound through Pass Creek Canyon. The road was poor, soft and muddy along the creek bottom and the canyon passage was narrow.
“Robert H. Ward, who lived at the southern end of the new route, built a corduroy road by laying 8-foot cedar logs side by side across the road through the pass. This road became known as Ward’s Toll Road, with Ward collecting a toll from northbound travelers and Ira Hawley collecting the southbound tolls.
“On the stage route, Hawley’s Station was located 10 miles north of Estes Ranch on the Ira B. Hawley Donation Land Claim. It provided a rest stop and a horse-changing station there.
“The passengers found food and overnight accommodations at the house and a big barn sheltered the team of horses on the large 4,000 acre cattle and sheep ranch. There was also a small community school on the property that served the surrounding area.
“Today, U.S. Highway 99, south of Cottage Grove passes the red ranch buildings and barns which belong to the present Hawley Land and Cattle Company on the site of Ira Hawley’s Stage Station.”
All Things Lorane 