July 18, 1945 Herald and News Klamath Falls, Oregon Moses Led Them On The Old Fort Road We've made mention on several occasions recently of the Old Fort Klamath Road through the valley through which a stream of water is running for the first summer in decades, the water coming from the Marine Barracks treatment plant. Looking through some historical documents today, we ran on to what is evidently an account of the first use of this old route north by white men. It was in May 1866, that Lindsay Applegate, the newly appointed Klamath Indian agent came over from the Rogue River Valley with supplies to establish the Klamath Agency at the head of Upper Klamath Lake. He was accompanied by Lucien and Oliver Applegate, Samuel D. Whitmore, and a man named Reed. They crossed Link River at its head, near the present-day Fremont Bridge. The cattle and horses swam, and the wagons and supplies were ferried in Indian canoes. They supposed they would have to go way around through Lost River Gap (now Olene) and down the Sprague River to reach the site of the new agency. But an Indian volunteered to guide them by another shorter route. He took them through the hills, exactly on the present access road to the Marine Barracks, and then down the valley beyond to Upper Klamath Lake at Naylox (now Algoma). At the Point of Rocks, just north of Algoma, they climbed to the summit of the mountain, and then passed down to Williamson river and the agency site. For obvious reason, they named the Indian Moses. That, so far as we can ascertain, was the first time white men ever went that way. It subsequently became the "main road" between Linkville (Klamath Falls) and the north, and traffic there was fairly heavy in the days of the Modoc War a few years later. It was the principal thoroughfare for 50 years, it being abandoned about 1916 when a road was blasted around Algoma point and traffic could go directly north along the lake. For the next 30 years, the old road was little used and almost forgotten by the public. Then came the second World War, the fighting in the mosquito-infested Pacific Islands, and the establishment on the old road of a fine installation for marines who contracted mosquito-borne diseases. It was paved for several miles, on up past the summit where many local residents got their first view of the fertile Klamath Valley in the old days. Beyond the Barracks, it is still a rough, mountain road, almost exactly as it was in the long ago when the ponderous wagons bumped and clattered over the rocks on the way to Linkville from Fort Klamath and the farms in the Wood River and Williamson River districts. High centers didn't worry anybody in those days. _________________________________________________________________ Watch LIVE baseball games on your computer with MLB.TV, included with MSN Premium! http://join.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200439ave/direct/01/