Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/279

Rh government and was granted a charter to build the first wagon road over the Cascade mountains. A force of forty men was employed and a passable road was built to the cache in the mountains, near the present site of Government camp. Mr. Barlow superintended the road construction that summer and looked after improvements on the road two months every year it was owned by him. A toll was established to defray expenses, but on account of many not being able to pay the two dollar and a half toll, the road was operated at a financial loss. Albert Gaines, Mr. Barlow's son-in-law, was the first toll-gate keeper. However, its importance to emigrants made it necessary to keep the road open. One hundred and fortyfive wagons, bringing approximately a thousand people and many droves of cattle and horses arrived by this route in 1846, and the number increased year by year.

In 1846 Mr. Barlow donated his right, title and interest to the government, and it was then leased to various companies for several years. It was said that the principal business of many of the lessees was to collect toll and do very little repairing. The road, being the nearest and shortest route to Eastern Oregon, which was fast coming into importance, it was imperative to keep it open and improved. Walter Bailey, in The Oregon Historical Quarterly, Volume XIII, September, 1912, said: "The diaries and letters written by travelers over this road express a mixture of happiness and sorrow, contentment and dejection, hope and despair, ecstasy and misery."

The gradient and condition of Laurel Hill in those days was something terrible; ropes and tree-drags supplemented wagon brakes; ruts were worn down by the iron tire from one to three feet, and the slippery condition of the grade made the descent of Laurel Hill one long to be remembered. The gradient of this hill is now six per cent and can easily be negotiated by a good automobile.