Emigrant Pass | |
---|---|
Elevation | 5,650 ft (1,722 m)[1] |
Location | Klamath and Lane counties, United States |
Range | Cascade Range |
Coordinates | 43°28′00″N 122°08′21″W / 43.46667°N 122.13917°W |
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]
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]