Origin of the Elevator Shaft trail..?

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Splintercat
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Origin of the Elevator Shaft trail..?

Post by Splintercat » January 11th, 2014, 12:18 pm

Doing a little research on the Gorge this winter, and ran across an interesting line on a 1927 Metzker cadastral map:

Image

According to the legend, the line with dots that zigzags up the Gorge face is a powerline -- though on the next Metker sheet, it connects with what we now know as the road to Multnomah Basin/Nesika Lodge. Even more intriguing, the southern section has a note that says "Never Opened", though of course, part of it was.

The fact a powerline symbol is shown could just be a map error -- or the cartographer doing their best to show a proposed road. But very interesting that a road OR powerline was imagined to scale the Gorge at that point!

My first reaction was that the switchbacks almost lined up with the Elevator Shaft... but then when I overlay the Metzker Map with the topo map...

Image

The map features don't totally register between the maps, but even with stretching the Metsker map a bit more (to line up Multnomah Falls), the switchback route is still east of the Elevator Shaft. So, no dice there...

But interesting to the extent that somebody dreamed of building a road up there... wow!

Any other theories out there from the local Gorge explorers...?

Tom :)

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Chase
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Re: Origin of the Elevator Shaft trail..?

Post by Chase » January 11th, 2014, 12:45 pm

Kind of matches up with this, except the dates don't match:

[quote=Trails Club of Oregon]Hayek’s party on that occasion did considerable exploring of the mountain above the 2000 ft. level, and returned from the summit following Multnomah Creek, east fork as they knew it, down to a ford a little above the confluence with Big John branch, marking what passed for a road in those woods then (and still does) as the only wheel track into the Basin. The road led them back to Palmer on Bridal Veil Creek, four miles up from the town of Bridal Veil. Later this road leading to the Arrington place was known as the back way into Nesika Lodge. It is so much of County Road No. 695 as legally established in 1896, extending from Palmer through the Basin, over the bluff and down to Oneonta siding on the O.R.& N. railway, and on to Dodson just beyone St. Peter’s Dome. However it had materialized only as a foot trail from John Teuscher’s cabin in the Basin to Oneonta. This stretch of trail has long since become pretty well obliterated, following an extensive slide that occurred about 1913.[/quote]

From: http://www.trailsclub.org/about_us/founding.html

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BrianEdwards
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Re: Origin of the Elevator Shaft trail..?

Post by BrianEdwards » January 11th, 2014, 1:29 pm

Interesting. A trail from the railroad up to Palmer.
Clackamas River Waterfall Project - 95 Documented, 18 to go.

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Peabody
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Re: Origin of the Elevator Shaft trail..?

Post by Peabody » January 12th, 2014, 1:38 pm

Tom,
That road is actually county road 0625 aka Palmer Mill Road, not 695 as stated on the Trail Club of Oregon website. The road was never built. It is not in anyway related to the current Multnomah Basin road used to access Nesika Lodge and would have been a completely different route.

Here's a link to the original 1896 plat.
http://www4.multco.us/Surveyimages/Roads/RD0000-0999/RD0625-MAP.PDF

http://www4.multco.us/Surveyimages/Roads/RD0000-0999/RD0625-ORD.PDF
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