Back to Part One – Collier Logging Museum

They managed to move several cabins from around the area to preserve them. According to their website, they have (or are in the process of) rearranging the cabins into a village type atmosphere. The cabins are the Bear Flat Store, a Doctor’s cabin, Gilchrist Cabin, Redden Cabin, and the Explorer’s cabin. This last one is interesting due to it’s story (attached via sign)

“Safety Sam” Brown, of the State Industrial Accident Commission, heard that one of the men with John C. Fremont, the noted explorer, had built a cabin on Crescent Creek. He hunted and hunted (doing a little fishing in the process) until he finally found this cabins tucked away in the trees along Crescent Creek.”

“Log cabins blossomed in Maine and spread through the States. This cabins represents the minimum of labor and the maximum of results. Note the size of the logs for ease of erection. The corners for ease of making. The moss chinking to hold out storms. The dirt floor and fire pit. The fair weather wooden slide window. The storm smoke chimney flapper. The split log roof and the bough bed on which to rest your weary bones.”

“May we hold in high honor those hardy souls who risked their lives as they searched out and charted the secret passes and the hidden trails so that we today may ride in comfort on the ribbons of asphalt and live in the houses of plenty.”

“May we teach our children that sacrifice on the part of too few of us is still the price of progress and freedom for all of us.”

“- Gift of Brooks-Scanlan Inc. and Alfred D Collier and Friends.”

John C. Fremont was an highly admired military officer and explorer in his day. Two of his four expeditions were in Oregon and he and his unit, including Kit Carson, explored and named much of Southern Oregon. They were the ones who mapped the southern passage of the Oregon Trail through Lakeview and Klamath Falls.

But, they were not the first explorers in this area. Peter Skene Ogden of the Hudson Bay Company had passed through about twenty years earlier. Continue on to read about his explorations.