This Forest Service trail map is dated 1922, with revisions up to 1931. The Skyline Trail itself was created in 1920 by the Forest Service, and the route was flagged about then, a rough combination of old wagon roads, Indian paths, logger's byways, etc. It included very little actual trail building in the modern sense of the term. Parts of the old Trail bed are now covered over with major highways, such as near Diamond Lake and Crater Lake. Even by the time of the above map (1931), The Trail still only extended from near Government Camp on the south side of Mt. Hood, to the north end of Crater Lake, a distance of 235 miles. Note: in February 2005, I also acquired a mint condition official 1921 Skyline Trail Map; it's 24x17.5 inches, with great historic material on both sides. Please click here to see samples and if interested in purchasing yourself a copy.
..location? maybe Mt. JeffersonObservant readers will note several major geographical differences in this 1931 Map:
The modern-day Santiam Pass Highway, Hwy 20, doesn't exist yet! In its place is its predecessor, the Santiam Road, running south of the present-day Hoodoo Ski Area and down along the south side of 5,500 ft.Cache Mtn (side-story: after abandoning its astronomical observatory atop 2,000 ft. Spencer's Butte in Eugene in the late 1800s due to rain, fog and clouds, the University of Oregon once upon a time considered building a new observatory atop Cache Mtn., but decided it, too, was far too cloudy and rainy.... Finally, fifty years later, they went eastward into the Central Oregon High Desert, and constructed their dream at 6,300 feet, atop high and dry Pine Mountain about 80 miles SE of Santiam Pass (click Pine Mountain link for more information and a link to the Pine Mountain webcam!).......... The old Santiam Road still makes an excellent winter-time cross-country ski route, coming down near the present site of the Black Butte Ranch Resort.
In the 1931 map, The Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area doesn't yet exist, and its predecessor is much smaller, and doesn't even encompass one of the gems of this region, Three-Fingered Jack, which is one of the prominent peaks marking the Cascade skyline, and at 7,800 Ft, a peak that was a common climber's goal for more skilled climbers even before WW II. (first ascent via the South Ridge in 1923)........* Map compliments of contributor and hiker Mike Kinyon.