About SideTracked Caches
This cache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breathtaking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveler, but anyone else can go and find it too. More Information can be found at the SideTracked Website
This cache also qualifies for the Disappearing RR Blues bonus cache. This series highlights the railways of NW Oregon
About the Grand Ronde Railroad Depot
You are located in "downtown" Grand Ronde. Near the cache location is the old Grand Ronde Bank. Now it is a library, but this cache is about a railroad. The side road the cache is on is the original Railroad Right-of-Way of the Willamina & Grande Ronde Railroad (or railway), which was built sometime around 1920 to connect the named towns to lumber mills. It connected with the Willamina Branch of the Southern Pacific. Spaulding-Miami Lumber Company, among others, owned it. Over the years, it has changed hands.
Grand Ronde was the terminus of this railroad. If you look to the west along this dirt road, you will see a light blue 2-story building. This is the original Railroad Station for the line. The old Deport was built 1920, after passenger service stopped (unsure when) it became offices for the railroad. Just south, across the tracks from the depot, existed a very tall and large water tower that was used by both the local community and the logging steam engines from prior years, and a large freight house. A few hundred feet west of the depot existed a wye that headed south. In the 1940s, this wye was the beginning of the logging railroad that headed south into the coast foothills, but by 1970, the line was cut back to only a few hundred feet south of the engine house and just a few feet south of Hwy 18. Here, the line crossed a small bridge over Rock Creek that still existed in 1970 but ended there. Inside the wye was located the main 3-stall engine house. Also, several outbuildings and one abandoned one stall engine house, and numerous railroad parts were lying about. Most of these structures are now gone.
In the 1980s the Oregon PUC condemned the line for bad trackwork. Through grants, the then-owner, Roots Brothers, was able to restore the line between Willamina and the lumber mill at Fort Hill. In 1985, the line west of Fort Hill to Grande Ronde was abandoned. All that is left today are parts of the right-of-way and the station & engine house at Grande Ronde.
The rest of the line came up again for abandonment in 2004. By this time, Hampton industries, owner of the Fort Hill mill, decided to close the mill. Happily, today (2008), the mill is active and receiving railcars. A look at the trackage between the mill and Willamina shows the tracks have been upgraded.
There is even talk of extending the track back towards Grande Ronde to serve the popular Casino with passenger trains from Portland. But don't hold your breath...