Thomas and Ruckle Road
The Thomas and Ruckle Road, also known as Ruckles Road or Ruckels Road, was a wagon road over the Blue Mountains.
George Thomas was a stagecoach driver who came west to California in 1849, before moving to Walla Walla.[1] Colonel J. S. Ruckle arrived in Oregon in 1855 as a steam boat pilot for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company (OSN) along the Columbia River.[1][2] Eventually Ruckle left the OSN and ran his own boat along the river.[1] The two men planned and built the road in 1864 and 1865, as well as a stage line from Walla Walla to the Idaho Mines.[1] The road ran from the northwest to the southeast, offering a more direct connection to Walla Walla, despite being longer than the Meacham Road.[1]
The Ruckle Road, as well as others over the Blues, charged $3 to $5 per wagon.[1] Several towns were platted along the road: Summerville in 1873, and Cove sometime in the 1870s.[3] Mail was delivered over the road, causing it to bypass La Grande in favor of Union and Summerville, helping Union become elected as the county seat in 1872.[1]
The road washed out in 1886 and was never rebuilt.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Deumling, Dietrich (May 1972). The roles of the railroad in the development of the Grande Ronde Valley (masters thesis). Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona University. pp. 13–15, 27–28. OCLC 4383986.
- ^ Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888). History of Oregon. Vol. II. p. 481.
- ^ a b Bailey, Barbara Ruth (1982). Main Street: Northeastern Oregon. Oregon Historical Society. p. 106. ISBN 0-87595-073-6.
- v
- t
- e
- American Fur Company
- Columbian exchange
- Executive Committee
- Ferries
- Hudson's Bay Company
- Oregon & California Railroad
- Oregon boundary dispute
- Oregon Country
- Oregon Lyceum
- Oregon missionaries
- Oregon Spectator
- Oregon Territory
- Oregon Trail
- Oregon Treaty
- Organic Laws
- Pacific Fur Company
- Provisional Government
- Albina
- Applegate Trail
- Barlow Road
- Canemah
- Champoeg
- Elliott Cutoff
- Fort Astoria
- Fort Dalles
- Fort Vancouver
- Fort William
- French Prairie
- Linn City
- Meek Cutoff
- Methodist Mission
- Oregon City
- Oregon Institute
- Philip Foster Farm
- Thomas and Ruckle Road
- Tualatin Academy
- Whitman Mission
- Willamette Trading Post
- George Abernethy
- Jesse Applegate
- Ira Babcock
- Sam Barlow
- François Blanchet
- William H. Boring
- Elijah Bristow
- Tabitha Brown
- Matthew Deady
- Abigail Scott Duniway
- Thomas Lamb Eliot
- Philip Foster
- Peter French
- Joseph Gale
- Cornelius Gilliam
- David Hill
- Chief Joseph
- Joseph Kellogg
- H.A.G. Lee
- Jason Lee
- David Thomas Lenox
- Asa Lovejoy
- Morton M. McCarver
- John McLoughlin
- Joseph Meek
- Ezra Meeker
- James D. Miller
- John Minto
- Robert Newell
- Joel Palmer
- Osborne Russell
- Sager orphans
- Levi Scott
- Eliza Hart Spalding
- Henry Spalding
- William Vandevert
- Elijah White
- Marcus Whitman
- Narcissa Whitman
- Geo. H. Williams
- Ewing Young
- Columbia
- Lot Whitcomb
- Canemah
- Colonel Wright
- Gazelle
- Oregon Steam Navigation Company
- Native peoples history
- History to 1806
- Pioneer history
- Modern history