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In the fall of 1846, the
first emigrant train from Fort Hall, Idaho, to travel
the southern route to the Willamette Valley camped on
the north side of this creek, then Woodpile Creek.
Martha Leland Crowley, 16 years old died of typhoid
fever during this encampment and was buried 150 feet
north of the creek on the east side or a white oak tree
that was later removed for the present roadway, thus the
name "Grave Creek".
When James H. Twogood laid out his land claim in the
fall of 1851 and filed it on May 1st 1852, he named it
the Grave Creek Ranch in memory of that unfortunate
incident.
McDonough Harkness, his partner, was the first
postmaster of Josephine County in the newly named town
of Leland on March 28,1855. Harkness was killed by the
Indians in April 1856 while riding dispatch for the Army
during the second Indian War of southern Oregon which
started in October of 1855.
A stockade was built around a log wayside and the hotel
building at Leland. The small town was the gateway to
the lower Rogue country where Indians retreated so it
became the gathering point of a large force of regular
army and volunteers and was known as Fort Leland.
A major encounter of the war took place some 8 miles
west of the Fort known as the Battle of Hungry Hill.
This ill-fated engagement produced some 37 dead, wounded
and missing. Some of these soldiers were buried north of
the Fort at the corner of the present Leland road and
old Pacific highway.
The last remnants of old Leland are the three large
maple trees to the north on the east side of the road
and the Ft. Leland rock-lined well on the west side of
the road both on private property. In 1860 the Grave
Creek Ranch became an overland stage stop for the
California Oregon Stage Line. A new hotel known as the
Grave Creek House #2 was built and operated until it
burned down in December of 1875. A nearby farmhouse was
enlarged enough to accommodate the stage company and was
known as the Grave Creek House #3 or Harkness Inn.
President Hayes, his wife and entourage spent the night
here on September 28,1880.
Throughout the years the Grave Creek watershed was home
to hundreds of gold miners. Many millions of dollars
worth of gold came out of this area.
So when you are driving by stop and visit this
historical area.
Applegate Trail Interpretive Center
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