Canby Historical Society Railroad History

Submitted 2008 by Sharon Fazzio

Ben Holladay sold a prospering pony express business to a company known as Wells Fargo, and pushed the railroad into Oregon through Baker County in north eastern Oregon to Portland then south to the Clackamas River at Gladstone arriving in 1968. At the same time another railroad was pushing down the west side of the Willamette River from Portland and in 1868 the Great Oregon Railroad Race began. The prize was winner to 'take all' of finishing the transcontinental railroad to California. The winner of the competition would be the first to connect Canemah near Oregon City to the tracks previously laid to the north side of the Clackamas River at Gladstone, This would connect the trade center of Oregon City to the Portland stockyards. Holladay won by two days on Christmas Eve 1869.

Then in 1870 he continued his railroad tracks south following the Willamette River. There were obstacles along the way trestles to build, hard rock to blast. They negotiated the steepest grade since crossing the mountains in eastern Oregon as they made their way past the town of New Era then up the hill. At the crest before dropping onto the flatland along Baker Prairie there was an obstacle of hard rock boulders .The territorial wagon road that traveled south had already traveled around the backside of that high ridge of rock located 1 mile east of and overlooking the future city of Canby*. The railroad crew broke that hard rock with dynamite and pick axes making a gravel pit. They used that gravel for a bed for the tracks. Holladay had his mill in Milwaukie for making the ties. The work was hard but the pleasure of the setting sun reflecting on the Willamette River across from the pit was a sight to behold. One of many of the pleasureful sites that would later be the source of advertisement by the railroad company to drive traffic to explore the west. To advertise they would call the railroad route "The Road of a Thousand Wonders".

Holladay had negotiated to buy 160' on either side of the tracks through Bakers Prairie from William Knight and Phillander lee , who were pretty impressed with the stature of this railroad man, and readily went along with his leadership to plat the 24 block town of downtown Canby. Lee would only sell land for a town if the streets were wide enough for two span of oxen and a wagon to turn. So, Philander's son, Albert, hitched up the oxen and turned the team and wagon, measuring the diameter of the turn to be 80 feet, which became the width of Canby's original downtown streets. The City's plat was filed in Oregon City on August 9, 1870. Ben Holladay named the town after his friend, General Edward R. S. Canby, a forgotten hero today who had accepted the surrender that ended the Civil War (long after Grant accepted Lee's surrender). Proceeding on towards Aurora the tracks crossed the Molalla river, named after the Molalla Indian Nation which populated the area at that time. The land level on the west side of the river was significantly lower, known as the Barlow flats, and fill was dug, on land along the east side of the Molalla river along the newly built tracks to build up the grade to make a gradual decline into the platted town of Barlow. Later "the pit" was to be known as the Canby Dump.

There was a water tank along the tracks near what is today Hulberts Flower Shop to supply the steam trains in the early years, and side tracks there where rail cars sat to house some of the railroad workers. Also along the way settlers were contracted to supply wood that would be brought to the railroad tracks to be picked up by the trains as they traveled the rails to heat the water for the steam power. Warren Freece on Mulino Road was one who delivered wood to the tracks.

* To circumvent that formation of hard rock, wagons traveled south to what is known today as Haines Road at New Era connecting up with a territorial road on the backside of that ridge then crossing what is now 99E and heading west to the Molalla River. Later this road would be formally known as Territorial Rd. Pioneers traveled this road to a point on the bank of the river where they traversed down the side hill and across the river towards Aurora. The weary travelers could even get a nights lodging on the property before crossing. This crossing is located on acreage owned by the Hale family for the past 60 years.