South Umpqua River

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Umpqua River with tributaries

The South Umpqua River is a tributary of the Umpqua River, approximately 95 miles (153 km) long, in southwestern Oregon in the United States. It drains part of the Cascade Range east of Roseburg. The river passes through a remote canyon in its upper reaches then emerges in the populated South Umpqua Valley near Roseburg.

[edit] Description

It rises in the high Cascades north of Fish Mountain, formed by the confluence of two short forks in eastern Douglas County approximately 20 mi (32 km) northwest of Crater Lake. It flows generally southwest through a remote canyon in the Umpqua National Forest to Tiller, then west past Milo and Days Creek. It emerges into the South Umpqua Valley at Canyonville, passing under Interstate 5 and flowing north along highway past Tri-City, Myrtle Creek, and Roseburg. It joins the North Umpqua from the south to form the Umpqua approximately 6 mi (10 km) northwest of Roseburg.

It receives Cow Creek from the south approximately 5 mi (8 km) southwest of Tri-City.

In the early 19th century, the lower river through the South Umpqua Valley was inhabited by several bands of the Coquille, including the Upper Umpqua and the Cow Creek bands (who ceded their lands to the U.S. government in the 1854 Kalapuya Treaty).

Beginning in the 1820s, hunters and trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company began using the South Umpqua River valley to move along what became known as the Siskiyou Trail. The Siskiyou Trail was based on existing Native American footpaths, and connected the Pacific Northwest, with California's Central Valley. In 1846, spurred by the desire to create a safer trail for emigrants to use to reach the Willamette Valley, Jesse and Lindsay Applegate, Levi Scott, and 13 other companions explored a new route through the valley that connected the southern Willamette Valley with Goose Lake in Northern California; there, what became known as the Applegate Trail, connected with the northmost branch of the California Trail. The original Siskiyou Trail route through the valley is closely followed today by Interstate 5.