The Zybach Collection · Jedediah Smith

Historical markers

A state highway panel the project wanted replaced, a memorial stone it raised, a bronze plaque with fourteen names, and an interpretive sign that got as far as artwork.

The creator sets out the aim on his own project index: “The 2023 Umpqua Memorial Project is focused on three historical markers and an event: 1) Replacement of the Bolon Island ‘Jedediah Smith’ historical marker with one that is more relevant to signficiant local events that took place from 1826 to 1828; 2) Installation of an Umpqua Memorial Stone commemorating the 15 men killed nearby on July 14, 1828; 3) Installation of an 1828 Historical Sign interpreting events associated with the October 28, 1828 burial of their remains; and 4) Dedication of the Memorial Stone on October 28, 2023.”

Three of the four happened. This page follows each in turn. Where the project’s papers give the ground itself — a coordinate, a survey description, a road intersection, a map with the place marked — the Library catalogues the paper and publishes none of it.

The Bolon Island marker

On Highway 101 at Bolon Island, outside Reedsport, a stone marker with an inset bronze plaque has stood for about ninety years. Beside it the State put up a modern interpretive panel about Jedediah Smith. The committee wanted that panel taken down and replaced, and said so to the state body that owns it.

A low stone monument beside a highway, with an inset metal plaque. — The original stone marker at Bolon Island. The creator writes of it: “Note that it is inset, 90 years old, and along a major highway and never vandalized… The objective is to be respectful, with simplicity, large lettering, and elegance as guides.” From the creator’s own Bolon Island photographs; his files do not name the photographer. Photographic Report of 15 June 2023, p. 6.

Close-up of the text on a modern roadside interpretive panel. — The modern state panel that the committee asked to have replaced — the text at close range. From the creator’s own Bolon Island photographs; his files do not name the photographer.

To the Culture Committee of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians

Bob Zybach · 20 July 2023 · 3 pages · Zybach-CTCLUSI_20230720.pdf, 378k

Written the evening of a presentation to the Tribes’ Culture Committee. It summarises the project in four parts — the Bolon Island sign, the memorial stone, the October dedication and the interpretive sign — and invites the Tribes to co-sponsor the stone. The Library prints no part of the routing header; the addresses of the tribal staff and committee members copied on it are not published.

Instead of a semi-accurate biography of Jedediah Smith and his travel routes through the western US, we propose that the sign focus more on local history and native people in 1826-1828 with the top portion having an 1826 quote from McLeod on first contact with HBC and the bottom portion having an 1828 quote from Rogers and mentioning the SJ&S encounter and burials.
Page 1

The more Tribal involvement in these observations, the better. There is true international significance to this history.
Page 1

To the Oregon Travel Information Council: “Bolon Island Sign Critique”

Bob Zybach · 27 July 2023 · 5 pages · Zybach-OTIC_20230727.pdf, 2.4M

The Umpqua Memorial Committee’s formal request to the state body that owns the highway marker: take the present panel down and put up one that is accurate and local. It is the fullest statement of what the project thinks the sign gets wrong. Again the routing header is not reproduced.

Our request to the Historical Marker Committee is to: 1) remove the existing panel for reasons given below, 2) replace it with a panel that is more accurate and meaningful historically and more relevant locally, and 3) give these actions a high priority.
Page 1

Yet the new sign states “Skirmished with Kelawatsets” on the map, and in the text states: “A skirmish erupted between the trappers and local Native Americans, the Quuiich (L.Umpqua).” They weren’t “Americans,” native or otherwise, few people know that the “L.” stands for “Lower,” and it certainly wasn’t a “skirmish” that somehow “erupted.” This is politics and semantics, not history.
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The slight attention given the Native American/L. Umpqua/Kelawatsets/Quuiich and their “village” gives a distorted and inaccurate perspective of the people who lived here in 1826 and 1828. The conflict with Smith and his men had a significant and lasting impact on coastal families as well as on US and British claims of “Joint Occupancy.” These people are represented, but barely, and very poorly. These were the people who lived here for generations; Smith and his men, horses, and mules were just rude, wealthy visitors who would be gone shortly if they weren’t stopped first.
Page 2

The Library takes no view on whether the panel should be replaced, or on what a sign should say. It publishes the committee’s argument because the committee published it, and because a reader of this series ought to be able to see the reasoning behind the project rather than only its results.

The creator’s Bolon Island folder, as he posts it. Twelve photographs of the two markers sit alongside it.
File	Posted	Size	What it is
Dehn-OTIC_HM_20230801.pdf	3 August 2023	6.7M	Papers of the Oregon Travel Information Council’s historical marker committee. Third-party work; identified by reference.
Zybach-CTCLUSI_20230720.pdf	31 July 2023	378k	The letter of 20 July 2023, above.
Zybach-OTIC_20230727.pdf	31 July 2023	2.4M	The letter of 27 July 2023, above.

Photographs: the creator’s Bolon Island folder, twelve files — the original monument, the replacement panel with a person for scale, the text at close range, and eight general views made in June and July 2023.

The memorial stone and its plaque

A stone was chosen at the Main Rock quarry near North Bend on 14 June 2023, hauled and set at the mouth of the Smith River on 21 June, cut for a bronze plaque in October, and dedicated at sunset on 28 October 2023 — the 195th anniversary of the burial. The three photographic reports follow it step by step: choosing the stone, moving it, and the plaque and the dedication. Every hour of labour, every machine and the stone itself were donated.

Small photograph of heavy equipment handling a large boulder. — The creator’s own thumbnail for the stone-placement report. Bob Zybach, Photographic Report #2, 22 June 2023.

Smith, Jackson & Sublette
“Free Trappers”

Thomas Daws
John Gaiter
John Hanna
Abraham Laplante
Joseph Lapointe
Emmanuel Lazarus
Toussaint Maréchal
Martin McCoy
Joseph Palmer
Peter Ranne
John Robaseu
Harrison Rogers
Charles Swift
Thomas Virgin

Died July 14, 1828
Dedicated October 28, 2023
Jedediah Smith Society

The plaque text as the creator prints it in his field report. Photographic Report of 15 June 2023, page 7. Fourteen names, as they are set out on the plaque cast for the memorial stone under the heading “Smith, Jackson & Sublette / ‘Free Trappers’ / Died July 14, 1828.” The project’s own accounts differ on whether fourteen or fifteen men were killed; the creator’s index says fifteen, his second field report says “the 14 or 15 beaver trappers killed near here,” and his article notes that the larger number “may include the Kalapuyan slave boy, Marion, who probably survived.” Who each of these men was, in the creator’s own notes, is on the people page.

The ground itself was listed with the Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries on 29 March 2023. The Commission’s letter of confirmation says only that “the Smith Jackson & Sublette Burial Site in Douglas County is listed with the Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries,” and that the listing brings it under the state’s historic-cemetery law. The application behind that listing is a different matter: it is the one document in this series that sets out the site’s legal description and coordinates, and it also carries private addresses and telephone numbers. It is catalogued below and nothing out of it is published.

The creator’s Stone folder.
File	Posted	Size	What it is
Final_DRAFT_Plaque.pdf	23 August 2023	1.6M	The final draft of the plaque, as the creator posts it.
Template_20230730.docx	31 July 2023	14k	A template for the plaque layout.
Template_20230730.pdf	31 July 2023	127k	A template for the plaque layout.
Williams_20230602.pdf	31 July 2023	132k	Douglas County Public Works, 2 June 2023. Third-party record; identified by reference.

The interpretive sign, and what it was to say

The fourth object was an interpretive sign on Douglas County right-of-way — county rather than state, which the creator noted gave “far more leeway to content and design.” Between February and November 2023 he drafted the text four times, a quotation and a budget came in from the sign fabricator, and a graphic artist laid out two sheets of artwork. The creator’s own files do not record the sign being installed.

What the sign was to carry is the most substantial piece of history in this whole series: five passages of Rogers’s journal from the week before the attack, McLoughlin’s report of what Arthur Black told him, the account an Umpqua chief gave McLeod that October, and McLeod’s own entry for the day of the burial. They are printed here from the draft of 20 October 2023.