Soap Creek Valley · 1989 Auto Tour
STOP #1 BERRY CREEK [Trapping]
Stop 1 of the 1989 Historic Soap Creek Valley Auto Tour, printed page 7.
12.2 miles from the Peavy Arboretum entrance on the 1989 route. Open these pages in the original PDF · Read the text below
![Original illustrated spread for STOP #1 BERRY CREEK [Trapping], printed pages 6–7. The transcribed text and picture captions follow below.](/images/zybach/soap-creek/auto-tour-1989/spread-05.jpg)
The text, as printed
David Douglas was a Scottish botanist who spent several years in the Pacific Northwest. During his first visit to the Willamette Valley in August, 1825, he noted that most of it had been trapped clean of beaver. Traders based in Astoria had been operating in the area since 1811, encouraging the local Indians to exchange native foods and animal skins for blue beads, guns, blankets, horses and alcohol. Beaver pelts, the principal article of trade, were in great demand by European hatmakers.
The advent of trade goods, metal traps, and flintlocks quickly created a difference in valley wildlife populations. White-tail deer, grizzly bears, and beaver soon became scarce. Elk, wolves, and black-tail deer became wary and more difficult to kill. The impact of new diseases in the 1830's had a similar effect on local human populations. Whole families and communities of Kalapuyans were destroyed in a few short years, and soon forgotten.
Berry Creek (which you will be crossing on your way to the next stop), like Soap Creek and other Willamette Valley streams, had been heavily impounded by beaver dams. As beaver populations were decimated, these streams became free-flowing and choked with brush and trees. The elimination of beaver ponds also resulted in a reduction of certain animal populations, such as mosquitos and ducks, due to the loss of habitat. Not all species suffered by these changes. The demise of the beaver dams removed migration barriers to anadromous fish and left behind "flats" of rich soil for invading plant species.
Thus, international trade, based upon a hat style, had forever changed a wilderness.
Find this stop and nearby places on the map
The map could not load. The list below carries the same places.
- Tour stop
- Other place named
On this map
Auto Tour stops(2)
Streams(2)
Valleys(1)
town(1)
Named at this stop
Places. Pacific Northwest · Willamette Valley · Astoria · Berry Creek · Soap Creek
People. David Douglas
Narrators who speak of this place
- #1 Lorna Grabe p. 11, p. 58
- #2 Paul M. Dunn p. 35, p. 41
- #3 Donald Dickey p. 8, p. 9, p. 11, p. 19, p. 22, p. 25, p. 26, p. 27, p. 29, p. 30, p. 38, p. 40, p. 41, p. 43, p. 44, p. 49, p. 55, p. 17, p. 26, p. 33, p. 44, p. 51
- #5 John Jacob & Wilma Rohner p. 5, p. 7, p. 8, p. 29, p. 36, p. 54, p. 56, p. 82, p. 84, p. 92
- #6 James Hanish p. 1, p. 7, p. 8, p. 9, p. 12, p. 13, p. 15, p. 44, p. 53, p. 63, p. 66, p. 76, p. 1, p. 25, p. 30
- #7 Charlie Olson p. 34, p. 123, p. 124, p. 125, p. 132, p. 137, p. 1, p. 4, p. 6, p. 7, p. 11, p. 12, p. 15, p. 16, p. 17, p. 24, p. 32, p. 33, p. 34, p. 35, p. 36, p. 38, p. 39, p. 43, p. 58, p. 59, p. 64, p. 65, p. 71, p. 75, p. 80, p. 82, p. 83, p. 84, p. 91, p. 92, p. 93, p. 94, p. 95, p. 97, p. 101, p. 109, p. 110, p. 115, p. 117, p. 123, p. 124, p. 125, p. 126, p. 127, p. 132, p. 134, p. 136, p. 140, p. 144, p. 145, p. 146, p. 151, p. 167, p. 173, p. 22
- #8 Neil Vanderburg p. 1, p. 4, p. 11, p. 15, p. 44, p. 46, p. 48, p. 50, p. 56, p. 63, p. 68, p. 70, p. 76, p. 77, p. 81, p. 85, p. 86, p. 89, p. 94, p. 95, p. 98, p. 99, p. 103, p. 104, p. 115, p. 120, p. 127, p. 129
- #9 Eugene Glender p. 1, p. 2, p. 6, p. 40, p. 72, p. 79, p. 87, p. 89, p. 92, p. 16, p. 101, p. 109
- #10 Velma Carter Rawie p. 50, p. 57, p. 67, p. 68, p. 57, p. 67, p. 97, p. 98, p. 115
- #11 Bessie Murphy p. 10, p. 39, p. 32, p. 12, p. 18, p. 24, p. 29, p. 32, p. 47, p. 50, p. 69, p. 79, p. 25, p. 93, p. 94
- #12 Wanda Marcks Cook p. 12, p. 8, p. 13, p. 18, p. 21, p. 23, p. 24, p. 30, p. 32, p. 36, p. 38, p. 46, p. 51, p. 54, p. 55, p. 66, p. 73, p. 74, p. 84, p. 85
- #13 WILLIAM A. DAVIES p. 18, p. 24, p. 49, p. 50, p. 4, p. 18, p. 22, p. 50, p. 51, p. 79
- #14 Charles and Norman Hindes p. 3, p. 7, p. 15, p. 45, p. 1, p. 3, p. 5, p. 6, p. 7, p. 8, p. 9, p. 36, p. 46, p. 48, p. 52, p. 56
- #15 Marvin Rowley p. 30, p. 46, p. 107, p. 30, p. 32, p. 34, p. 58, p. 80, p. 99, p. 103, p. 106
Photographs printed with this stop
- Beaver trappers and traders began entering the Coffin Butte area in the early part of the nineteenth century. By the late 1820's, the seasonal crossings along Berry and Soap Creeks had formed an important link in the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) "California Trail." This commercial pack trail connected the Columbia River (Fort Vancouver and Astoria) to the Umpqua Valley, Sacramento River, and San Fransisco, much as I-5 still does today.
Citation and source history
Collection source history · The complete booklet and its credits
How to cite this item
The first line is the citation as it is printed in the original. Use it when you cite the work itself. Use the second when you cite this page.
- As printed
- Zybach, Bob 1989. Historic Soap Creek Valley Auto Tour. Oregon State University Research Forests and College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon: 32 pp.
- This page
- Zybach 1989. America's School Trust Library, The Zybach Collection. https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/auto-tour/stop-1/
More on citing this collection: How to cite the Zybach Collection.
Something wrong on this page? Submit a correction — this page is already selected. See how that works.
