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Siskiyou Mountains
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The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal mountain range in the northern Klamath Mountains in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately 100 mi (160 km) from east of Crescent City, California northeast along the north side of the Klamath River into Josephine and Jackson counties in Oregon.
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Encyclopedia
The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal mountain range in the northern Klamath Mountains in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately 100 mi (160 km) from east of Crescent City, California northeast along the north side of the Klamath River into Josephine and Jackson counties in Oregon. The mountain range forms a barrier between the watersheds of the Klamath River to the south and the Rogue River to the north.
The highest peaks in the range include Mt. Ashland (elevation 7,533 ft/2,296 m), Dutchman Peak (7,410 ft/2,259 m), Siskiyou Peak (7,147 ft/2,178 m) and Wagner Butte (7,140 ft/2,176 m) all of which are in Oregon. The highest peak in the California portion of the range is Preston Peak (7,309 ft/2,228 m). Due to this high elevation and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the peaks get high precipitation (rainfall and snowfall) and thus its forests are a lush green.
These mountains are not the highest or most dramatic in the Klamath Mountains but are subtly beautiful, botanically diverse, and the wildest the region has to offer. Diversity abounds because western canyons can receive over 100 inches of rain in some winters while eastern areas are slightly more arid. Because the Siskiyou trends both north and south and then east and west, it holds species that range from coastal, like coast redwood, to Cascadian, like Alaska yellow-cedar and Pacific silver fir.
Much of the range is within the Rogue River-Siskiyou and Klamath national forests. The Pacific Crest Trail follows a portion of the ridge of the range. The Klamath-Siskiyou forests are noted for their high biodiversity.
Name origins
The origin of the word siskiyou is not known. One version is that it is the Chinook Jargon word for "bob-tailed horse." According to historian Richard Mackie, "Siskiyou" was a Cree word for a bob-tailed horse, one of which perished in 1829 during Alexander McLeod's journey over a pass later named for the "siskiyou" (today's Siskiyou Pass). The Cree were in the area as part of McLeod's Hudson's Bay Company expedition, and had been recruited far away in their homeland in eastern Canada. Another version, given in an argument before the State Senate in 1852, is that the French name Six Cailloux, meaning "six-stones," was given to a ford on the Umpqua River by Michel Laframboise and a party of Hudson's Bay Company company trappers in 1832, because six large stones or rocks lay in the river where they crossed. According to some, the Six Cailloux name was appropriated to this region by Stephen Meek, another Hudson's Bay Company company trapper who was known for his "discovery" of Scott Valley, in regard to a crossing on the Klamath River near Hornbrook. Still others attribute the name to a local tribe of Native Americans.
Ecology and protection
There is considerable biodiversity within the Siskiyou Range, including extensive forests. Conifer species include Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. menziesii), Lawson's Cypress (also known as Port Orford Cedar, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa), Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana), Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), White Fir (Abies concolor subsp. lowiana), Red Fir (A. magnifica subsp. shastensis), Weeping Spruce (Picea breweriana), Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia). The largest extant Black Oak, Quercus kelloggii, is found in the Siskiyou Mountains. The Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii, is beyond its contiguous range; however, there are disjunctive populations of Blue Oak within the Siskiyou Mountains.The eponymous endangered Siskiyou Mountains salamander is also found within this mountain range.
The Siskiyou range has federal protection in several forms. Oregon Caves National Monument protects in the northern part of the range south of Grants Pass, Oregon. The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument protects at the junction of the Siskiyou and Cascade Ranges. There are two designated wilderness areas in the range in Oregon - Red Buttes Wilderness, which protects , and Kalmiopsis Wilderness, which protects .
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley, through the Siskiyous, to Oregon's Willamette Valley. Originally based on existing Native American foot trails winding their way through river valleys, the Siskiyou Trail provided the shortest practical travel path between early settlements in California and Oregon in the 1820s.
Siskiyou Summit
Interstate 5 passes through the Siskiyou Mountains at Siskiyou Summit, located just north of the Oregon/California border, and just south of Ashland, Oregon. Siskiyou Summit is the highest pass on Interstate 5, at 4,310 ft (1,314 m). This pass is one of the most treacherous in the Interstate highway system. The California side has a more gradual ascent/descent, but the Oregon side of the pass (the side which is more hazardous), the freeway gains (loses) 2,300 feet (701 m) in altitude over a 7 mile (11 km) stretch of freeway. In addition, the pass includes several hazardous curves, and is frequently hit with bad weather (including snow, ice, and fog) during winter storms. During winter, it is common for the highway to be closed 1-4 times by transportation authorities due to hazardous conditions. The speed limit is 55 mph (90 km/h) but lower limits are set for larger vehicles.
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