Beazell Memorial Forest and Fort Hoskins

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bobcat
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Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Beazell Memorial Forest and Fort Hoskins

Post by bobcat » July 6th, 2012, 1:49 pm

These are two Benton County parks near the Luckiamute River west of Corvallis. They are accessed off of Highway 223 (Kings Valley Road). Both offer shaded picnic areas and loop trails, good for short walks if you are in the area.

1. Beazell Memorial Forest

An interpretive kiosk explains the settler history of the area and the deeding of the property to Benton County by the Beazell family. An old farmhouse from the 1870s still stands here. A longer loop heads from a large barn into secondary Douglas-fir forest. There are a few short loop options off of this loop. The trail passes across a wide meadow and hits the crest of the ridge.
The big barn, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Cistern, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Ox-eye daisies, South Meadow, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
The South Ridge Trail heads down from here, switchbacking many times into the heart of the park: the lush native forest along Plunkett Creek. We took the trail down the creek and admired many native forest plants, including several specimens of the Siskiyou false hellebore and a number of moss-draped Pacific yews.
Red columbine (Aquilegia formosa), Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Siskiyou false hellebore (Veratrum insolitum), Plunkett Creek, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Footbridge, South Ridge Trail, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus), Plunkett Creek, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Plunkett Creek, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Moss-draped Pacific yew, Plunkett Creek, Beazell Memorial Forest.jpg
Another short loop option, the Bird Loop, heads across the creek from the picnic area to an oak savannah with views to Marys Peak. In all, there are about four miles of trails combining the two loops.

2. Fort Hoskins

This historic park encompasses the site of Fort Hoskins, one of four garrisons intended to police the eastern edge of the vast Siletz Indian Reservation, established in 1855. The reservation extended from Cape Lookout down to Winchester Bay (Reedsport). Members from all the Oregon tribes west of the Cascades were shipped or marched there, but survival was extremely difficult. With no direct road access from the Willamette Valley, women were marched over the Coast Range to pick up 100 lb. bags of flour to carry back. Four guard stations, Hopkins, Fort Yamhill (now an Oregon state park), the Siletz Blockhouse, and Fort Umpqua, were established to police Indian traffic and track down pass violators. The forts were abandoned after the Civil War and the Siletz Reservation was taken apart piece by piece to open up more coastal land to settlers.

A 1.2 mile trail leads up through secondary Douglas-fir forest and then switchbacks up and across a hillside meadow with views across the Luckiamute valley. There have been attempts to reseed the area with native wildflowers, most notably sidalcea and eriophyllum (Oregon sunshine), but it looks like the latter is the only one holding its own against the invasives.
Crossing the meadow, Fort Hoskins.jpg
Yerba buena (Satureja douglasii), Fort Hoskins.jpg
Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum var. lanatum), Fort Hoskins.jpg
Meadow sidalcea (Sidalcea campestris), Fort Hoskins.jpg
A 0.6 mile trail leads down to the site of the fort buildings with a spur leading to the Frantz-Dunn House, built in 1869 soon after the fort was abandoned. The trail leads up past the foundation of the Hoskins School (1915) and back to the parking area.
Frantz-Dunn House, Fort Hoskins.jpg
View to site of Fort Hoskins.jpg

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