Polk County and Benton County, Oregon, United States
Dates of operation
1917–1978
Technical
Track gauge
1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)[1]
Length
40.6 miles (65.3 km)
The Valley and Siletz Railroad (VS) is a 40.6-mile (65.3 km) defunct railroad located in Polk and Benton counties in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The railroad began construction in 1912. It was 12 miles (19 km) long by 1915, 34 miles (55 km) long by 1917, and was extended to 40.6 miles (65.3 km) and completed later that year.[1][2][3] In order to supply the Willamette Valley with wood products from forests in the Northern Oregon Coast Range, the railroad followed the Luckiamute River to connect Independence, a city along the Willamette River, to Valsetz, a logging community in the Coast Range whose name is a portmanteau of the railroad's name.[2][3][4] In 1957, the railroad retired its last steam locomotive.[5] In September 1978, when it became no longer profitable for the logging industry, most of the railroad was abandoned.[2]
In 1985, brothers Dave and Mike Root bought the intact remnant of the Valley and Siletz line and combined it with the former Longview Portland & Northern Grand Ronde Division line to form a company called the Willamette Valley Railroad. The Valley and Siletz line was separated from the Willamette Valley Railroad in 1988. It operated until May 1992, serving the Mountain Fir Lumber Company.[6][7]
^ abEighth Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of Oregon to the Governor. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Printing Department. 1915. p. 28.
^ abc"Fort Hoskins Historic Park" (PDF). Benton County, Oregon. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 29, 2012.
^ abTenth Annual Report of the Public Service Commission of Oregon to the Governor. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Printing Department. 1917. p. 131.
^"Oregon Railroad History". The Pacific Northwest Chapter. National Railway Historical Society. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
^"Valley & Siletz GE 70-tonners".
^Edwards, Brian. "The Valley and Siletz Railroad". Independence to Siletz. Abandoned Rails. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
^McCamish, Brian. "Willamette Valley Railway". Active Short Lines of the Pacific Northwest. Oregon Pacific Railroad Company. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
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The ValleyandSiletzRailroad (VS) is a 40.6-mile (65.3 km) defunct railroad located in Polk and Benton counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. The railroad...
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creek. A railroad station named Ritner was part of the ValleyandSiletzRailroad. It was along the line about 2 miles (3 km) north of Kings Valley. The covered...
The railroad was the remnant of the ValleyandSiletzRailroad which had been previously abandoned south and west of Independence. The railroad was acquired...
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of the Willamette valley. H.M. Knighton, owner of the original townsite at St. Helens, Oregon, proposed in 1850 to build a railroad from that town, then...
the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II, and the Gulf War. It also includes US involvement in widespread periods...
"gravelly plain" in an unknown native language Siletz, means crooked river in the language of the Siletz people Tualatin, multiple places named for the...
"several miles from here it is five inches, and gradually deepens as you go east. Said to be 18 inches deep at Siletz, Oregon." Further south, it was reported...
the routes of Interstate 84, U.S. Route 30, Washington State Route 14, andrailroad tracks on both sides run through the gorge. A popular recreational destination...
city of Salem and other nearby communities. Detroit Lake is situated over a historical road bed of the former Oregon Pacific Railroad. This route was...
recent as 13,000 years ago. The oldest rocks beneath the Willamette Valley are the Siletz River Volcanics. About 35 million years ago, these rocks were subducted...
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