McKENZIE HISTORY HIGHWAY

The hour’s drive between Cedar Flat and Clear Lake overflows with stories of people, places and events which helped shape the McKenzie River Valley and its communities. The McKenzie History Hwy highlights our valley’s incredible history. In these pages you can get to know the pioneers, the gold miners, the cattle drivers, the postmasters, and the families who make up the history of the McKenzie River Valley. There is so much more about this river than a visitor can see today.

We invite you to travel on our history highway. This route will not only take you through our eight unincorporated communities along the McKenzie River, but it will guide you through hundreds of years of rich frontier history. We’ll travel through the time of homesteading, through the gold rush, through the good times where building dams brought good paying jobs and hundreds of families, and through the bad times when the timber dollars dried up creating an exodus of sorts.

Today, the McKenzie River Valley is in a period of revitalization. More and more, visitors from all over the world come to experience the beauty of our forests, the world-class fishing in our clean, cold, and strong McKenzie River, and the tranquility that comes from a long hike to a waterfall or pool. For years the McKenzie River has been a well kept secret, but today the secret is out. Hundreds of people come to our annual Lavender Festival, our Chainsaw Art Festival, or the Walterville Fair. In 2021, the World Athletics is having their world championships in Eugene and the McKenzie River Valley, due to it’s amazing McKenzie Track and Field will be hosting teams a month before the games.

The 37 history panels up and down the river are meant to make our present better by celebrating the past, and we are happy that you are here with us as we journey into the future.