Milepost 51.1

In 1869, John Craig fell two large fir trees across the McKenzie River and covered them with crude puncheons. This wasn’t the first bridge across the McKenzie River, but it was the first bridge constructed so far up river (fifty miles from Springfield). Before this happened, the area that was the last stagecoach stop before attempting the cross the Cascades was called Strawberry Prairie. John Craig’s bridge was replaced by a covered bridge in 1878, but the McKenzie washed the whole thing down river in 1881. A new bridge was built that year, and then again in 1907, and again in 1929, and 1945, and the bridge we all cross today was constructed almost a hundred years after Craig’s bridge in 1968.

In 1885, George “Uncle” and Melvina “Auntie” Frissell built the Log Cabin Inn for weary travelers to get off their stagecoaches for a while, eat some food, and have some company. The Log Cabin did very well until it burned down in 1906. The hotel guests had their belongings burned in the fire so the local residents shared their homes with them until a rescue wagon dispatched from Eugene showed up three days later. “Uncle” and “Auntie” Frissell rebuilt the Log Cabin in 1907 and they built it to last. Visitors from all over the world slept and ate under its hand strewn log structure. Some of them were famous like Frank Sinatra, Clark Gabel, Danny Kay, Herbert Hoover, Willie Nelson, Orlando Bloom, and more, some were tourists looking for world class fishing and breath taking hikes, beautiful waterfalls, and relaxing hot springs, and others were the local residents who lived on the river. Locals loved to eat and drink inside the incredible and historic Log Cabin Inn. Unfortunately, in 2006, ninety-nine years after it was rebuilt, the Log Cabin Inn burned down in a horrific fire.

McKenzie Bridge has recently gone through a revitalization. The McKenzie Station Pub has a full bar and some of the most amazing steaks and burgers in the Pacific Northwest. The McKenzie General Store across the street has four types of Kambucha on tap as well as great local microbrews and wine by the bottle. They have amazing dinner specials that you can eat around the fire pit in the back while listening to live music or hearing a local author read. A traveler can still stay at the Caddisfly Resort, Loloma Lodge, or many other places.