Oregon Route 58 begins (at its western terminus) at an interchange with Interstate 5 and Oregon Route 99 near Goshen, located between the cities of Eugene and Creswell. It heads due southeast from there, following the course of the Willamette River into the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. The highway passes several lakes, including Dexter Lake and Lookout Point Lake, and provides access to the town of Lowell. Further into the mountains, it passes through the cities of Oakridge and Westfir. It continues into the mountains, up the Salt Creek canyon, to the summit of Willamette Pass, after which it descends into central Oregon. Oregon Route 58 terminates at an interchange with U.S. Route 97.
Oregon Route 58 is of high importance as a freight corridor. It is the primary route between the Willamette Valley and south-central Oregon, including the Klamath Falls region. It also is the preferred route to points further southeast, including Reno, Nevada. Finally, it is an important alternate route for traffic moving up and down the West Coast, as bad weather frequently closes Interstate 5 at the Siskiyou Summit during the winter. The Union Pacific RailroadI-5 Corridor main line through Oregon and California roughly follows OR 58 and US 97. While a rail line exists through Siskiyou Summit, it is difficult for trains to use even in good weather, due to an excessively steep grade, and is often uneconomical to use in winter weather. It is common for West Coast truck traffic to prefer OR 58 and US 97 to Interstate 5 for the same reason.
By the 1850s, Emigrant Pass, slightly south of OR 58's crossing at Willamette Pass, was being used by emigrants to the Oregon Territory as a way over the Cascades. In October 1853, a party of 1,500 was almost stranded at the pass, but was saved from a Donner Party-style tragedy by nearby settlers who had begun to improve the route up the Middle Fork Willamette River earlier that year as a shortcut between the Oregon Trail near Boise, Idaho, and the Willamette Valley.[6]
In July 1865, the United States Congress authorized the construction of the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road from Eugene to Fort Boise in Idaho. To finance the construction, the government offered land grants along the route. Eventually, the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road Company would build 420 miles (680 km) of road and claim about 806,400 acres (3,263 km2). However, scandal and lawsuits regarding the quality of the road and its route reduced the amount of land actually patented by the company to approximately 235,568 acres (953.31 km2). Today, Oregon Route 58 follows the first leg of the Oregon Central military road from Eugene over the Cascades to Central Oregon.[7][8][9][10]
The Oregon State Highway Commission added the Willamette Highway No. 18, from Goshen via Oakridge to Crescent, to the state highway system on November 24, 1922. The road was entirely unimproved when it was taken over, and improvement progressed slowly from the Goshen end.[11][12] The roadway received the signed Oregon Route 58 designation in 1932, when the Oregon Route system was first laid out.[13][14] A major realignment, crossing the Cascades at Willamette Pass rather than Emigrant Pass, was designed in 1933, and incorporated a number of "half viaducts" built into the hillside and one tunnel (the Salt Creek Tunnel) in order "not to scar the hillsides more than is absolutely necessary" through the Willamette National Forest. An opening ceremony for the highway, thought at the time to be the last major highway that the state would build, was held on July 30, 1940.[15] The road remained partially oiled gravel until the mid-1960s.[16]
^"Oregon History: Uncle Sam's Handiwork", Oregon Blue Book, Oregon State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, State of Oregon, Salem, Oregon, 17 September 2009.
