Pilot Rock (Oregon)
At 5,910′ tall, Southern Oregon’s Pilot Rock is not a particularly tall peak but, as its name suggests, it is a landmark distinguishable from some distance away including to PCT hikers. This volcanic plug is located in the western Cascade Range near the east end of the Siskiyou Mountains, just east of the Siskiyou Summit and I-5 near Ashland. The PCT is routed along the base of the plug on its northside as it follows the high ridge to the east. At 25.6 million years old, Pilot Rock is one of the oldest features in the Cascades but far younger than the 425 million-year-old Siskiyou Mountains that the PCT transects to the west.
In our on-going series on Oregon mountains along the PCT, we are focusing on peaks often overshadowed by the dramatic Oregon mountains like Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson. Too often thru-hikers race through the forests of Oregon and don’t appreciate the many unique mountains in the Oregon Cascades.
The Takelma tribe of Native Americans originally called the rock Tan-ts'at-seniphtha (stone standing up),but to early settlers Pilot Rock was known as Boundary Mountain. Hudson's Bay trappers came this way in the early 1820s. Peter Skene Ogden camped within sight of Pilot Rock when his party of explorers crossed the Siskiyou Mountains in 1827. Pilot Rock stood as a landmark for ‘49ers making their way between the California gold fields and the settlements in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The United States Exploring Expedition passed through the area on September 28, 1841, renaming the rock Emmons Peak after Lieutenant George F. Emmons, a U.S. naval officer and member of the group.The rock later become known as Pilot Rock because it served as a landmark for pioneers coming north from California on the Applegate Trail, being visible from as far as the southern end of the Shasta Valley, over 40 miles to the south.
Stagecoach travelers and freight wagons jolted along a wagon road that opened near the mountain in 1859. The road was paved in 1913--an 8-foot strip to accommodate the automobile. Named the Pacific Highway in the 1920s, the road was widened to 16-feet. It was re-routed in the 1940s, and replaced by Interstate 5 in the 1960s.
Nine planes have crashed into Pilot Rock since 1942, mainly due to poor visibility.
