| Siskiyou Mountains | |
| Mountain Range | |
 Kalmiopsis Wilderness in the Siskiyou Mountains
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| Country | United States |
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| State | Oregon, California |
| District | Siskiyou County, California, Jackson County, Oregon, Josephine County, Oregon |
| Coordinates | 41°49′59.418″N 123°40′4.239″W / 41.83317167°N 123.66784417°W |
| Timezone | Pacific (UTC-8) |
| - summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| Topo map | USGS Figurehead Mountain |
![Location of Siskiyou Mountains in California [1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:California_Locator_Map.PNG)  Location of Siskiyou Mountains in California [1]
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 Map of the Siskiyou Range
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The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal mountain range in the northern Klamath Mountains in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately 100 miles (160 km) from east of Crescent City, California northeast along the north side of the Klamath River into Josephine and Jackson counties in Oregon. The mountain range forms a barrier between the watersheds of the Klamath River to the south and the Rogue River to the north.
The highest peaks in the range include Mt. Ashland at elevation 7,533 feet (2,296 m), Dutchman Peak at 7,410 feet (2,260 m), Siskiyou Peak at 7,147 feet (2,178 m), and Wagner Butte at 7,140 feet (2,180 m), all of which are in Oregon. The highest peak in the California portion of the range is Preston Peak at 7,309 feet (2,228 m). Due to this high elevation and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the peaks get high precipitation (rainfall and snowfall) and thus its forests are a lush green.[2]
These mountains are not the highest or most dramatic in the Klamath Mountains but are subtly beautiful, botanically diverse, and the wildest the region has to offer. Diversity abounds because western canyons can receive over 100 inches (2,500 mm) of rain in some winters while eastern areas are slightly more arid. Because the Siskiyou trends both north and south and then east and west, it holds species that range from coastal, like coast redwood, to Cascadian, like Alaska yellow-cedar and Pacific silver fir.
Much of the range is within the Rogue River-Siskiyou and Klamath national forests. The Pacific Crest Trail follows a portion of the ridge of the range. The Klamath-Siskiyou forests are noted for their high biodiversity.
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Name origins
The origin of the word siskiyou is not known. One version is that it is the Chinook Jargon word for "bob-tailed horse." According to historian Richard Mackie, "Siskiyou" was a Cree word for a bob-tailed horse, one of which perished in 1829 during Alexander McLeod's journey over a pass later named for the "siskiyou" (today's Siskiyou Pass). The Cree were in the area as part of McLeod's Hudson's Bay Company expedition, and had been recruited far away in their homeland in eastern Canada.[3] Another version, given in an argument before the State Senate in 1852, is that the French name Six Cailloux, meaning "six-stones," was given to a ford on the Umpqua River by Michel Laframboise and a party of Hudson's Bay Company company trappers in 1832, because six large stones or rocks lay in the river where they crossed. According to some, the Six Cailloux name was appropriated to this region by Stephen Meek, another Hudson's Bay Company company trapper who was known for his "discovery" of Scott Valley, in regard to a crossing on the Klamath River near Hornbrook. Still others attribute the name to a local tribe of Native Americans.
Ecology and protection
There is considerable biodiversity within the Siskiyou Range, including extensive forests. Conifer species include Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. menziesii), Lawson's Cypress (also known as Port Orford Cedar, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa), Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana), Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), White Fir (Abies concolor subsp. lowiana), Red Fir (A. magnifica subsp. shastensis), Weeping Spruce (Picea breweriana), Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia). The largest extant Black Oak, Quercus kelloggii, is found in the Siskiyou Mountains.[4] The Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii, is beyond its contiguous range; however, there are disjunctive populations of Blue Oak within the Siskiyou Mountains.[5]The eponymous endangered Siskiyou Mountains salamander is also found within this mountain range.
The Siskiyou range has federal protection in several forms. Oregon Caves National Monument protects 488 acres (2 km2) in the northern part of the range south of Grants Pass, Oregon. The Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument protects 52,940 acres (214 km2) at the junction of the Siskiyou and Cascade Ranges. There are three designated wilderness areas in the range in Oregon and California - the Red Buttes Wilderness, which protects 19,940 acres (80.7 km2),the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, which protects 179,755 acres (727.4 km2) and the Siskiyou Wilderness, which protects 153,432 acres (620.9 km2).
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley, through the Siskiyous, to Oregon's Willamette Valley. Originally based on existing Native American foot trails winding their way through river valleys, the Siskiyou Trail provided the shortest practical travel path between early settlements in California and Oregon in the 1820s.
Siskiyou Summit
Interstate 5 passes through the Siskiyou Mountains at Siskiyou Summit, located just north of the Oregon/California border, and just south of Ashland, Oregon. Siskiyou Summit is the highest pass on Interstate 5, at 4,310 feet (1,310 m). This pass is one of the most treacherous in the Interstate highway system. The California side has a more gradual ascent/descent, but on the Oregon side of the pass (the side which is more hazardous), the freeway gains (loses) 2,300 feet (700 m) in elevation over a 7-mile (11 km) stretch of freeway. In addition, the pass includes several hazardous curves, and is frequently hit with bad weather (including snow, ice, and fog) during winter storms. During winter, it is common for the highway to be closed one to four times by transportation authorities due to hazardous conditions. The speed limit is 55 miles per hour (89 km/h), but lower limits are set for larger vehicles.
References
- ^ "Siskiyou Mountains". Geographic Names Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:273723. Retrieved on 2009-05-03
- ^ http://conifercountry.com/nwCalifornia/climate.html
- ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press. pp. 66. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3.
- ^ John O. Sawyer, Andrea J. Pickart (2001) Trees and Shrubs of California, University of California Press, 467 pages ISBN 0520221095
- ^ C. Michael Hogan (2008) Blue Oak: Quercus douglasii, ed. N. Stromberg
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
