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Valley and Siletz Railroad

1917 establishments in OregonDefunct Oregon railroadsRailway lines closed in 1978Railway lines opened in 1917Transportation in Benton County, Oregon
Transportation in Polk County, Oregon
Valley and Siletz Railroad
Valley and Siletz Railroad

The Valley and Siletz Railroad (VS) is a 40.6-mile (65.3 km) defunct railroad located in Polk and Benton counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. The railroad began construction in 1912. It was 12 miles (19 km) long by 1915, 34 miles (55 km) long by 1917, and was extended to 40.6 miles (65.3 km) and completed later that year. In order to supply the Willamette Valley with wood products from forests in the Northern Oregon Coast Range, the railroad followed the Luckiamute River to connect Independence, a city along the Willamette River, to Valsetz, a logging community in the Coast Range whose name is a portmanteau of the railroad's name. In 1957, the railroad retired its last steam locomotive. In September 1978, when it became no longer profitable for the logging industry, most of the railroad was abandoned.In 1985, brothers Dave and Mike Root bought the intact remnant of the Valley and Siletz line and combined it with the former Longview Portland & Northern Grand Ronde Division line to form a company called the Willamette Valley Railroad. The Valley and Siletz line was separated from the Willamette Valley Railroad in 1988. It operated until May 1992, serving the Mountain Fir Lumber Company.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Valley and Siletz Railroad (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Valley and Siletz Railroad

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Latitude Longitude
N 44.765262 ° E -123.429337 °
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Polk County



Oregon, United States
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Valley and Siletz Railroad
Valley and Siletz Railroad
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Ritner Creek Bridge
Ritner Creek Bridge

The Ritner Creek Bridge was the last covered bridge on a state highway in Oregon. It carried Oregon Route 223 (OR 223) over Ritner Creek between Pedee and Kings Valley, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Dallas, or 10 miles (16 km) north of the junction with U.S. Route 20 (US 20) in Wren. Built in 1927, in 1976 the bridge was lifted from its foundation and relocated just downstream of its original site and replaced by a concrete bridge. The bridge was constructed in 1927 by Hamer and Curry Contractors to Oregon State Highway Commission plans. The initial construction cost was $6,964. The original portal design was rounded at the edges but was changed to a square design in the early 1960s to accommodate larger loads to pass.The 73-foot-long (22 m) bridge was named for pioneer Sebastian Ritner, who arrived in the area in 1845. In 1974 the bridge was declared structurally unsafe and scheduled for removal. Local residents started a petition to keep the bridge, which became a ballot measure in May 1974. The measure passed and it was moved, replaced by a new highway bridge. The bridge was the last of its kind to serve on a state highway in Oregon. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, following nomination by the State Historic Preservation Office due to the fact that while nearly 450 covered bridges existed in Oregon at the time of the bridge's construction, by the mid-1970s fewer than 60 were left in the state.