Lindsay Applegate

Lindsay Applegate (September 18, 1808 – November 28, 1892) was an American pioneer known for his participation in blazing the Applegate Trail, an alternative route of the Oregon Trail. The trail was blazed with his brothers Charles and Jesse in 1846, though Charles was not a member of the party that blazed the section of the Applegate Trail from the Willamette Valley to the Humboldt River. According to an original manuscript written by Lindsay Applegate in 1877, the members of the expedition were: Capt. Levi Scott, John Scott (son of Levi), Henry Boygus, Lindsay Applegate, Jesse Applegate, Benjamin Burch, John Owens, John Jones, Robert Smith, Samuel Goodhue, Moses "Black" Harris, David Goff, Benit Osburn, William Sportsman, and William Parker.

Early life Lindsay Applegate was born to Daniel and Rachel Applegate in Kentucky on September 18, 1808. The family moved to the Osage Valley in Missouri in 1820, where they farmed. At that time, the Oregon Trail was still in its infancy, and the final hundred or so miles beyond the Wascopam Mission had to be traveled by boat through dangerous winds, rapids, and eddies on the Columbia River:

Lindsay's nine-year-old son Warren perished, as did Jesse's ten-year-old son Edward, which most settlers expected would soon become the U.S.–British Columbia border.

Applegate Trail Jesse obtained information from the HBC about the California Trail which led from Idaho to northern California along the Humboldt River. This, combined with knowledge of the trapper's trail between the Willamette Valley and California, led fifteen men on horseback to set out in mid-June 1846 to look for a link between the two trails, with the expedition blessed by the Provisional Government of Oregon.

They traveled due south through the Willamette, Umpqua, and Rogue valleys. At the south end of the Rogue Valley—the site of present-day Ashland—they turned east and crossed the Cascade Range, approximately following the present-day route of Green Springs Highway, Oregon Route 66, and emerged near where Keno, Oregon now lies. They went around the south end of Klamath Lake and eventually to the future site of Winnemucca, Nevada. The party then split, leaving some to rest, while the remainder followed the Humboldt River northeast

Lindsay was appointed special agent for the Modoc Indians in 1861. In 1862, he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a Republican representing Jackson County. In 1865, he was appointed Indian subagent, responsible for treaty negotiations and other U.S. government dealings with the Klamath Indians.

Lindsay retired to Ashland in 1869. The Modoc War of 1872, between the Modocs and the U.S. Army, began shortly after he retired from his post. In January 1873, along with several other settlers, including Samuel Asahel Clark and R. H. Kincaid, Lindsay successfully proposed a peace commission to stop the war's spread.

Lindsay Applegate died on November 28, 1892, at the home of his son Oliver in Klamath County. He was survived by sons Elisha, Jesse A., Oliver, Ivan, and Lucien, and daughters Alice and Rachel.

Applegate wrote Notes and Reminiscences of Laying Out and Establishing the Old Emigrant Road into Southern Oregon in the Year 1846. He is the namesake of the Applegate River in Oregon.