On
Oct. 11, 1845, Joel Palmer crossed the deep ravine of Zigzag
Canyon near timberline
on Mount Hood. In his
journal for that day he uses the following description: "the
manner of descending is to turn directly to the right, go zigzag
for about one hundred yards, then turn short round, and go
zigzag until you come under the place where you started from;
then to the right, and so on, until you reach the base." the
members of the Barlow party, who crossed south of Mount Hood
without wagons in October 1845, used a trail that ascended
White River nearly to timberline and then traversed west not
far from the 1989 alignment of the Timberline Trail. After
crossing Zigzag Canyon they descended one of the ridges of
Zigzag Mountain. It is obvious that the principal stream was
identified by the crossing. The river is no more crooked than
adjoining streams and there is no reason to believe it was
named for an especially irregular alignment. For a detailed
account of the investigation of the south side of Mount Hood
and the discovery of Barlow Pass, see the entries for Oct.
1845 in Joel Palmer's Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains,
a photographic reproduction of which was made in 1966. The
name Zigzag has also come to be applied to Zigzag Glacier on
Mount Hood as well as to a community two miles west of Rhododendron.
Zigzag post office was established in 1917 and operated intermittently
until 1974.