In 1846, Jesse Applegate and fourteen others from near Dallas, Oregon, established a trail south from the Willamette Valley and east to Fort Hall, creating an alternative to the perilous last leg of the Oregon Trail down the Columbia River. The first emigrants took this Southern Road from Fort Hall in early August 1846, with Levi Scott guiding while Jesse Applegate went ahead to mark the route, and they blazed a wagon trail through nearly 500 miles of wilderness before reaching the upper Willamette Valley in November. Travel on the Applegate Trail continued in later years and contributed greatly to the settlement of southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley. The surrounding Polk County region also drew pioneer investors and settlers, developed mills, pottery works, woolen manufacturing, logging, and railroad shipping, and was shaped by Indian burning practices that created open pastureland attractive to farmers. In 1855 and 1856, the removal of Indians from Oregon's western valleys to the Grand Ronde Reservation brought severe suffering and disrupted long-established lifeways, while their descendants remained there, later endured federal termination in 1956, and saw tribal restoration and a new reservation in 1983. Jesse Applegate became known as an explorer, surveyor, essayist, and legislator as well as a founder of the southern route, though many emigrants blamed him for hardships on the road; Levi Scott, another key trailblazer, also helped lead emigrants, later served in public life, and continued to shape early Oregon.