As you leave the city of Yachats behind, cross Highway 101 and climb into the sprawling forest of Sitka spruce alongside the rugged and beautiful Oregon coast, a question lingers at the back of your mind: Who is Amanda?
This scenic 3.7-mile stretch of the Oregon Coast Trail, running from Yachats up to the top of Cape Perpetua, is officially known as the Amanda Trail (also known as Amanda's Trail). The legend of the trail is no secret, but it contains a darkness many Oregonians would rather forget.
Local trail managers allow first-timers to hike in mystery for the first mile and a half before reaching the iconic Amanda Statue and, posted on a sign nearby, the story of Amanda herself.
The trail runs through the former Coast Indian Reservation, established via treaty in 1855 with the Coastal Tribes of Oregon. The reservation ran from Cape Lookout south to Siltcoos, and was supposed to be a place where local tribes could live in peace. But as hostilities between the native population and settlers grew, volunteer militias known as the "exterminators" began to round up the tribes of southwest Oregon and confined them to the new reservation on the Pacific.
Over the next decade, natives routinely ran away from the reservation, fleeing abuse and starvation at the hands of U.S. Indian Agents. The job then fell to the U.S. military to round up the run-aways and march them back in. Corporal Royal Bensell documented his company's time catching "Squaws" and "Bucks," which in spring 1864 included a Coos woman named Amanda.
Amanda De-Cuys was old and blind, living with a white settler near Coos Bay, 50 miles outside of the Coast Reservation. She left her husband and young daughter behind as Bensell and his company began the long march up the rugged coastline to Yachats. Today, that journey can be accomplished on the Oregon Coast Trail, but back then conditions were treacherous.
Two days into the trip, one Indian Agent proposed leaving all the women behind to die, as "it will cost so far to transportation," Bensell wrote. Four days later, the Corporal complained of only walking 10 miles in the day, "so slow and solemn did we go." When they reached the sharp basalt shoreline near Cape Perpetua, old Amanda "tore her feet horribly over these ragged rock, leaving blood sufficient to track her by."
After 10 days of walking, the band reached Yachats. The company turned over the natives to the Indian Agents and, according to Bensell "we all left relieved." Amanda's fate from there is a mystery, but the fate of the Coast Indian Reservation is well documented. By 1875, the entire reservation was dismantled for white settlement, the remaining tribal population removed to Siletz and Grand Ronde Reservations.
In Yachats, that history remained quiet for generations. It came back up in 1984, when Loyd Collett, a trail planner with the Siuslaw National Forest, discovered the story and decided to name a proposed trail after Amanda, dedicating it to the memory of the Native Americans who were marched along the same coastline more than a century earlier.
The trail officially opened in the spring of 1998, drawing a crowd of 120 people to Amanda Grotto, where the statue of Amanda De-Cuys stands proud, a representative of the people who first lived in what would become the state of Oregon.
"The Amanda Trail today commemorates the dark events of Oregon's transition from Native domain to U.S. statehood," the sign near the statue reads. "It is through the recognition of these events that the new communities and the original peoples are coming together to restore native ways in the modern world."
Distance: 7.4 miles, up and back
Difficulty: Moderately difficult
Amenities: Parking at either end, bathrooms at Cape Perpetua
With parking at both the top and bottom of the Amanda Trail, you can hike it in either direction, but for the most rewarding experience, start in the city and work your way up. Hike or drive south of downtown Yachats and turn right onto Yachats Ocean Road. Park at a long pull-out near the end of the road and walk the rest of the way, heading south along Highway 101.
Follow the Oregon Coast Trail signs, which lead you along the grassy shoulder of 101 before directing you across. On the other side, the trail picks up and enters a forest of Sitka spruce, running parallel to the highway about a mile to the iconic Amanda Statue.
The current statue is actually the second to grace the trail. In December 2015, a storm wiped out the entire Amanda Grotto, burying the statue in a pile of rubble and mud. The new Amanda now sits just north of the old grotto (which, as of summer 2016, is still a pile of rubble and mud).
From there, the trail climbs steeply and steadily another two miles to Cape Perpetua, the highest point on the Oregon Coast. Unlike Amanda, you won't cross any fields of jagged rock. Instead, you'll pass by moss and mushroom-covered logs, scenic coastal vistas and stumps of giant trees - today crowned by younger brethren.
Follow the signs to Cape Perpetua at the top (or head for the sign of sky through the trees) and soak up the sights before turning around and heading downhill back to town. Stop by the Amanda statue on your way, and pay your respects to the people who walked the land first.
--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB