You’re driving one of Oregon’s oldest roads. Not a freeway, not a bypass, but a road with a story, stretching back nearly two centuries.

But here’s what most people miss.

Many assume this road was named for Daniel Boone — the famous frontiersman. And they’d be wrong. Daniel Boone never set foot in Oregon…but his grandson, Alphonso Boone, did.

Like his grandfather Daniel Boone, Alphonso looked west.

Through brutal terrain, river crossings, the constant threat of illness and hostile territory, the Boones made it across the Oregon Trail in 1846 with ten kids in tow, settling along the Willamette River, not far from the town of modern day Aurora.

When Alphonso and his family arrived in Oregon in 1846, they saw what was needed: A way to cross the river.

By 1847, Alphonso Boone and his eldest son Jesse built a ferry crossing on the Willamette, appropriately named Boones Ferry.

The Boone family insisted the ferry run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — in a time with no electricity, no engines, and no guarantee of traffic. This meant manual labor using oars.

But a ferry alone wasn’t enough. To make the crossing useful, you also needed a road to get to it.

So as the ferry moved people across the river, Daniel Boone’s great grandson Jesse began clearing the path to make a road connecting Portland to Salem.

Driving Boones Ferry Road today, no one pictures the challenge of what building a road then and there meant, without today’s machinery. Plus when rains hit, ground turned to mud. The need was real.

So logs were split in half lengthwise, then laid flat-side up across the road surface — creating a continuous wooden mat over soft ground.

As a result, the labor intensive, corduroy constructed log road ran north toward Portland and south toward Salem, passing through Marion, Washington, Clackamas and Multnomah Counties. That road became Boones Ferry Road.

So why does all this matter today?

Because Boones Ferry and the road leading to it were the commercial and cultural spine of Oregon. Boones Ferry Landing and the road connecting to it became the first viable land link between Oregon’s key cities, including Salem, our state capital and the booming Portland/Vancouver region.

Farmers, merchants, government officials — everyone moving goods and transacting business passing through here used Boones Ferry Road. So the road you’re driving right now, was once the busiest corridor in the territory, literally bringing the state together.

So what does that mean to you and me?

Fast forward to now, nearly two centuries later and Boones Ferry Road is still doing what it was built to do: Move people. Interstate 5 runs right alongside it, almost exactly where the Boone family cleared the trail now known as Boones Ferry Road.

First came Boones Ferry Road and then the I-5 highway. Boones Landing is where it all started. The community that grew up around it was named Wilsonville in 1880, after the town’s first postmaster.

But if you think that’s surprising, consider this:

The ferry itself operated for an extraordinary 107 years and shut down in 1954 with the completion of Interstate 5 and Boone Bridge, a literal stone’s throw from the original ferry landing.

The Oregon Trail spirit — move west, build and connect people — runs directly beneath your tires every time you take Boones Ferry Road…and Aurora is at the heart of it.

So the next time you’re on Boones Ferry Road, you’re basically driving the same path a family began in the Aurora, Oregon wilderness in 1846. If you want to learn about another side of Boones Ferry Road few know about, check out that interesting feature article here or its companion YouTube video below…about ‘Booze Ferry.’