The beautiful McKenzie River is the stuff of legends. This 90 mile long tributary of the mighty Willamette has generated many a tall fishing yarn, as well as spawning the development of the world famous McKenzie River Drift Boat. A favorite fly fishing spot of Presidents Hoover and Eisenhower, the McKenzie River Area is a recreational paradise dotted with charming small towns and unique shops.

For 8000 years prior to exploration by Europeans, this gorgeous area was home to the Kalapuya and Molalla peoples, who spent their summers in the high Cascades and their winters in the Willamette Valley. In fact, much of the river was largely unknown to western explorers until October 1853, when a group of Oregon Trail settlers became lost trying to cross the Cascades into the Willamette Valley via the Elliot Cutoff. Not long afterward they discovered the river named for an early fur trader, Donald McKenzie.