The Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway was an Oregon-based short line railroad that began near Eugene as the Oregon and Southeastern Railroad (O&SE) in 1904. O&SE's line ran along the Row River between the towns of Cottage Grove and Disston. The Oregon, Pacific & Eastern Railway Company incorporated in 1912, purchased the physical assets of the O&SE two years later, and shortened their total trackage to operate from an interchange yard with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Cottage Grove, east to a 528' x 156' turnaround loop at Culp Creek. The last of this track was closed and scrapped in 1994, and ownership of its abandoned right of way property was later reverted to the state of Oregon to become one of the first-ever Government/Private Sector cooperative partnership Rails to Trails programs in the US, forming the Row River National Recreation Trail. A successor corporation now operates a narrow-gauge line at Wildlife Safari. History Industrial origins The O&SE (locally known as the Old, Slow & Easy) was built to serve the gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead mines in the Bohemia mining district of Mid-Coastal Oregon's Willamette River Valley. Sawmills were built along the route as soon as transportation was available for the lumber they would produce, but traffic was seldom sufficient to encourage investment in new equipment. Covered bridges were built at Walden, Currin, and Wildwood to prevent rot after a train fell through the wooden bridge into the inland Row River on 5 June 1909, at Currin. In 1912, J.H. Chambers Lumber Company was a major investor when the line was reorganized as the OP&E. The OP&E built a logging branch from Disston up Layng Creek in 1914, and in 1917, Chambers' Lumber company secured complete control of OP&E. As an economy move, Chambers built a gasoline-powered railbus to replace the daily passenger train. This "Galloping Goose" began operation on 1 April 1917 and remained the only passenger service until replaced by a thrice weekly mixed train under different ownership in March, 1929. Post-WWI, silver screen stardom, and the Great Depression The Anderson-Middleton Lumber Company purchased OP&E from Chambers in 1924, and built a new sawmill (today's Weyerhauser), south of Cottage Grove. The logging branch up Layng Creek was dismantled, and the rail relaid to form a new branch up to Herman Creek. Locomotive #8 and a trainload of logs fell through Walden bridge into Mosby Creek on