Adolph Aschoff

Adolph Aschoff (1849 – 1930) was a homesteader in the U.S. state of Oregon in the late 19th century. He established the community of Marmot, Oregon in the western foothills of Mount Hood in the late 1800s. Most of the buildings burned down in 1931.

Early Life/Immigration

Adolph Aschoff was born in the city of Celle, Hanover in Germany on May 21 1849. Adolf was born into a family of high rank (he was thought to have been a baron.) As a young boy Adolph was educated in the arts and in the sciences. At age nine, his talents led him to play in a piano recital in front of three-thousand people from Hanover royalty; including the King and his family. At seventeen he when he was the leader of an athletic club, he had an altercation with two Prussian officers who had been harassing local women and Adolph was forced to flee. He was branded as a political agitator and at one point had to “hide out in a lake with only my nose sticking out for a day and a half.” He arrived in New York through Ellis Island in 1860 where he carved wood for a living for seven years before moving to Kansas where he became a cowboy.

Kansas

Adolph was known as a storyteller. One of his stories came from the time when he was a cowboy in Kansas. A group of men had been bragging and complaining about the sudden changes in Oregon’s weather. Adolph suddenly stood up and said,

The weather here is not that bad. Let me tell you about Kansas. One day I was out in my buckboard (wagon) and it began to rain. The rain came down so hard and so fast that the water came over my shoe tops in the bottom of the buckboard. Then a cold wind began to blow. My hands got so cold I had to sit on the reins and let the horse find his way home. When the horse stopped alongside the house I started to get out of the buckboard but found that the water had turned to ice in the bottom of the buckboard. I yelled for my wife to bring an axe and she had an awful time chopping my feet loose and helping me crawl into the house with that ice around my feet.

Oregon

Adolph met and married Dorotea Gein in Rush County,Kansas before moving to Oregon in 1878, where he settled in Mount Taborand he raised and sold vegetables around town. Two years later, in March of 1880, Adolf and his family went to their final stopping grounds in Marmot. Adolph loaded the family into a wagon in the middle of winter and drove up the mountain. When they hit snow, he installed sleigh runners and kept on going. They purchased 140 acres in the Marmot area. Adolph had fallen in love with the beauty of the mountain and wanted to share it with all by building a resort known as the Aschoff Mountain Home.

The hotel at one point managed over 200 guests in 23 rooms with only his nine children, his wife and himself to do all the work. Adolph ran the post office, just across the road from his home.

In 1906, Adolph became the first forest ranger for the Columbia Forest, running from south of MT Hood and north toward the Canadian Border. He helped to create one of the most pristine wilderness environments left in the Pacific Northwest. He was always trying to get the community involved and took many people up and around through the National Forest. He surveyed the Skyline Trail that now runs from Mount Hood to Mount Jefferson, now part of the Pacific Crest Trail, and helped push the development of Timberline Lodge. (Mountain 23). Through time Adolph’s knowledge about the natural world around him grew, and so did his ranking. In 1906 Adolph became the forest supervisor for the Mount Hood National Forest. He is said to have saved a family of deer from a group of teenage boys visiting for the week, promptly explaining why deer are vital to the ecosystem (Mountain 19).

Later Years

The mountain home served as a hotel until 1918 when Adolph’s wife Dora, died unexpectedly. Adolph became a secluded, quiet man and his hotel reflected him. The buildings deteriorated. Soon after, the new Mount Hood Highway was constructed, diverting traffic away from Marmot. Aschoff had fewer and fewer customers, and closed the hotel in 1922 (Mountain 8).

He traveled frequently to the Forest Service cabin and many other beloved places to him before finally retiring in 1926. In 1930 Adolph, in very bad health, sold the house and moved to the city with his daughter. He sold the house to a personal friend, Percy T. Shelly of Sandy/Marmot area. To him he said: “I cannot tell you how I feel giving up my place. My eleven children grew up here and I have gone through all kinds of hardships, but only my God and I know how I have loved this place.” Adolf died three days later. Over 2,000 people attended his funeral.

On July 4th, 1931 the Mountain Home and all the surrounding buildings burned to the ground; The museum, post office, and store on the south side of the road were spared, though they no longer remain. The Shelly family lost everything but gained most of it back through donations.

In 1987, Clackamas County named a road that Adolph had used as on of his nature trails after him, subsequently calling it "Aschoff Road." The Aschoff Buttes, about five miles east of Marmot, were also named after him.

See also

• Barlow Road – a pioneer road, built in 1845, that passed through Marmot. Final leg of the Oregon Trail. Locally known as the "Devil's Backbone Road" in Aschoff's time, and "Marmot Road" today.

Works Cited/References

• Jonsrud, Phil. 80 Years in the Same Neighborhood. Clackamas: Sandy Historical Society, 2003.
• Jonsrud, Phil. Whistle Punks and Misery Whips. St. Paul, OR: Sandy Historical Society, 1989.
• "Adolph Aschoff Dies." Oregonian [Portland, OR] 17 May 1930: unknown.
• "Historic Building Gone." Oregonian [Portland, OR] 6 July 1931: Unknown.
• Brewster, Ginny. "Adolph Aschoff." Mountain Journal [Villages of Mount Hood, OR] 6Mar. 1972: 8-22.
• White, Bill."Aschoff Forest Service Cabin." Mt. Hood History.1 Apr. 2004. Sandy Historical Society. 18 May 2007 [1].
• White, Bill."Aschoff Mountain Home." Mt. Hood History.1 Apr. 2004. Sandy Historical Society. 18 May 2007 Aschoff Mountain Home.
• White, Bill."Marmot History." Mt. Hood History.1 Apr. 2004. Sandy Historical Society. 18 May 2007.
• Ron Aschoff. Adolph's great grandson. December, 2007