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BLM and BPR: An Important Partnership 

Compiled from Interviews, Winter 2008 

This office first started doing BLM maintenance and construction in the early 1950’s, 

and the work continued through the 1960’s, and 1970’s. 

“When I went to work in 1954, they were just really gearing up (for the BLM 

program,” Vern Ford recalled. “They were hiring people like mad.” Although he did 

some surveys on BLM roads, he was not involved in their construction. “There was a 

real distinction between forest highways and the BLM program,” he observed. “The type 

of specifications....were just completely different. There was a whole different ways of 

building roads on that side.” 

Jim Hall made a similar observation when he arrived in Vancouver as Division 

Engineer in 1978. The design program that was in place, he said, was “not outstanding, 

but adequate. It was good for building BLM roads...” BLM, he said, “didn’t need a 

sophisticated design; they needed good quality construction, and we had that.” 

There were projects of all sizes, but Ray Westby described the Smith River 

project that he worked on in 1955 as “probably the biggest development that Direct 

Federal had while I was here.” He said the “camp was built special for BLM; that was 

their money we were spending.” 

Willis Grafe worked the Smith River and other BLM projects in the early 1950’s. 

“We were building BLM roads...out west of Eugene,” he said, “Steamboat (on the North 

Umpqua) was one, and...Twin Sisters Road, which connected the Siuslaw...over the top 

of the mountain.” He added that “the job I had at Twin Sisters—the first job they let—it 

was over $1 million dollars. The project was 22 miles, all timber country.” 

He explained that “the 

BLM lands were all in sections 

that they called Oregon 

California Railroad revested 

lands. The railroad went broke, 

so all of the alternate sections 

that were granted to them 

reverted back and became BLM.” 

Fred Rogers spent a 

good portion of his early career 

working on the BLM side of the 

office. When he came out of 

survey in the early 1960’s, he 

started working western Oregon 

BLM jobs under Dave Judkins. 

“Occasionally we got over to the

east...like along the Deschutes, 

(but) there were very few over 

there.” He did designs for work 

In 1965 “Building A” occupied an area that is has since become 

parking lot and stretched out into what is now I-5 right-of-way. 

The building housed the BLM maintenance shops and 

construction operations. WFLHD Archives. 
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out of Salem District (which included the Tillamook Office), Eugene District, Roseburg 

District, Coos Bay District, and Medford District. That work “involved meeting with the 

BLM on their desires, design work, plan-in-hands, going out (and) looking at this and 

that.” For several years he did the work as Dave’s assistant, but later took on full 

responsibilities himself.

Fred remembered a couple of notable plan-in-hand reviews. One time he and 

Cliff Christianson went on a 10-mile BLM plan-in-hand. “The BLM fellow, Assistant 

Engineer out of Medford, dropped us off at the top.” He was going to drive around and 

pick them up on the far end. Fred and Chris “came out on the other end, and then we had 

to walk a little bit more on some dirt roads, and finally break out into this town. In the 

meantime, he had come back to pick us up and he missed us. Then he went back, and 

forgot about us.” The two found a country store, and “bought a beer, because it was hot. 

The proprietor kicked us off. He said, ‘You don’t drink a beer in my place,’ but he sold it 

to us, of course.” 

They finished their beers in the middle of the street, then “we thought, ‘what are 

we going to do?’ We started hiking up the road – it was about ten miles to the next 

town.” About 9:30 at night, the BLM engineer came by in his pick-up and found them. 

He took them back and dropped them off at their hotel in Medford where they walked in 

on a fancy dress ball that was underway. They crossed the lobby in the dusty clothes 

they’d worn out hiking around the country. Fred said, “there’s ladies in long dresses and 

guys in their tuxes, and we walked in, and our pants were torn from going through the 

‘jungle,’ so to speak.” 

Another time, Fred recalled that he, John Burton, and Dave Judkins went to 

another BLM plan-in-hand at Galice Creek. The road follows Galice Creek and the 

Rogue River and goes over the Klamath Mountains to Gold Beach. “There was a lot of 

work to be done....(but) there was a great division within the BLM on the philosophy of 

where (the road) should go. We were kind of caught in between.” 

They met the local BLM people from Medford at the Galice Creek store, and a 

fellow named Brad Krueger was there from the Portland BLM office. “I brought the 

plans down,” and laid them open on a picnic table beside the store. Then, Fred said, “I 

smelled smoke. I looked to my left and the corner of the plans was on fire. Brad Krueger 

said ‘this is what I think of your plans.’ He actually wasn’t talking to us as much as to 

the Medford BLM people.” 
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When they broke up into groups to do the plan-in-hand, Fred went out with Brad 

Krueger and one of the guys from Medford, and said, “they wouldn’t speak to each other! 

So that was a fun time!” It turned out that Brad got his way, as Fred noted that particular 

line wasn’t built for geological reasons. He recalled that Frank Rogers was later 

involved in the construction of the alignment that was finally selected. 

Prior to moving to the Portland BLM office, Brad Krueger had been Assistant 

District Engineer in the Eugene District, and Fred noted he and Brad followed each other 

throughout their careers. He remembered being sent out with Brad one wintry day. “You 

couldn’t see anything because of the snow, and we were looking for materials 

sources...but, the powers that be insisted” that the trip be made. 

The District Engineer drove them up the road until he couldn’t drive any further, 

then dropped them off and went around to meet them on the other end. “So, we started 

walking – we did our look-see – eventually the snow was six feet deep....We ended up 

going about 17 miles. It was the only time I’d worn snow shoes – the old type,” he said. 

“The BLM fellow had skis. 

“The steepest the road went up was about a 10-11 percent grade.” They met up 

with the District Engineer about two miles from the far end. “He said I was going too 

slow, because they had skis and I had snow shoes. So I had to take off the snow shoes 

and stand behind Brad ...on the skis,” and that was how they continued on out. 

When they got to the car, “the District Engineer says, ‘I’m low on gas....’ so he 

coasted down all the grades.” They came out somewhere south of Cottage Grove, just off 

the highway, where there was a country store and a couple of houses. “He ran out of gas 

just as we got there, and we had to push his rig” up to the pumps. “Then he had to go up 

and wake somebody up.” 

Fred said he reported to work the next day, but he found out later that Brad was 

off for three days, because he’d strained his legs walking out with Fred behind him on the 

skis.

Willis Grafe said of the BLM partnership, “I always had an easy time with...the 

BLM, as you look back on it. They were paying for that with timber revenue, so it didn’t 

come out of appropriated funds.” The BLM work lasted for many years. “I had 15 jobs, 

something like that. That was the real blossoming of the BLM work that came in. 

“For years we did a lot of BLM work,” he said with a knowing grin, “before they 

stopped everyone from cutting trees, and the owls put them out of business.” 

After spending several years in BLM design, Fred Rogers moved on to the Forest 

Highways program and later spent an extensive period in technology transfer. If you 

have comments or stories to share about the BLM work done by WFLHD or other stories 

to share, please email me at marili.reilly@fhwa.dot.gov. 

-- Marili Green Reilly