by Nancy Olson, co-author, Cedar Mill History, originally published in the June 2005 issue

Saltzman Road is a main north-south artery of the Cedar Mill area. It was named for Peter Saltzmann who established a homestead near the crest of Skyline Ridge in 1893. By 1896, the road extended down the east side of the mountain to the river as well. The steep stretch between Saltzmann’s place and Laidlaw Road, though still traceable, fell into disuse quite early. The steep part of the eastern branch acted as a fire road in Forest Park. The southern end of Saltzman, joining Cornell near Leedy Grange and Bales Thriftway, had several right angle jogs to avoid cutting through old farms and has thus escaped the tendency to designate north-south roads by numbers. This author lived on Saltzman Road in the 1960’s and remembers the right-angle jogs that caused many accidents before they were smoothed out for the Bauer Woods development.

The road has had a long history serving the comings and goings of the community. [Like many roads in the county, it may have started as a Native American trail.] Parts of the road had been carved out of the wilderness prior to Peter Saltzmann’s homestead trail. In 1853 James Flippin claimed 320 acres on upper Saltzman near Burton Road and John B. Hall settled a Donation Land Claim nearby as did the Nickum family. The area was described in John Nickum’s will as “wild land covered with brush and timber, except for about 8 or 10 acres that has recently been slashed and no part thereof is in cultivation except a small patch of garden. There is a small house and barn on the premises.”

In the 1880’s the Hamel family purchased 149 acres just off Laidlaw Road, first living in a log house and later building a large family farm house. In 1903 they expanded their property by purchasing part of the old Nickum Donation Land Claim. The Henry Bauer family purchased acreage in 1929 which they farmed, and which was developed in 1982 and is now a housing development called Bauer Woods. In 1940 Joe and Bertha Peterkort purchased 131 acres bordering Saltzman Road and harvested wheat and hay in the area until the close of World War II.

Earlier travel along the road posed challenges. Mail was difficult to deliver so a community drop-off box was established. In 1915, Edna Graves Berger aided in distributing mail from the box located on Saltzman Road near Burton Road. On her way home from school she picked up mail and delivered to the Wismers on Burton Road, then walked up Saltzman to the Owens’ house, the several Hamel homes, the Thompsons and Findleys, before arriving at her home on upper Saltzman and Laidlaw roads.

Today’s Saltzman Road contains bits and pieces of the past and still serves an ever-growing population. Peter Saltzmann would shake his head in wonder at the traffic along the road that bears his name (and what happened to that second “n”?)

[An updated version of this article was published in 2013, with more recent information about development and plans.]