The Story of the Columbia River
The Columbia River Highway

Prepared by the editorial staff of the Mentor Association in 1918
Material submitted by Jeffery A. Fox - 2022

From Astoria to The Dalles there runs on the Oregon side of the Columbia a road which has no equal in America. Every element of scenic grandeur contributes to beautify it, and ingenious engineers have shown what man can do to supplement the Creator's handiwork and overcome obstacles seemingly insurmountable. The godfather of good roads in Oregon, Samuel Hill, had for, several years made the technique of highway construction his hobby. He toured Europe to investigate methods found most advantageous there, and on his estate he laid out sample stretches of roadway to demonstrate different kinds of bedding and enduring surface.

Besides, he turned lecturer—though his business was telephone ownership, not road-making—and up and down the Northwest of America his voice was heard urging upon fellow citizens the advantages of well-laid highways. In 1912, the hopes and dreams of a few broad-minded Portland men culminated in a definite resolve to put in practice on the south bank of the Columbia's canyon some of Samuel ideas. Three years later, the Columbia River Highway was a reality.

Barriers had been tunneled, cliffs carved out, bridges swung high, the river shore buttressed, to make the dream come true. Wails of concrete and stone guarded perilous curves. In places the road was laid on a steep fabric of dry masonry, constructed by Italians whose knowledge was a heritage from mountain forefathers. The highway engineer was Samuel Lancaster, who wrote;

"A careful study of the great gorge of the Columbia revealed its wonderful beauty, and the great possibilities for a Scenic and commercial highway. It was decided that the best modern practice should be followed in building a road suited to the times, the traffic, and the place. Such a road to have a minimum width of twenty-four feet, with extra width on all curves, and no radius less than one hundred feet. The maximum grade to be five-per cent."

The first construction camp was set up at the base of Multnomah Falls in 1913. Citizens of Portland contributed woodland acres, and the Government dedicated to the people's use a wide expanse of mountainside and forest. The roadrnaster was John B. Yeon, a man of large means, who gave his services for two years without pay. The financial backers of the enterprise were the Oregon counties which border the river for the last 200 miles of its course.

In July 1915, the road was thrown open to traffic between Portland and Hood River, and the following month construction was completed as far as Astoria and the Pacific beaches. Says Mr. Lancaster; "Shell Rock Mountain, around whose base a road now runs on a blasted ledge, had always been regarded as an impassable barrier. No wagons were able to get by this mountain in Pioneer clays; the hardy homeseekers used to stop just east of this point to cut down trees and make their rafts of logs, on which they floated down the river to the Cascades."

"The tunnel (400 feet long) in the face of the cliff at Mitchell Point, with the concrete viaduct approaches, may well be considered among the most wonderful pieces of highway construction in the civilized world. It is fully equal to the famous Axenstrasse of Switzerland, and one of the great features of the Highway. . . . For the first time in history it is possible to drive a wagon from the wheat fields of Eastern Oregon through the Cascade Mountains to the sea."

"An automobile can cover the entire distance in one short day's travel, and no man can estimate the value of this great Highway to all the people of the Pacific Coast."

The cost of building and paving the road approximated two million dollars. Numerous aesthetic bridges increase the effectiveness of river view, waterfall and ravine. In fashioning the road no beautiful thing was marred or destroyed, large sums being at times employed to spare a graceful landmark, or heighten its natural charms.