Page Index

• US 97: Washington

• US 97: Oregon to Shaniko Junction

• US 97: The Dalles-California Highway

• US 97: California

Wikipedia: U.S. Route 97

U.S. Route 97 (US 97) is a major north–south route of the United States Numbered Highway System in the Pacific Northwest region. It runs for approximately 670 miles (1,078 km) through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, primarily serving interior areas on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. The highway terminates to the south at a junction with Interstate 5 (I-5) in Weed, California, and to the north at the Canadian border near Osoyoos, British Columbia, where it becomes British Columbia Highway 97. Major cities on the US 97 corridor include Klamath Falls, Bend, and Redmond in Oregon; and Yakima, Ellensburg, and Wenatchee in Washington. A portion of the highway in California and Oregon is part of the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway.

History

US 97 was established as part of the initial United States Numbered Highway System, adopted by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) on November 11, 1926. It ran north from US 99 near Ashland, Oregon, to the Canadian border near Oroville, Washington, generally following the California-Banff Bee-Line (an early auto trail) through Oregon. The highway also used existing state roads that were designated in the 1910s by the Oregon and Washington governments, which had been partially paved. US 97 was extended south from Klamath Falls to Weed in 1935. During World War II, US 97 formed the eastern boundary of a restricted military zone for Washington and Oregon created in March 1942 ahead of the mass internment of Japanese Americans.

The state of Washington built several bridges on the Columbia River in the 1960s to replace existing ferry crossings, including two on US 97. The Sam Hill Memorial Bridge opened in 1962 to connect Biggs Junction, Oregon, with Maryhill, Washington, and operated as a toll bridge until 1975. The Beebe Bridge opened near Chelan in 1963, replacing a one-lane bridge, and was incorporated into US 97 with a realignment on the east side of the river that was approved in 1988. The relocation also resulted in the creation of US 97 Alternate on the old route to the west of the Columbia River between Wenatchee and Chelan. The highway was also relocated in some areas to accommodate the construction of dams on the Columbia River, including the Rocky Reach Dam near Wenatchee.

Several sections of the highway were also replaced with expressways or other limited-access roads bypassing city centers beginning in the 1950s. US 97 was relocated onto the Klamath Falls bypass when it opened in November 1959; the section cost $1.8 million to construct. US 97 was relocated onto an arterial street east of Bend in 1962, bypassing a congested section through downtown. The Okanogan and Omak sections were bypassed to the east by a new highway that opened in 1964. US 97 was relocated onto I-82 between Union Gap and Ellensburg when the freeway opened in 1971, bypassing downtown Yakima and the Yakima Canyon Highway (which became State Route 821).

A new route for US 97 through Bend, named the Bend Parkway, was proposed in the 1980s and opened in September 2001, relocating 7.2 miles (11.6 km) of the highway onto an elevated expressway through the city that cost $113 million to construct.[32][33] A full freeway or bypass of Bend was also considered, but they were rejected due to funding and space constraints.[34] A bypass in Redmond was opened in April 2008 at a cost of $90 million, moving US 97 onto a limited-access road around the east side of downtown Redmond.[35][36] Plans for other bypasses in La Pine and Madras, as well as four-laning the entire highway in Oregon, have been proposed but not funded by the state government.[15][37] In 2013, the cost of upgrading all of US 97 to a four-lane highway with limited access was estimated to be $10 billion.[38]

Proposed Alaska expansion

An extension of US 97 to the state of Alaska was proposed in the 1950s and 1960s to promote the corridor as a continuous international highway. The Alaska International Rail and Highway Commission lobbied for the designation of US 97 from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Mexico City in the late 1950s; they were followed by a 1960s proposal from the Okanogan Cariboo Trail Association for a longer corridor to complement the Pan-American Highway. Their proposal would also have US 97 continue west to terminate in Nome, Alaska.

The AASHO formally approved the Alaska extension of US 97 in December 1964, subject to the renumbering of highways in the Yukon Territory and British Columbia to match the "97" designation. The proposed extension would have followed Alaska Route 2 from the Yukon border to Fairbanks, terminating at a junction with Alaska Route 3. British Columbia had already renumbered its section to Highway 97, but the Yukon Territory declined a request from the Alaska Department of Highways to renumber Yukon Highway 1.

Links

CLICK HERE to continue exploring the highways