Automobiles & the Good Roads Movement

"The League of American Wheelmen, organized by a new and exciting breed of Americans -- men who rode bicycles for recreation -- took root in 1880. It was these bicycle riders, not automobile owners, who set the stage for the good roads movement in this country. In the late 1880s, the league began publishing a monthly magazine, Good Roads, which kept its members appraised of progress in the movement as well as encouraging scientific research on road construction."

"In the cities, streets were reasonably well paved with bricks or cobblestones, but outside the urban areas, most of the nation's roads were poor at best. The solution came on two wheels; the 'grass roots' Good Roads movement had begun with bicyclists, but now many new motorists were joining the wheelmen and lobbying vociferously for the improvement of the highways."

"...there was in the Pacific Northwest an entrepreneurial railroad magnet with a strong civic conscience and a great enthusiasm for the Good Roads movement. Samuel Hill was the chairman of the Washington Highway Advisory Board, president of the Washington Good Roads Association, and president of the American Roadbuilders Association. Sam Hill had a dream: a highway that would follow the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean at Astoria all the way to Hood River."

"In 1908, Sam Hill escorted engineers Samuel C. Lancaster, R. H. Thompson, and Maj. H. B. Bowlby to the First International Road Congress in Paris. After touring Europe and becoming inspired by the ancient terraced vineyards and stone masonry walls built by Charlemagne along the Rhine, the men returned -- to begin drumming up support for a highway along the Columbia."

Cheri Dohnal, Columbia River Gorge: Natural Treasure on the Old Oregon Trail

As automobiles began to appear in communities along the Gorge, a whole host of new problems surfaced. Most roads were, at the time, merely paths created by wagons. Downtown streets were generally the only roads receiving regular maintenance and most of those weren't even graveled. At first the gas-powered vehicles were used only for short distances and on special occasions. It wasn't long before more were bumping their way over the wagon paths and their owners wanted to be able to drive greater distances from their own communities. They were ready to explore in the comfort of an automobile.

A vehicle could be brought by barge to any community that had a dock, but once it arrived where could it be driven? Neither the improved Barlow Road nor the more recent wagon road over the Cascades couold be used for automobile travel. Something had to be done about roads on the Oregon side of the river. Great minds were already quietly working on the problem. And the solution would have an enormous effect on the entire Gorge far into the future. But not yet.

...on June 20, 1905, the first motor vehicle to cross the United States made its way over Santiam Pass to the Willamette Valley. Piloted by owner Dwight B. Huss, the Olds waited its turn at the toll gate while the gatekeeper tried to figure out what kind of toll he should charge for the noisy contraption belching smoke and snorting at him. Because the strange machine had scared horses and cows off the road and into the brush nearby, the gatekeeper determined it a "roadhog" and charged a toll of 3₵ -- the rate for a pig.

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