The highway's beginning - or at least the idea for it - came in the 1890s, an era of economic troubles and difficult times across the nation. From 1893 to 1896, for instance, the United States suffered a financial panic that caused almost five hundred banks to fail. The spirit of hope and expectation changed to panic and fear following factory closures, violent strikes, civil disorder, and falling prices for farm produce. Barter replaced money in many cases because money was unavailable. In towns on the Lower Columbia River -- in Clatsop, Columbia, and Multnomah counties -- spuds and shingles were legal tender, and many folks buried their money when they had any to bury.
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The first two decades of the twentieth century... This was a time when all basic city utilities were being created in The Dalles. Similar advances were being made in other towns directly adjacent to the Gorge, and would follow soon in most of the outlying areas. Telegraph poles and lines had been erected in earlier decades, running parallel to the river. Railroads followed the same general route on both the Washington and Oregon sides of the waterway. Electrical lines and poles were being added at the edge of town and sewer lines were constructed on a piece-meal basis as residents requested them and funding became available.
Community members tidied up and performed maintenance on a volunteer basis, but was it free labor with reimbursement for actual costs? At the city council meeting reported in the January 2 article [year?] of the Chronicle, the following bills were approved for payment:
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It appears repairs, updating, and progress made toward establishing sewer systems in that time frame were not yet being handled by city or county crews, although a local fire department had been officially established. The municipality certainly couldn't contract the jobs with crews from the growing metropolis of Portland, because there wasn't yet a cost-effective way to bring crews and transportation and distance were obstacles, but the pioneer spirit prevailed. If a skill set was missing in the community, somebody always manages to learn it when the time was right.
Residents themselves took on each task as time permitted them to do so, literally building communities of the Gorge brick by brick and board by board. In this way, the residents' tax dollars were returned individually in the success of their communities on a personal, as well as financial, level.
Rather than asses a tax on local residents, the custom of the day was to request "subscriptions" from local families and groups to support a capital project.