The only substantial alteration along the highway is the modest development of state-owned parks and Forest Service recreation sites that have existed almost since the road’s opening. They are a testament to the highway’s long-lasting recreation popularity. This work included establishing parking areas and roadside pullouts for visitors. Today, any alterations or additions to these roadside improvements must comply with the CRGNSA Management Plan (1992) and meet SHPO approval. The Management Plan requires that no project on or adjacent to the CRH have an “Adverse Effect,” as defined in 36 CFR 800, on the highway.
In 1987, the Oregon lawmakers approved Senate Bill 766, which defined those portions of the original Columbia River Highway constructed in Multnomah, Hood River, and Wasco counties from 1913 to 1922 as the “Historic Columbia River Highway.” On 21 July 1993, the Oregon Transportation Commission renamed the entire route as “Historic Columbia River Highway No. 100.” Senate Bill 766 declared it public policy that Oregon preserve and restore the “continuity and historic integrity” of the CRH for “public use and enjoyment.” It also provided for a citizen/agency committee to advise the ODOT director and the Oregon Transportation Commission on the highway’s restoration and preservation. Since then, ODOT began in earnest to restore the road’s driveable sections and reclaim abandoned sections for conversion into a trail for non-motorized use.
In the mid-1990s, ODOT completed its repurchase of sections of the highway held in private hands or by local governments. All portions of the CRH are in public ownership. Some resources in this nomination and outside of the current right-of-way boundaries (30-feet either side of centerline) are held by OPRD or the USDA Forest Service—Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (CRGNSA).
The 1983 National Register (NR) nomination for the CRH Historic District defined a linear resource that was 60-feet wide (30-feet either side of the roadway’s centerline) and equal to its original right-of-way. The district was wider at several locations to incorporate slopes, other geological or highway-related engineering features, and the public recreation areas intertwined with the route’s history. The district also traversed cities and communities on the streets where the CRH passed. There, the district was confined to the curb line or edge of pavement. The NHL nomination relies on the same general boundary definitions.
The NR nomination described the resource as consisting of a discontinuous 55 miles of the original 73.8-mile route (see Figures #2, #3 & #4). This was broken down into a western segment of 21.6 miles, running from Troutdale to the Dodson interchange, and an eastern segment of 14.6 miles, running from Mosier to The Dalles. Of the original 37.6-mile middle section, only 19.3 miles were extant. Large portions of the CRH in that section were lost to construction of a water-level route in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1960s that became Interstate 84.
What existed there in 1983 was either abandoned or functioned as frontage roads, county roads, or city streets. The NR nomination included all extant portions of the highway from Troutdale to The Dalles regardless of whether the roadbed was in public or private ownership, or whether it was abandoned or in use.
In addition to the CRH’s listing in the National Register in 1983, Vista House (HMP 23.9) was listed in 1974 and the “Multnomah Falls Lodge and Footpath” (HMP 32.1) were listed in 1981.
The Columbia River Highway (CRH) National Historic Landmark District is located in the state of Oregon, along the south side of the Columbia River between the cities of Troutdale (14.2 miles east of Portland) and The Dalles (88 miles east of Portland).
The CRH was the first modern highway constructed in the Pacific Northwest and the first scenic highway constructed in the United States. The road became a trunk route from Portland’s large commercial center to eastern Oregon and points beyond. The highway’s alignment remains true to the plan that Samuel C. Lancaster and others envisioned for its original configuration. The road is the pinnacle of early-20th-century rural highway design created to take visitors to the Columbia River Gorge’s most breathtaking and beautiful natural wonders and scenic vistas. The CRH was constructed between 1913 and 1922.
Much of the CRH possesses an extraordinary integrity to the period of construction. All of the western 24.3 miles, from Troutdale to Warrendale, is on its original alignment except at Oneonta Gorge Creek, where in 1948 it was slightly realigned to bypass Oneonta Tunnel and crosses Oneonta Creek on a 1948 reinforced-concrete girder span, and west of Dodson, where it is briefly lost in a freeway interchange. All of the engineering features associated with this portion of the highway, including the original Oneonta Gorge Creek Bridge, the Oneonta Tunnel, and Interstate 84’s Toothrock Tunnel, are intact.
All portions of the CRH included in the NHL historic district are in public ownership.
The Historic American Engineering Record completed three projects that in whole or in part looked at the CRH. These include the “Columbia River Highway Project, 1981,” the “Oregon Historic Bridges Recording Project, 1990,” and the “Historic Columbia River Highway Recording Project, 1994, 1995.”
When the road was constructed, much of the Gorge had recently been logged of all large trees for timber and small, riparian zone trees for steamboat fuel. Dense ground cover and fast-growing trees soon took over the landscape. But originally, minimal vegetation framed the beautiful vistas seen from the highway. In more recent years, particularly in the waterfall section, trees and ground cover had grown so thick in places that the views were completely obscured.
The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (CRGNSA) Management Plan has vegetation management along the CRH as an objective in its “Scenic Resources Enhancement Strategies.” ODOT and other agencies developed a “Corridor Visual Inventory” in 1990 that addresses vegetation removal and management strategies for the CRH (Historic Columbia River Highway), Interstate 84, and Washington State Route 14 (following the Columbia’s north shore), to recapture the majestic views possible from these highways when they were constructed. Some of the vistas, obscured for decades, have been reclaimed along the highway.