Wyeth Fragments
Route 2
Built: 1915
"1914 - Built - Grading of three segments in Hood River County totaling 5.3 miles. (Multnomah / Hood River County line to 1/2 mile west of Cascade Locks - 1.5 miles; east of Wyeth to Shellrock Mountain - 1.7 miles; and Shellrock Mountain to Viento - 2.1 miles.)
"1914-1915 - Built - 22 miles were graded from 2 1/2 miles west of Cascade Locks to the city of Hood River."
Somewhere in the vicinity of the photos above, both the early and later routes of the CRH converged. I've heard that the old road followed the utility poles on the south side of the field seen above, but I am not sure... That is not the impression given by the 1931 map below, but perhaps that was an even earlier alignment of the road, back in the wagon road days.
October 12, 2013
We know the old bridge over Gorton Creek is still there, and we know about the "lost" north loop right before Shellrock. Connecting these two points, though, is difficult and the map is not detailed enough to clarify the situation much.
There are a lot of old road beds in this section. Yesterday, we thought we found an old switchback on the hill above the west end of the "lost" loop, with pavement, but it does not appear that the Highway even went that far up the hill. Perhaps this was an old paved parking lot for someplace up on the hill. More research is needed to figure this out.
ODOT places the original route as approximately following the route of the Wyeth Road until its end. However, re-grading and re-alignments of this road necessitated by the construction of I-84 make it hard to tell for sure, since the HCRH obviously did not swerve and dip for an underpass crossing of a freeway that had yet to be built.
Complicating this, there is a patch of what is apparently old HCRH pavement in Wyeth State Recreation Area (incorrectly identified as Lang State Park in the 2009 trail plan), near some old foundations that may have once belonged to an old rock shop, but this brief remnant does not appear to align with the Wyeth Road. Instead, this pavement seems to lead towards an old road grade that runs above the access road.
Finally, there is a track following a power line even further south that, from the modern aerials, sure looks like an old highway loop. Again, the question is raised about the relevancy of the path of these power lines... Did they stay behind when the highway shifted?
There are many problems, though, with all three possibilities, problems that would seem to disqualify all three of these routes. It makes me wish for a fourth choice, but that is unlikely.
The old road grade passing through this area seems to run, off and on, from here to Lindsey Creek, at least. It is about the same width wherever it appears, and it usually runs at about the same elevation above the river. I strongly suspect that it may not be the original CRH, but that it may be the Wagon Road. All of these segments were apparently abandoned at about the same time, considering the consistent size of the trees growing on them (trees too large to have grown since the highway was abandoned?), and the known roads that they bear the most similarity to is the positively identified segment of the Wagon Road near Mitchell Point.
Through many parts of this segment, though, the road grade is larger and less overgrown than the ones found further east. In fact, the vegetation matches fairly closely to what is found on the abandoned CRH loops, especially where the pavement was removed.
Approaching Shellrock, only the lack of pavement makes me doubt whether or not it is the CRH, though the pavement may have been removed at the time of the construction of I-84 when the grade was apparently re-purposed as a slide / rockfall prevention measure. Then again, maybe this is all it ever was, and was constructed at that time. (UPDATE: Probably thinking this is another Detour Grade - 5/13/2020)
In the end, we know the Gorton Creek Bridge is CRH, and we know the abandoned loop north of I-84 just before Shellrock is CRH, but it looks like even ODOT is pretty uncertain as to the route between these two points.
The clear green "loop" south of Wyeth Road is the path of the power lines through the area, and is a long shot as the possible alignment of the original CRH.
Just south of the existing Wyeth Road, vaguely visible in this image, is another old grade. It is now used, in places, by the new State Trail. I while still uncertain, some fairly recent information now makes me think this grade is the old Wagon Road.
Finally, north of the Wyeth Road, between it and the freeway, is an embankment fill that is almost certainly the original rail grade through the area.
Below, in 2009 ODOT marked the Wyeth/Herman Creek road as the existing CRH all the way to the State Park.
Abandoned Road Grade to State Recreation Area
There were a lot of deer remains along the State Trail Route in the Spring of 2013.
At first, we thought the old Harphan Creek culvert under the road grade may have been a CRH construction, but, apparently, it goes all the way under I-84.
This is probably the continuation of the route over the fill embankment further east. It could be the old wagon road, or the HCRH, or an old logging road, or... Who knows? There are many old road grades between here and Cascade Locks that make identifying surviving chunks of the CRH very difficult.
End of Wyeth Road
December 13, 2014
On the west end of this parking area, there is some pavement that seems to lead off south of the current road.
The more I look, the less sure I am that this is actually old highway pavement... An old driveway?
December 13, 2014
There is an interesting looking loop just east from Wyeth, below, that is completely overgrown these days. Further east, the old road grade above the freeway is visible through the trees.
It seems as if there are increasingly smaller loops becoming nothing more than wide spots in the freeway grade until the wide northern loop before Shellrock, but it is hard to tell and the vegetation is much thicker now than when this was taken.
US 30
Water Level Alignment
