HCRH State Trail

Building the State Trail

These pages will focus on general trail construction topics.

For location specific topics, please visit that location's page.

Page Index

Robert W. Hadlow, Columbia River Highway Historic District, National Historic Landmark Nomination

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.

Hadlow, Landmark Nomination, 5

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).

Hadlow, Landmark Nomination, 11