Hill strove to get the WA gov't to build a road on the Columbia's north bank to aid commerce between Gorge, Maryhill, and inland farmers. Initially, with WA Governor Hay's support, Hill convinced Klickitat County to house convicts in a walled tent camp east of Lyle in order to use their inexpensive labor to build the roadway over this difficult cliff-pinched impasse. The progressive use of convict labor garnered national attention and praise. Construction began with leveling the surface and building masonry retaining walls on this one-mile stretch ... until Gov. Hay inexplicably about-faced and pulled the plug on the convict-use idea. Regular wage workers were deemed too expensive to hire for this far-from-anywhere road, so the infant north-bank road was abandoned.
Hill fumed, to say the least. Gov. Hay had personally promised to back his project! Infuriated, Hill successfully schemed to unseat Gov. Hay in the 1912 election.