CLATSOP COUNTY

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COLUMBIA COUNTY

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MULTNOMAH COUNTY (LOWER HIGHWAY)

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PORTLAND (LOWER HIGHWAY)

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Michael C. Taylor, Road of Difficulties: Building the Lower Columbia River Highway

The Lower Columbia River Highway was a dream that became reality after years of planning, blasting, building, political scheming, recall elections, and the combined hard work of numerous engineers and laborers. A fraternal twin to the Historic Columbia River Highway that stretches from Troutdale to The Dalles, the lower road represents half of the first major paved highway completed in the United States. Today, however, few remember that fact. Contemporary tourist guides and literature do little to help. While the eastern half of the highway in the scenic Columbia River Gorge became the darling of preservationists, historians, and hikers, the lower portion of the road is referred to only as Highway 30, when it is mentioned at all.

The surveying, grading, and building of the highway soon began, its design and construction following the most advanced engineering standards. Through the route, with few exceptions, locating engineers would hold fast to a design protocol developed by Samuel C. Lancaster, predicated on his many years of practical experience. It included no grade greater than five percent, and no curve with less than a two hundred-foot turning radius. (This presented enormous challenges at Clatsop Crest, necessitating the construction of the Bugby Loops approach to the south.)

Surveyors and engineers also followed Lancaster's lead in aesthetic matters, balancing practicality and the desire for accessibility with a respect for natural beauty. And while the lower half of the road cannot compete with the myriad of waterfalls and river views in the upper half, every effort was made to incorporate significant natural features.

When work began in 1913, mileposts were plotted along the entire length of the highway. Historic Mile Post 0.0 was set at the intersection of SW Washington Street and SW Broadway in downtown Portland. From there, two separate sets of markers were established: one heading east toward Hood River and The Dalles (today's Historic Columbia River Highway) and the other heading west to Astoria (the Lower Columbia River Highway).

In spite of Henry Lee Bowlby's belief about the proper location of a road, the years have been unkind to the Lower Columbia River Highway. It has been altered, diverted, and obliterated to the point that today's intrepid travelers must search to find what's left of it. But the same way that the mileposts established along the length of the Columbia River Highway -- beginning with 00.0 in downtown Portland and stretching both east (today's Historic Columbia River Highway) and west (the Lower Columbia River Highway) -- kept early auto travelers informed of their location, modern drivers can use similar mileage figures to steer them along the historic highway.

If enough time, money, and manpower could be marshaled to achieve... [the preservation and restoration efforts on the HCRH], then the same can be done at Prescott Point and Little Jack Falls. But this stretch of road has neither a group of champions like the Friends of the Historic Columbia River Highway, nor a political advocate such as Senator Mark Hatfield. When money can be found to do so, Columbia County will probably make good on its promise to turn the Beaver Falls acreage into a county park; indeed, plans are in the works. And even though a recent effort to get historic designation for the reinforced concrete bridges in the Beaver Creek Corridor failed because truck traffic required that the old bridges be reinforced, recent modifications and repairs to the three bridges nearest to Clatskanie are undetectable, and great pains have been taken to replicate their original appearance.

Still, only one state park is located on the lower highway from Portland to Astoria. This is a crying shame. The Lower Columbia River highway is like the prince locked in the tower and forgotten while his twin brother becomes the celebrated king. But because the state still owns the abandoned roadway at Prescott Point-Little Jack Falls, Oregon should seriously consider developing and restoring it for the use of tourists, walkers, and bicyclists.

That's one old phoenix that those who love the old road would pay to see rise from the ashes.

Mark Miller, "One hundred years of highway," Columbia County Spotlight, July 17, 2015

The highway was and is divided broadly into two sections: the Upper Columbia River Highway, linking Portland and The Dalles (and eventually further east), and the Lower Columbia River Highway, from Portland to Astoria (with the original western terminus in Seaside, before the construction of what is today Highway 101). The former opened about one month before the latter, in July 1915.

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In Columbia and Clatsop counties, paving began in 1917, but it was delayed by both heavy rains that year and the United States’ entry into World War I, according to Mershon. It resumed in 1919 and was completed in 1920, providing a paved road from Hood River to the Oregon Coast.

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The railroad preceded the highway by decades. Rail service from Portland to Hunter’s Landing, near Goble, began in 1884, operated by the Northern Pacific Railway. By 1898, railroad tracks extended all the way to Astoria. Between Portland and Astoria, the highway was largely built alongside the railroad, paralleling it for much of its distance — although one of the most notable divergences is between Rainier and Clatskanie, where the county court unsuccessfully sought a route through Mayger.

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