Page Index

• Route 2: Clatsop Crest / Bradley State Scenic Viewpoint

• US 30: Clatsop Crest Cut

• Route 2: Widby (Bugby) Loops

• Route 2: Bugby Mountain Grade Fragments

• Route 2: Wauna Mill Fragment

The highway next powers its way straight up Bugby Mountain to the west, high above the large pulp mill at Wauna. The top of the hill is the high point for the highway on the Lower Columbia is Clatsop Crest – 656 feet high. It is the northern ridge coming off Nicolai Mountain, a basaltic formation undercut by the ice age Missoula floods.

Ewing Galloway, "Oregon's Highway of Unsurpassed Beauty" (1915)

The Columbia, viewed as one from sea to mountains, is like a rugged, broad-topped picturesque old oak, about six hundred miles long, and nearly a thousand miles wide, measured across the spread of its upper branches, the main limbs gnarled and swollen with lakes and lake-like expansions, while innumerable smaller lakes shine like fruit among the smaller branches. - John Muir

Oregon's contribution to the "See America First" campaign this year us a road that, in point of picturesqueness, variety of loveliness and scenes of unusual splendor, has few equals in the world. It is the Columbia Highway, which follows the course of the Columbia River from Pendleton, in the northeast section of the State, to the ocean.

There is so much of the magnificent, such a wealth of Nature in her most gorgeous garbs, that one hardly knows where to begin in telling the story of this drive. To those who have not viewed the Pacific Northwest there may seem a tinge of exaggeration in this outline; but those who have seen it in its best, or even glimpsed stray bits of this wonderland of color and beauty, will appreciate the futility of attempting to endow it with beauty it does not possess. In all the world, as numerous noted globe travelers have observed, there is no section containing more of scenic wonders than the pathway of the Columbia.

Add to this the charm of romance and you have all the delicate flavoring an ideal tour. And the Columbia country has its romance! Romance of the first Americans, full of mystery and love and conquests. There is the story of the mountain that was God; the Bridge of the Gods; the creation of The Dalles; the legends woven around Speelyei, Scomalt, Loowit, Saghalie and Wiyeast and Klickitat, mythical characters who are identified with various epochs of the country's settlement by the Indians.

The Conquest of Bugbee Mountain

On Bugbee Mountain, just east of the historic town of Astoria and overlooking the mouth of the Columbia, the highway runs out of a forest of firs to descend 650 feet on a 5 per cent grade along the face of a cliff. The descent includes four complete hair pin curves; and the end of one of these is supported by a dry rubble masonry wall forty-three feet high. From the crest of the mountain you command a view of the surrounding country for forty miles, gazing on mountain, forest, river, ocean and valley. It makes you wonder if other lands were not robbed to give such an inspiring setting to Oregon.

Bugbee Mountain's conquest is noted as a remarkable piece of road building; yet, like the truly magnificent view it affords, it is only one paragraph in the story of the construction of the Columbia Highway. To say that this is the most unusual or most beautiful scene along the route, or to mention this wall as the dominant feat of the making of the road, is to eliminate a view of three snow-capped peaks; to neglect Multnomah Falls, forming a perfect bridal veil in its first drop of 720 feet to its basin and a second fall of 130 feet to the Columbia; to slight the exquisite view from the cliffs in the inland, where such monuments as Rooster Rock , Castle Grant, Lone Rock, etc., rise to excite endless speculation; to pass by stretches through virgin timber, and to overlook bridges and built-in roadbeds that force highway engineers to applaud.

First Annual Report of the Highway Engineer for the Period Ending November 30, 1914

RIVER VIEW MOUNTAIN SECTION

Description

The line of highway throughout this section traverses a very mountainous country. Starting at Hunt Creek, Mile 22, with an elevation of 400 feet above sea level, the line ascends along very steep side-hills, due east on a 5 per cent grade, to an elevation of 750 feet at Bugby Pass in Mile 23.

On the east side of Bugby Pass is a perpendicular bluff making a sheer drop of 400 feet. For one-half mile along this bluff the roadway is excavated the full width into its face, with a descending grade of 5 per cent. At the end of this half-mile, a series of loops are introduced on a 5 per cent descending grade, which takes up enough distance to put the roadway below the bluff from there on. The descent from this point to sea level is made along heavy side-hills with rocky slopes standing at an angle of about 45 degrees.

Clearing and Grading

All work on this residency was done by the very best of station men, with the use of cars, track, and car horses for hauling the material. The grading was very heavy for highway work, averaging 22,000 cubic yards of excavation to the mile, 50 per cent of which was rock and 16 per cent other classified material.

Utility of Highway

Bugby Mountain, which for years has been the "thorn in the side" of an east and west highway through Clatsop County, will probably prove to be one of the big natural resources of the county. The highway approach to Bugby Pass and down the supported grade, around the loops, and for a distance of two miles beyond the loops, will afford a wonderful panoramic view of the Columbia River, its wooded hills, cultivated valleys, and towns along its banks as far as the eye can see. The highway for three miles of its length is also in full view from the top of the hill, and from many points along the line. This magnificence will probably attract many people desiring locations for summer homes. There is also a large tract of logged-off land lying south of the highway on Bugby Mountain, which is suitable for agricultural purposes.

Links

ColumbiaRiverImages.com: Nicolai Ridge and Nicolai Mountain, Oregon

Includes ... Nicolai Ridge ... Nicolai Mountain ...

http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/nicolai_ridge.html

CLICK HERE to continue exploring the highway