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Wagon Road, Shellrock Mountain, Oregon.
View from Wind Mountain, Washington.
Image taken May 10, 2006.
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"The Dalles and Sandy Wagon Road" ...
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"... The Dalles and Sandy Wagon Road was authorized by the Oregon Legislature in 1867 and appropriation made for its construction. The road was built to a point 15 miles west of Hood River. Portions of the old dry masonry retaining wall may still be seen a hundred feet or so above the Columbia Highway, especially at Shell Rock Mountain. ..."
[Source: Oregon State Archives, "A 1940 Journey Across Oregon"]
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Joel Palmer's Cattle Trail ...
In 1863 Joel Palmer (who, in 1845 helped hack out the Barlow Road for emigrants around the south side of Mount Hood) and A.P. Ankeny established a cattle trail on the south bank of the Columbia River from The Dalles to the mouth of the Sandy River and Troutdale.
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"...
In 1846 Joel Palmer established the Columbia river pack trail, down the south bank of the river to the Sandy, for cattle. Samuel K. Barlow and his 50 men finished the Barlow Toll road over the Cascades which was the only wagon road to Portland, from The Dalles, until 1920, except from 1876 to 1879 the Palmer cattle trail down the Columbia was made into a passable summer road for about 3 years. ...
Those wishing to go from The Dalles on to Oregon City, from 1843 to 1846, floated down the Columbia on rafts, batteaux or in Indian dugouts or canoes. From 1846 to 1921 they could either go down the Columbia by steamboat or go south through Dufur, Tygh, to Wamic and the Old Barlow Toll road to Oregon City or via Wapinitia to Government Camp and the Barlow road; and after 1882 they could also take the railroad west into Portland and Oregon City. During the summers of 1846, 77, 78 wagons could also follow Joel Palmers wagon road down the Columbia gorge. In 1879 he sold his toll road to the O.R. & N. railroad. Joel Palmer first established his toll cattle trail in 1863 with ferries at Hood River and Troutdale.
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[NOTE: most likely the 1846 date listed twice above is in error ... in 1846 Palmer was working on the Barlow Road. Using other dates within this publication, the first date most likely would be 1863 and the second date would be 1876.]
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The State of Oregon established the road between The Dalles and Hood River in 1867 and it ran on out through Dufur, Kingsley, Tygh, to the Barlow road at Wamic. From 1863 to 1867 the road to Hood River was a part of Palmer's Toll road. While Joel Palmer and Samuel K. Barlow founded the road between here and Wamic in 1843 that section remained a free public road, such as it was, for 24 years until the State of Oregon took it over in 1867 and its still (1952) a state public road, which we call the Old Dufur Road. ...
[According to Samuel Lancaster:] ...
"The first wagon road on the Oregon side of the Columbia river was completed Feb. 9,1856 and ran from Bonneville to the Cascades. On Oct. 27, 1872 the Oregon legislature appropriated $50,000 for building a wagon road from the mouth of the Sandy river (Troutdale) through the Columbia river gorge to The Dalles. The funds were exhausted by October of 1876. An additional $50,000 was provided. The road was crooked and the grades were steep. The construction of the O.R. & N. railroad in 1883 destroyed the road in many places. Only traces of it could be found in 1913. When construction on the Columbia River Highway was begun no grades were to be more than 5% and its width was to be 24 feet!
(Joel Palmer operated the above wagon road as a toll road from 1863 to 1879 and from 1876 to 1879 ft was a passable summer time wagon road. The rest of the 13 years it was a toll cattle and saddle pack train road with ferries at Hood River and Troutdale. He sold to the railroad in 1879.) ...
Shell Rock Mountains, in Hood River county which rests on ice, was always considered an impassable barrier! No wagons were ever able to get by this mountains in pioneer days. They used to stop just east of that point, cut down trees, make rafts and floated down to the Cascades. The state road of 1876 crossed above the present road, but loose rock slopes made it impossible to maintain and it fell into decay and disuse. In 1912 Simon Benson gave Governor Oswald west $110,000 to use prison labor in building a new road around the base of Shell Rock mountains. The state had no Highway Commission and Hood River road officials handled the work. Most of the money was wasted and the project failed! ...
1863 Joel Palmer acquires the cattle trail on the south bank of the Columbia, makes it a toll trail and maintains ferries at Hood River and Troutdale for cattle and pack trains. From 1876 to 1879 this trail was made into a passable summer time wagon road. In 1879 Palmer sold the right-of-way to the O.R.& N for railroad purposes. The Barlow road became the only road to Portland.
..."
Source:
McNeal, Wm. H., 1953, "History of Wasco County, Oregon", as found on the "rootsweb.com" website, 2011.
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Are these the SAME ROAD ??? ...
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Questions needed to be researched --- what was the relationship between Joel Palmer's cattle road and the "The Dalles and Sandy Wagon Road", especially during the three years Palmer's cattle road was a wagon road ... and the relationship of the ferries across the Hood River and the Sandy River ???
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... notes ... notes ... notes ...
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From:
Scott, L.M., 1917, "The Pioneer Stimulus of Gold", Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol.18, no.3, September 1917 ...
"... Joel Palmer, A.P. Ankeny and others opened a trail for pack trains and cattle through the gorge of the Columbia River on the Oregon side in 1863, as a route to the mines *. This was hardly equal to the present Columbia River Highway. The route included ferries at Sandy and Hood rivers. ..."
*
John F. Miller made the surveys in 1862 (The Oregonian, November 10, 1862). The road was opened to cattle and pack trains early in 1863 (Ibid., March 21, 1863). The cost was $15,000 (ibid., December 9, 1864).
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From:
"Historic American Engineering Record HAER OR-56", Historic Columbia River Highway website (2006):
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"...
On October 23, 1872 the state legislature of Oregon appropriated $50,000 for construction of a wagon road from the mouth of the Sandy River to The Dalles, along the south shore of the Columbia River. The state appropriated another $50,000 in 1876 to complete construction of this crooked and narrow trail with steep grades. This was the beginning of the Columbia River Highway.
..."
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From:
USDI/NPS National Register for Historic Places Registration Form, Columbia River Highway, 2000 ...
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"... The first wagon road in the Gorge ran from the town of Bonneville to the site of the future Cascade Locks -- a distance of six miles -- and was completed in 1856. It climbed to an elevation of over 400 feet on steep grades around a portage at the Cascaades of the Columbia River. This road only ran a short distance, however, and met the needs of a select few. Journeys on it, carrying supplies from Fort Vancouver to men stationed east of the Cascade Mountains, proved onerours. By 1872, the Oregon legislature designated $50,000 for building a wagon road from the mouth of the Sandy River, 18 miles east of Portland, through the Gorge to The Dalles. The road money was soon expended and four years later another $50,000 was appropriated. Even though the road was completed, travel on it proved difficult. The alignment was crooked and narrow with heavy grades, often exeeeding 20 percent. "The Dalles-to-Sandy Wagon Road" was never really practicable for travel.
Only in 1882 was the Gorge accessible with a continuous overland route when the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company (ORN) constructed a water-level track from Portland to The Dalles. ... For the next thirty years, the line provided the only real alternative to steamboats for travel along the river. ..."
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From:
Hood River News, Hood River, Oregon, May 28, 1943, information from "Oregon Historical Records Survey, No. 33" ...
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"... County road building facilities did not prove at all adequate to care for the traffic resulting from the gold rush in the 1860's. A proposal in 1861, for a pack-train trail between Portland and The Dalles lead to the incorporation at Portland, October 16, 1862, of the Columbia Road Company, with Joel Palmer as president. This company opened at toll trail to pack trains and cattle early in 1863. Ferries were operated at Sandy and Hood River (then called Dog River). The section of The Dalles-Portland road east of Hood River was declared by Wasco County commissioners to be a public highway in 1867, thenceforth maintained by county funds. ..."
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From:
Clarence E. Mershon, 2001, "East of the Sandy, The Columbia River Highway", Guardian Peaks, Inc., Portland ..."
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"... On January 24, 1856, legislation establishing a territorial road from the Sandy River (Troutdale) to The Dalles passed. Construction commenced on a wagon road between Bonneville (the lower Cascades) and Cascade Locks (the upper Cascades) almost immediately. The following year, legislation passed authorizing the construction of a wagon road and bridge across Eagle Creek. In 1863, a trail for pack trains and cattle opened on the Oregon side to serve as a route to the mines in the interior. In 1872, the Oregon Legislature appropriated $50,000 for the construction of a wagon road from the Sandy River through to The Dalles. Four years later, an additional $50,000 was appropriated for the project. The resulting wagon road was 12-feet wide, but it was both crooked and steep. Partially obliterated by the construction of the Oregon Washington Railroad and Navigation Company line in 1883, this military (or county) road also suffered extensively from the high water and flooding of 1894. Traces of this raod were found by crews when the survey of the Columbia River Highway was completed in Hood River County during the winter of 1913-1914, and some masonry-walled sections are still visible above I-84 on Shellrock Mountain. (From "Tentative Dates Pertaining to Road Building in the Columbia Gorge, 1850-1960", by E. Walton, published in 1967). ..."
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From:
Sacramento Daily Union, vol.1, no.233, November 15, 1875 ...
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"Work has been suspended on the Dalles and Sandy wagon-road. About twenty-five miles of the road have been completed."
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From:
Portland Tribune, August 27, 2011, "History Circles Back", by Calvin Hall, oringinall published in the "Gresham Outlook", August 26, 2011
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"... construction crews on the Interstate 84-Jordan Road project in Troutdale were still surprised and excited on Wednesday, Aug. 10, when a backhoe operator, excavating the eastside of the Sandy River for a bridge piling, dug up something unexpected – an antique wagon wheel, buried about 12 feet below the sand. ...
Built in the 1870s through funding from the Oregon Legislature, The Dalles-Sandy Wagon Road ran between the mouth of the Sandy River to The Dalles through the gorge. The wagon road crossed the Sandy River near where the wheel was found, according to a historic map of the trail.
According to Hood River-based historian Sally Donovan, who wrote about the Sandy River Delta, homesteader Felix Hicklin claimed almost 325 acres along the eastside of the Sandy River in 1851. He eventually owned up to 1,100 acres on the eastside of the Sandy River around what is now Lewis & Clark State Park, running a dairy business until the family sold the ranch in 1908.
Troutdale historian and Outlook columnist Sharon Nesbit wrote that a ferry was used to cross the Sandy River near the Lewis & Clark State Park boat ramp. The railroad was built and crossed the Hicklin land in 1882.
Other ferries that crossed the Sandy River in that vicinity operated through 1912, when the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway bridge was built.
Gresham resident Bus Gibson, who has studied many of the mountain and historic trails in the area, said The Dalles-Sandy Wagon Road was very difficult, steep and treacherous for travelers to use. When settlers reached the Hicklin farm, they would have used a ferry to cross the river or “attempted to find a crossing besides the ferry,” he said.
Gibson said wagon roads, routes and wagon tracks can still be found throughout the area, many of which lie within 60 feet of Interstate 84. Portions of The Dalles-Sandy Wagon Road can be found mostly in Hood River County near Cascade Locks, he said.
“It’s possible (the wheel) might have come from an earlier wagon road at the river there,” he said.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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