Columbia River Highway

Near Little Jack Falls, Lower Columbia River Highway
The Highway leading toward the Pacific Ocean, is of equal attraction in its scenic environments. Engineering difficulties here were as great as on the upper highway where mountains were blasted to make way for modern roadways and modern travel.

The Dalles of the Columbia River
The private fishing grounds of the Columbia River Indians who are permitted by government regulations to fish here with the spearhook. The Dalles is a succession of swift rapids rushing toward the mouth of the Columbia River, over the cooled lava areas raised by the eruptions of the early earth.

Columbia River From the Highway
The Columbia River, Ranking second in size in the United States, furnishes the only water grade access from the interior to the shores of the Pacific. Here and there are gigantic reefs of rocks creating rapids where the river boils and surges. Transportation was first afforded in the pioneer days by boats and portages: later came the railroads. Within the last quarter century Cascade Locks and The Dalles Celilo Canal have circumvented the rapids and falls. There is now excellent boat and train service the length of the river and entirely through the gorge.

Mitchell's Point Tunnel
Nothing like it is known, save in a certain point in France and in the famous Axenstrasse along the shore of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland and that has only three windows, while Mitchell's Point has five gigantic windows overlooking the Columbia and the mountains beyond. It also has parapets at the windows and seats for visitors within.

Mitchell's Point From the Columbia River
An engineering feat more difficult than the Axenstrasse, Europe's noted highway, was the tunneling of Mitchell's Point. It has superseded the fame of all other highway engineering feats in the world. A solid mountain was tunneled in order to keep the highway within a five percent grade.

Prescott Point
Midway between Portland and Astoria. The lower Columbia River as seen from the west portion of the Columbia River Highway. The river at this point is commercially used by the great timber rafts and the numerous salmon fleets. The lower highway penetrates the great timbered areas of the state.

Approach to Mitchell's Point
Here the mountain was blasted away to enable a road to be constructed on a five percent grade for continuation of the Columbia River Highway, a part of the scenic roadway system of Oregon. From this point the highway leads into the counties of Hood River and Wasco, and thence eastward to Pendelton.

Eagle Creek and Highway Bridge
Eagle Creek is a splendid fishing stream, the most beautiful mountain stream tributary to the Columbia river. It is the fisherman's delight and haven. Eagle Creek is a short distance east of the state fish hatchery, located at Bonneville.

East Approach To Eagle Creek
The engineering features, approaching Eagle Creek are the most artistic of any engineering project found along the highways of the country. There are no two bridges of like construction or design on the entire length of the Columbia River Highway. Eagle Creek bridge is constructed of rock, blasted from the mountains that previously obstructed the roadway.

The Highway at Mount Wauna
This is another magnificent view from the Highway looking west from Eagle Creek at Mount Wauna and showing "Bridge of the Gods" in the distance. The construction of this wonderful Highway, leading from Portland, Oregon to the heart of the Cascade Mountains, is a noteworthy feat of high class engineering that compares favorably with any in the world.

Castle Rock
A majestic scenic landmark on the Washington side of the river, seen for miles from the Columbia River Highway. It was formerly a lookout for the Indians and until 1901, its summit had never been scaled by white men. Covering at its base but 17 acres, it stands above the river, a lonely spire, eleven hundred feet high.

Salmon Wheel on the Columbia River
The Salmon Wheel in operation, as seen from the Columbia River Highway, where the famous Royal Chinook Salmon is trapped for the canneries that operate nearby. The Oregon salmon industry is valued annually at eight and a half million dollars. The Columbia River is famed for its salmon and the fish wheel is one of the methods used in fishing for this valuable industry.

Horsetail Falls
So designated from its resemblance to the tail of a horse. One hundred and eighty feet high, it crashes into a pool at its base which is within a few feet of the highway proper. Its beauty is distinctive and unlike any other falls the entire length of the highway.

Columbia Gorge at Wind Mountain
The peaceful waters of the Columbia, moving silently toward the Pacific Ocean. The scenic beauty of the river is never exhausted. Each trip along the Highway reveals some new beauty spot unknown before. Travelers of wide experience who know the beautiful rivers of the old countries awake to fresh enthusiasm when they make a journey over the Columbia River Highway.

Oneonta Gorge
A narrow steep gorge leading back into the hills for a mile; the sides imbedded with ferns and wild flowers. Along its course runs a silvery stream, fed from beautiful water-falls.

Oneonta Bluff and Tunnel
The bluff is solid basalt rock which was tunneled to permit the roadway to parallel the railroad in continuing the Columbia River Highway without bridging the railroad or climbing the steep grades. The bluff gives the impression of the one-time rivers that washed over the mountains in the geological period.

McCord Creek Falls
These beautiful falls, having their source in Larch Mountain in McCord and Pierce Creeks, were but little known until the Columbia River Highway with its 47 miles of hard surface, gentle curves and easy grades brought this delightful spot within two hours ride from the heart of Portland.

The Highway's Course
Rounding the curve where the mountain was carved to permit the roadway to pass along the majestic Columbia River. On the opposite side of the river is the State of Washington with its awe-inspiring color of rock formations and its dotted jet-green timbers of the giant forests.

Multnomah Falls from the Highway
The queen of all American cataracts; the second largest falls in America; the highest and grandest of the numerous falls along the Columbia River Highway. There is a sheer fall of six hundred feet into a rock basin, and this is always a boiling, seething cauldron. With its dense growth of ferns and shrubbery, it is nature's symphony in water, rock and foliage.

Benson Bridge at Multnomah Falls
A span of architectural beauty, clinging from chasm to chasm, permitting one to observe the beautiful Falls of Multnomah plunging into the "Devil's Punch Bowl". A miniature rainbow refreshes the memory of the observer as the far-flung mist sparkles in the sunlight.

Mount Hood From the Columbia River Highway
The eternal snow-capped mountain of the great State of Oregon. Irregular in outline, fantastic in shape, and always spectacular, it raises its snow-capped peak 11,225 feet above the level of the sea. Its lure is as elusive as it is fascinating; never does one see it twice the same.

Approaching Multnomah Falls
Where rail, road and river meet. A monster concrete viaduct is built upon a solid base of rock, with retaining walls constructed by old-world Italians. The walls of dry masonry, of which there are about two miles, have been built to conform with their scenic environments. The Highway's architectural beauty is a scenic asset in itself.

Shepperd's Dell and Bridge
The rendezvous of the fairies. Four basalt domes stand to the east, beautiful in their gigantic proportions. The concrete bridge spans a chasm of 150 feet across and 140 feet high. Around the bend is beautiful Bridal Veil, the falls rich in legendary lore of the Indians.

View from Shepperd's Dell Dome
The Columbia River Highway unfolds in all its beauty as one views the gorgeous scenery to the west with the sun beginning to set. In the foreground Shepperd's Dell Bridge, crossing the stream that issues from the cliffs, and in the distance the waters of the broad Columbia, the great river of the west, preparing after its long journey of nearly six hundred miles for its wedding with the mighty ocean.

Wah-Kee-Na Falls
Wah-Kee-Na falls is without a doubt in some ways the most beautiful of the many falls along the Highway. The falls is a series of alternating vertical drops and rushing cascades, in total height, 242 feet. As much as the nature of the falls itself, is character and charm given to the place by the towering rock cliffs from high up between which in a niche of its own making, the whitened stream suddenly leaps into view

Latourelle Falls
A miniature Niagara pouring over a steep bluff, as viewed from an artistically designed bridge that spans the highway from cliff to cliff.

The Gorge of the Columbia
Vista House at Crown Point in the distance. The snow-covered mountains in the State of Washington on the North Bank, or opposite the Columbia River Highway. Rooster Rock in the foreground, a monolith of basalt, so named for its semblance in form to that of a rooster.

Vista House-The Memorial to the Pioneers
At Crown Point, overlooking the majestic river, stands this memorial to the pioneers. It is a beautiful structure of concrete, steel, copper and glass, and is used as a rest house for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who make use of the Columbia River Highway. It occupies the highest point reached by the drive and it provides inspiring views of the Highway.

The Gorge of the Columbia from Crown Point
One can look to the east or to the west for a distance of more than thirty miles in either direction. Multitudes have from this point gazed on the wonderful beauty of nature and have felt their souls expand and their vision enlarge under the spell of this enchanting spot. This view-point must ever give the keenest delight to those who appreciate the beautiful, and remain among the choicest memories of the Highway.

A Columbia River Gorge Sunset
Standing at Crown Point, more than 800 feet above the level of the river, one views the magnificent sunset on the distant horizon of the west. A radiant glow of fire shining through the silver clouds blended with the color of nature's surrounding gives one a picture that lingers in the memory as one of the choicest scenic gems of the Highway and the Columbia River.

Talbot Bridge near Latourelle Falls
Civic pride as prompted the owner to connect his property cut in twain by the Columbia River Highway, with a foot bridge constructed in Japanese design. Near here is Latourelle Falls, whose sparkling waters fall two-hundred and twenty-four feet into a pool at the base of an overhanging cliff. Talbot Bridge was built to harmonize with the existing scenery surrounding the splendid grounds of the owner.

Vista House at Crown Point
Approaching Vista House at Crown Point which stands as a monument to the hardy pioneers of Oregon who braved the torrent waters of the Columbia River and the rocky trails of the mountains that rise from the river banks. This was the route that the pioneers of "Forty Nine" took that enabled them to reach the metropolis of Oregon, the surrounding towns of the Willamette Valley and to the Hudson Bay trading stations at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Portland
Portland, the gateway to the most famous highway in the country-the Columbia River Highway. A city of 350,000 inhabitants, situated at the confluence of the beautiful Willamette and mighty Columbia Rivers. The all year round tourist city and known as the "Rose City" for the profusion of roses that bloom in the countless millions. It's guardian sentinel stands in the background, Mt Hood, with its snow-capped peak looking down upon the metropolis of Oregon's chief thriving commercial city.