A. F. Litt, June 7, 2022

Contrary to some other sources, this road remained as the alignment of US 97 until the 1962 opening of the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge. One of the biggest smoking guns is the pamphlet below, published by the Highway 97 Ferry Company in 1961, and there is also a photo from WSDOT showing the construction of the modern grade, bypassing Canyon Road, at the same time as the construction of the bridge in the October 1962 edition of Washington Highway News.

Until I figured out the dates on this, I'd wondered why the road was not repaired, and I even wondered if Stonehenge Drive, the "Upper Road," replaced it for a bit as the US 97 alignment, but by the time the washout occurred, the Christmas storm of 1964, it seems, that wiped out so much in the Gorge, this road was already bypassed and obsolete.

A. F. Litt, June 7, 2022

One of the suprising things about this road to me is, from what I've read in comments on some of the historical photos, is that a lot of locals, who know the area very well, do not even know it is there until it is pointed out to them. It is very hard to see the old highway until you are actually on it.

In the photo below, many folks assumed this was the junction between Stonehenge Drive and Cemetary Road, not realizing that the old Lancaster Road (Old 97) was even there. As you can see from the photos, the lower end does try to hide, and the upper end really doesn't reveal itself until you park, get out of the car, and look down the canyon.

I'll admit to the fault myself... Until Scott Cook described the location to me, I had no idea this road existed even though I'd been to Stonehenge many times before...

If you look closely at the right side of the photo below, you can see that the western road from the junction curves around and that this photo is actually taken from the shoulder of Stonehenge Drive, the Upper Road. Comparing this to the maps proves that this is the junction of Stonehenge Drive and Old US 97. Cemetary Road branches off of Stonehenge about where this photograph was shot from.

Historic Hood River: Maryhill, 1939

Comment by Charlott, June 11, 2019

Down by the river is Columbus (now referred to as Maryhill). In 1939 still quite a bit left of the community, unlike today. You can see the little Advent church built in 1884. My great-great grandmother's brother was in on the very first rung of creating that church denomination way back in the 1800s. His name was Jonas Wendell.

Way down there off to the right of that church you can see what I think might be the Methodist church and further down river is the school. I don't know when the school was no longer used and all went to Goldendale...

But the WOW is:

Just barely to the left of that tree on the corner you can make out a house and another building. My great-great grandparents James Augustus Berrian and Imilda Leona Wendell built that house with the $100 she earned teaching school. The house was built in 1880 or before. The other building is either their barn or the cabin on the 5 acres that they gave their daughter Ada and new son-in-law Lucius Clark.

To my knowledge this is only the second photo that I know of of that house. The other is up close.

Historic Hood River: Roadbuilding at Maryhill

Comment by Charlott, August 2, 2018

That white building down there with the 6 windows is the school house and the road through old Columbus went between it and the darker buildings on the right. The main part of town is obscured by the big poplar trees in the bottom left. The area where the trees are along the river was at one time owned by the Wren's (relatives of mine).

Good example of what the river looked like prior to dams. Lots of good farm land was wiped out.

Comment by Arthur, August 3, 2018

ODOT's historian [Robert Hadlow] sent me some additional detail to help explain the context of this photo:

The road shown in the photo was the bottom end of the Canyon Road, which started at the old Maryhill town site (Stonehenge), went down a canyon and then curved around to the west where the man is seated on the rock wall and farther west down to the lower town site of Columbus. It was the main route between the railroad depot and the Maryhill town site.

Samuel Lancaster built Canyon Road in 1911-12 as an experimental road for Hill. It had grade and curve restrictions, masonry walls, and durable asphaltic-concrete pavement. During a flood event in 1964, water raced down the canyon of Canyon Road and blew out the corner as the road curved to the west. You can see the damage on Google Earth...

The Upper Road [Stonehenge Drive] is the one that we now take to get from Stonehenge to get to the lower town site. It is steeper and older than the Canyon Road. However, Lancaster used it for pavement experiments.

Comment by Scott Cook, August 6, 2018

This road still exists for the most part... I've given many tours here for Friends of the Gorge groups. The masonry walls and the boulder guard rails, amazingly, still exist. Like Hadlow commented to Arthur, the Xmas flood of 1964 did wash out this particular curve, but I've still been able to do a then/now photo match-up. To see for yourself, either look at Google Earth... or drive a bit above Stonehenge and look for the defunct top of this road adjacent to a lone house. A quick east walk yields views of Lancaster's artistry... then the going gets tougher where the flood washed away the road... but good stuff is preserved below the wash out.

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