ourroads.html

The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., December 5, 1930, page 1

OUR ROADS, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE:
AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO GOLDENDALE

The Men's Class of the Goldendale M.E. Sunday school, some 20 members, gave their first luncheon on the night of Dec. 4. It was an important event, and on the program were W.A. Byars, Chas. Dudley, H.J. Turner, and J.E. Riley.
The address of Mr. Byars being timely and of value is given in full. The speaker said:
"Our Roads, Past, Present and Future, and what they mean to Goldendale," has been assigned to me as a subject, and as but a few minutes of time have been allotted to the speakers of the evening, what may be said must necessarily be brief and hit the high places only.
When we consider that the history of the white man in Klickitat county covers but a lifetime, the development of our highways is marvelous, especially when we contemplate the achievements accomplished during the past ten years.
Seventy-seven years ago my parents passed for the first time down the Columbia River Gorge. The Klickitat valley was but an undulating plain of the bunch grass; the white man was a stranger; no sound was heard but the sighing of the western zepher, the howl of the coyote, the neighing of the cayuse and the call of the red man; the only settler within the present confines of Klickitat county was E.S. Joslyn, who had taken a donation land claim on the Columbia River bottom adjoining the present town of Bingen on the west and south. His home was burned by the Indians three years later.
The first road through Klickitat county was a Government Military Road and extended from Rockland, opposite The Dalles, by way of the Blockhouse and the Cedar valley country to Fort Simcoe. This road was constructed in 1856. The old Blockhouse now stands in the Goldendale city park north of town. Just prior to the Civil War, Phil Sheridan, of Shenandoah fame, was chasing Indians in this section, following them to the Yakima valley by way of the Satus Pass. His military troops returned to Blockhouse by way of Cedar valley.
Another road much traveled in the early days was the one on the north side of the Columbia river, extending from Rockland to the eastern section of the state, then a territory.
In 1863 ferries were established at Rockland and the mouth of Rock Creek and later in the year at Umatilla. In 1868 Wm. Hicinbotham commenced operating a ferry at the present town site of Columbus.
The Klickitat valley was first settled in 1859 and in 1871 John J. Golden moved to the present site of Goldendale and had the original town site surveyed in 1872. I might here say that the Methodist church is the oldest institution in Goldendale, having been established in 1871.
The speaker first saw Goldendale over forty years ago, two years after the big fire of 1888, which wiped out the business section and destroyed many homes. We came from Portland to Grants, by the O.R. & N., and then by stage to Goldendale, about a three-hour journey from the railroad. Howard Marshall held the ribbons. That year the mains of the new water system were being laid.
The road between here and the river was not graveled, had heavy grades, dusty during this summer and full of mud holes during the winter season, when not frozen. The freighters received 25 cts. a hundred during the summer and 50 cts. during the winter, to freight to and from Goldendale and Grants. Compare that road with the highway of today. You can drive from here to Portland in the time that it formerly took to drive to Columbus when the roads were bad.
Before the railroad from Lyle was constructed, if one wanted to go to the White Salmon country, he generally took the stage for The Dalles, a drive of about six hours, and the next morning and went by boat to White Salmon. Now you can drive from Goldendale to White Salmon in less than two hours. To go to the eastern section of the county, it was an all-day ride by way of the old stage route to Cleveland and Bickleton, which could be made in considerable less time by way of the mountain road during the summer season. Now you can drive to Bickleton in an hour and a half, and many make it in less time than that.
Over fifty years ago a road was constructed by way of the Satus Pass to the Yakima Valley, and prior to the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, freight, mail and passengers to and from the Kittitas and Yakima valleys passed by wagon and stage through Goldendale to and from The Dalles. Many freighters and travelers stopped over at night in Goldendale and at the summit of the Satus Pass.
There has just been completed over that pass one of the great highways of the world and a contract has just been let for its completion into Goldendale,--a gap of about five miles. This highway is one of wonderful scenery, magnificent vistas, long tangents, light grades and easy curves, making the distance between Portland and the Yakima less than 190 miles; and as a sample of its alignment, it does not vary an eighth of a mile from a straight line between Goldendale and a point to where it turns north to cross the summit of the Simcoes at the Satus Pass Another highway into Goldendale to be completed within two years is the one up the Klickitat river from Lyle by way of Klickitat, Wahkiacus and Crofton Prairie.
The recent Good Roads Association held at Wenatchee has placed the Mt. Adams highway on the map. Within the next five years we will see a modern highway completed between Goldendale and Glenwood, connecting with the Mt. Adams highway. Another highway will be completed between the Goldendale and Roosevelt, where a bridge across the Columbia river will probably become a reality the coming year, there connecting with the Columbia River and John Day highways; and also up the north side of the Columbia River to Pasco.
Thousands of tourists will pass in the not distant future through Goldendale every year, coming from all sections of the compass, and going from here in all directions; interspersed among these automobiles will be stage coaches and trucks. Many strangers will become acquainted with Goldendale and Klickitat county, of which to them now are places unheard of. They will leave some of their money with us, amounting to thousands of dollars, some will remain or return to make Klickitat county their home.
Within a few years short years there will be highways radiating from Goldendale in all directions and it must follow as that night the day that the county seat of Klickitat county will not only become the trading point for the Klickitat valley but citizens from other sections of the county will find it to their advantage to make their purchases from our modern mercantile and grocery establishments.
I would rather be an optimist than a pessimistic and why should we not all be? There is no other county in the state having greater variety of climate, products and soil; undeveloped water power; great irrigation possibilities; and vast stands of virgin timber awaiting the lumberman's ax and saw.
No other section of the state has children more healthy; maidens more fair; women more beautiful; youths more robust, and men more loyal, good neighbors and progressive citizens.
To me the dawn is breaking and thosethe sun is just beginning to shine on a new day of the greatest development of our latent resources and the possibilities - a prosperity and happiness for all our people hitherto unknown. Talk it; breath it; dream about it; Believe It, - It Is Here.