The historic Columbia River Highway is the first scenic highway in America.

And for 100 years has been known as the king of roads.

The Columbia River Gorge, which is the home of the king of roads, is located between Oregon and Washington State and is a magnificent wonderland of waterfalls, towering cliffs and narrow moss covered canyons.

It has millions of visitors every year, and groups such as Portland's own Horseless Carriage Club find it to be their favorite playground because of the gorgeous, exquisite beauty.

Some of Oregon's early industry leaders decided to build a highway that would not only promote commerce, but allow the public to experience this fascinating place.

The driving force behind this effort was a man named Sam Hill, and this is his home he built overlooking the Columbia River on the Washington side, not far from Golden Dale.

It's now the Maryhill Museum named after his daughter, Mary.

Sam was a tireless advocate for this new scenic highway, as was Governor Oswald West.

Sam also brought on board some of Oregon's business leaders, such as Julius Meier from the Meier and Frank Stores, and also lumber baron Simon Benson and a number of others.

Also, Sam acquired the help of the Oregon legislature by building the first asphalt road in the Pacific Northwest near Mary Hill, and inviting the entire legislature to come and see it.

He named it Loops Road, and it's not open to the public for motorized use and can only be used with permission from the Maryhill Museum.

And it looks about the same as it did 100 years ago with Governor Oswald West.

The Oregon Legislature and the business leaders all on board.

The construction began.

It occurred at many different locations at the same time.

McCord Creek, Tooth Rock, Moffett Creek and a number of other places.

These are the stone masons that Sam Hill brought from Italy that were hired to build the stone walls, to hold the highway in place after completion.

The new highway was dedicated on June 7th, 1916, at Multnomah Falls.

There was another dedication ceremony that took place on the same day at Crown Point where a cannon was fired and the American flag was unfurled by President Woodrow Wilson with a push of a button in the Oval Office.

This new highway was an instant success and opened up the Columbia River Gorge for the first time to significant tourism.

Only a short distance from Portland, it quickly became a favorite destination and was popular to the point where it created one of Oregon's first traffic jams.

The highway also had the additional attraction of four tunnels.

The first one is called the Oneonta Gorge Tunnel, which has recently undergone a complete renovation due to the damage caused by the Eagle Creek fire.

It's now open once again for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

The second is a day lighted tunnel at Mitchell Point that had the advantage of windows carved out of the rock face on the north side.

Unfortunately, it was eliminated during the building of Interstate 84.

The next two tunnels located near Inspiration Point, which is Little east of Hood River, are called the Mosier Twin Tunnels, and they can be seen on the hillside high above Interstate 84.

They're no longer open to normal vehicle traffic, but are very attractive to bicycling enthusiasts.

It's an easy four and a half mile ride and has delightful views of the Columbia River Gorge.

However, they are opened occasionally in the summertime to accommodate the very popular historic vehicle tours.

This particular tour was the 49th annual Horseless Carriage Club of America Tour.

One of the men responsible for the Highways design and execution was engineer Samuel Lancaster, and the design work on the Elegant Bridges was done by engineers C.H.

Purcell, K.P.

Billner and L.W.

Metzger.

These bridges were technological achievements of their day and were considered works of art.

The elegant stone guardrails, on the other hand, were built by the Italian stonemasons and appeared to have weathered the last hundred years reasonably well.

However, additional stonework has been done over the years by various stonemasons, and this is master Stonemason Michael Byrne, who's been used extensively by the state of Oregon in the repairing and rebuilding the stonework along the historic Columbia River Highway.

Two different types of Columbia River basalt here.

They come from two different quarries, this darker stone comes from the Smith Quarry in Corbett, right up the hill here, probably ten miles This stone comes from the Fisher Quarry, right across the river in Camas.

There's quite a number of places throughout the gorge where New Master Stone work has been completed.

The high quality of this masonry is as much an enhancement to the gorge as the original stone replaced 100 years ago.

It was in the year 1926 that Sam Hill invited his friend Queen Marie of Romania to come and see his new scenic highway and dedicate the Maryhill Museum.

When she arrived in New York, she was greeted with tremendous fanfare as the first reigning monarch to ever visit the United States.

And she was accompanied by her son, Prince Nicholas, and her daughter, Princess Ileana.

The dedication was a prominent affair that was attended by over 2000 people.

And during the ceremony, the queen released some carrier pigeons to send the message of Maryhill to other lands.

After the dedication ceremony, she and Sam boarded a limousine that was part of a convoy of limousines to tour Sam's new scenic highway.

They received a warm, enthusiastic reception while going through Hood River and then made a brief stop at the Vista House, where they were delighted by the enchanting view from the top of Crown Point & then on to the Multnomah Hotel where they enjoyed a sumptuous banquet hosted by philanthropist Eric Hauser.

Because of this new highway's immediate popularity, businesses began to spring up along the length of it.

One of the first was called the Multnomah Lodge, which was also a restaurant and another business a few miles to the west and perched on a ridge overlooking Crown Point was called Chanticleer.

It had an excellent view of the gorge and had been operating before the highway was open.

Unfortunately, both were lost in two separate fires.

In 1925, the city of Portland built a Multnomah Falls Lodge on land donated by the Washington Railroad and Navigation Company.

The land where the falls are located was donated by lumber baron Simon Benson, as was the funds to construct the bridge spanning the lower falls.

Even though Multnomah falls has become the number one choice for Oregon visitors, there was another business that sprang up a few years earlier that was exquisite with style and elegance called the Columbia Gorge Hotel.

It was constructed on the spot where the former Wau Gwin Gwin Hotel had been, which was torn down to make room for the Gorge Hotel.

It was built in the Mediterranean style with stucco and red tile roofs, and the grounds were enhanced by stonework done by the same stone masons that previously worked on the highway.

With the charming and delightful gardens and exemplary service, it has managed to attract many of the rich and famous, such as Rudolph Valentino, Shirley Temple and President Franklin Roosevelt.

Besides the businesses, there are many delightful facets of nature found along the historic Columbia River Highway, and one of which is the imposing monolith known as Beacon Rock.

It's on the Washington side of the river, but can easily be seen from the historic Columbia River Highway.

And visitors can actually reach the top by hiking a mile long trail.

That's not for the faint of heart.

Lewis and Clark actually discovered this rock, and they named it Beaten Rock.

Later, it was changed to Beacon rock, and then later to Castle Rock.

And then they renamed back to Beacon Rock.

But the Biddle family bought it around 1900 for a buck and turned the original climbing route into this spectacular trail, which has been improved through the years.

However, once on the top, the view of the gorge is absolutely stupendous.

Another fascinating attraction along the historic Columbia River Highway is the Vista House.

It was in the year 1915 that Julius Meier was rumored to have stopped on Crown Point with a carload of ladies and complained of no rest stop facilities.

This supposedly resulted in the highways Chief engineer Samuel Lancaster proposing the building of an observatory there that would be called Vista House.

The project was awarded to a well-known Portland architect, Edgar Lazarus, who submitted this copyrighted drawing of what the Vista House should look like after the plans were completed.

The construction began on December 29th, 1916, and after nearly a year and a half, was dedicated on May 5th, 1918.

The Vista House is actually a world class rest stop with marble walls and floors, with brass handrails, and with historically significant displays and photographs.

It also has a gift shop and espresso bar, and it has an outside balcony running around the perimeter of the top floor.

Also, during a recent renovation, an elevator was installed to give the disabled access to the restrooms on the bottom floor.

On July 23rd, 2016, the Vista House played host to a historic vehicle convoy that would rival the one Sam Hill arranged for the Queen of Romania.

From Model T's to historic limos 72 vehicles in all.

After a brief ceremony, the convoy headed down into the gorge to enjoy this enchanted highway.

After a short distance on the freeway, the convoy stopped at the town of Cascade Locks for lunch.

Edward DeVito and Bruce Spainhower made the decision to drive their vehicles over onto the Washington side of the river so they could drive them on.

Sam Hill's famous Loops Road.

It was the smoothness of this asphalt road that so impressed the Oregon legislators into supporting Sam Hill's Columbia Gorge Highway Project.

After experiencing this fascinating part of Oregon history, Edward and Bruce decided to visit the Maryhill Museum, which is only a few miles to the west.

The museum is located on some well-kept grounds, high on a bench overlooking the Columbia River on the Washington side.

Inside the museum, they're treated to a tour of the facility by Maryhill Museum director Colleen Shafroth.

They were shown an exact replica of the queen's crown.

This original oil painting of Czar Nicholas of Russia and the cloth of gold gown Queen Marie wore to the Czar's coronation.

After being shown a number of other priceless objects, Edward and Bruce decided to make one last stop before heading back a few miles from the Maryhill Museum, Sam Hill built another fascinating attraction on a hill overlooking the Columbia River, not far from Loops Road.

It's a replica of the Stonehenge found at Wiltshire, England, and dedicated to the soldiers of Klickitat County that gave their lives in World War One.

If you walk down the hill on the South Side, you'll find a path made of primitive stone steps leading toward the river in a few hundred feet.

You'll come to the place where Sam Hill chose as his final resting place.

He fell in love with the Northwest, and he now forever looks over the valley and the river and rich heritage he left behind.

And the Heritage we'll continue to enjoy for generations to come.