Chester Moores was a member of the first party to complete a loop around Mount Hood in an automobile in one day.  They did it as part of an expedition he wrote about in a wonderful article written in the 18 July 1915 edition of The Sunday Oregonian.  They spent eleven hours out on the roads, starting with the Columbia River Gorge Highway only completed in parts the year before.  Construction of that road in Hood River and Wasco Counties would not be completed for several years.  They ended up on earlier roads, much steeper and narrower.  He writes of encountering grades of 25 to 30%. The actual Mount Hood Loop would take longer.

THE FIRST “LOOP”

The route they took east from Hood River appears to have used the old Dalles-Hood River wagon road which gained over a thousand feet of elevation in the short distance between Hood River and Mosier.  From Mosier, the road gained more height as it coursed into The Dalles following the route of Seven Mile Road.

A “roller coaster” affair met them as they drove up and down over valleys heading south through wheatfields along the road.  They then were held up for an hour and a half by a wagon caravan of a circus outfit trying to pass a truck loaded down with furniture.  This being the section of the Dalles-California road dropping tentatively off the plateau above Dufur down into Tygh Valley, very narrow with a large drop into the canyon on one side and cliffs on the other.

They made it into Tygh Valley, where they went south to Wapinitia, up through Pine Grove.  Here, following forest “roads” along Bear Creek to Frog Lake and on into Government Camp.  This avoided the fording of the White River along the Barlow Trail route.  Following the Barlow “Trail”, they descended to Toll Gate, Rhododendron, Brightwood and followed the Barlow route through Marmot before turning on to a plank road to Bull Run where they crossed the Sandy River at Dodge Park.  Their route finished via the Powell Valley Road into Gresham and Burnside into Portland.

POSSIBILITIES

Automobile enthusiasts saw some of their dreams come true with the initial building of the road through the Columbia River Gorge.  For some, the next thoughts were on a loop route around Mount Hood.  As Moores writes in his article, “a road is already proposed between Government Camp and Hood River back of Mount Hood that would permit a flirtation with the mountain all day long.”  Enter Ernest Heinrich Wemme.

HENRY WEMME

Wemme came to America at the age of 17 to avoid conscription into the Saxon army – part of the Imperial German army at the time.  He had hoped to go back at some point, but as reported in an interview in the Oregon Journal, he “went broke and couldn’t get away.”  After a variety of jobs, he made his way across the country to Portland in 1882.  He started a tent and awning business – similar to St Peter’s occupation – with a partner he bought out in 1887.  His brother Augustus came on later as a partner and the two of them made a fortune supplying men heading to the Klondike Rush and then the US Army with tents for the Spanish American War.

[The brothers sold the company to Max and Leopold Hirsch who retained Wemme’s secretary H. S. Hirsch.  Those men renamed the company White Stag in 1931 – today, the line is owned by Wal-Mart who bought the trademark from Warner Brothers – Warnaco.]

An excellent interview with Wemme dates to 16 July 1922 in The Sunday Oregonian.

GOOD ROADS

After selling off his company, Wemme got into real estate buying business blocks near West Burnside and in the Overlook area.  He was also Portland’s first driver, buying a Stanley Steamer in 1899.  Many more automobiles followed – many “firsts” for Portland.

As an automobile enthusiast, Wemme was a natural for the Good Roads movement of the early Twentieth Century.  He became the president of the Portland Automobile Association in 1910.   With that group, he was one of the early advocates for a highway through the Columbia Gorge.

BARLOW ROAD HAS A NEW OWNER

 In 1912, Wemme purchased the Mount Hood Railway and Power Company.  The company, dating to 1906, built a powerhouse on the Bull Run River with a diversion dam on the Little Sandy River.  Water from the Little Sandy flowed to Roslyn Lake via a 3.5-mile-long wooden flume.  From the lake, the water dropped down to the powerplant.  Electricity began production in that same year.

The rail line, built in 1911 gave the company better access to the hydro plant over the 22-mile line.  Merging with the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company in 1912, the line later used electric trolleys instead of steam.  The former right-of-way used today by the MAX (Metropolitan Area Express) Gresham line from I-205 to its eastern end.  From the company, eventually the power elements would spin off as today’s Portland General Electric.

Part of the Mount Hood Railway and Power Company was the Barlow Road Company.  The Barlow Road had seen many changes in the time since the wagon road had opened in 1846.  A major improvement to the road came in 1866 with the road redesigned to go over the top of Laurel Hill, sidling down the steep slopes instead of using tree stumps to act as brakes down the previous 50-60-degree chutes.  The road opened for two-way travel the same year and stagecoach service instituted.  The first car rolled up to Mt Hood 29 August 1903 driven by John B. Kelly, a local automobile dealer.  Wemme put $25,000 into improvements for the road eliminating tolls on the road at the same time.

A COMPLICATED ENDOWMENT

He did not have long to enjoy his new road, dying 17 December 1914 leaving behind an estate valued at more than a million dollars.  His estate was drawn up and executed by George W. Joseph, a friend, bequeathing half to the Christian Science church and half to German heirs.  Joseph was a member of the Oregon State Senate elected in 1910 through 1914 representing Multnomah County.  He introduced legislation to support women’s suffrage in 1912.  He introduced a bill that would have created a highway commission in 1911 that failed.  The commission would wait a couple more years before it came about.  He also supported public ownership of hydroelectricity though his bills died in the Senate.

Wemme had tried to give the road to the State earlier in 1912, but the State had declined citing maintenance costs being too much.  In 1919, Joseph, acting as executor of Wemme’s estate, gifted the Barlow Road to the State and this time the gift accepted.

LAWYERS WILL ARGUE

The execution of the will would go on for many years after the death of Wemme, finally ending up in the Oregon Supreme Court in 1928.  Both Joseph and disputing lawyer, Thomas Mannix ended up disbarred.  Joseph won the Republican nomination for governor still a proponent of public ownership of hydroelectric dams in 1930 on May 16.  He died of a stroke at the age of 58 while participating in a National Guard summer camp – Wemme had died also at only 53.  Joseph’s former law partner, Julius Meier, ran for governor in his place as an independent winning and carrying forward Joseph’s platform. 

Joseph’s heirs donated a section of land to the State in 1934 which became the George W. Joseph Natural Area.  This land includes the canyon and upper falls on Lautorell Creek in the Columbia Gorge.

THE LOOP BECOMES REAL

With the Gorge and Barlow Road routes in place, the State began work on connecting the two with the construction of Highway 35 in 1919.  The road opened to traffic in 1925 and the Mount Hood Loop was a reality.  The road was only open in the summers until 1967.  Both the Barlow Road and Highway 35 sections, just like the Gorge, have undergone several road changes over the years, straightening out curves, bypassing communities and increasing both speeds and ability to carry much more traffic.

The earlier section of the Barlow Road using the route through Marmot and then going up to Sandy – Ten Eyck Road – from there was forgotten by the State early on in the further development of the road.  Instead of dropping down to cross the Sandy River below the town, the route chosen traversed to east of Sandy before dropping down from Cherryville – Cherryville Drive – and staying on the south side of the river.  The route taken by the Barlow Road south from Sandy to the Clackamas, became part of another road, while the Mount Hood highway now headed off to Gresham – today in the guise of Orient Drive.

FINDING THE OLD HIDING BEHIND THE NEW

Maybe the most interesting parts of the earlier version of the Mount Hood Loop occur further up the mountain.  Highway 26 east of Rhododendron – and the Tollgate reincarnation – makes a beeline for the base of Laurel Hill.  The new highway heads around and up the hill.  The old route stays lower following the Zig Zag River farther up – 39 Road leading to the Kiwanis Camp and trailheads for Hidden Lake and Paradise Park trails.  The road ends today at a large former quarry next to trailhead leading up in about a half mile to Little Zig Zag Falls.  The quarry used to help build the section of the old highway up and over Laurel Hill into Government Camp above.

LAUREL HILL

You can still follow along the old Mount Hood Loop highway route deep in the forest, crossing the little bridge next to the trailhead.  The older route is interrupted by the newer highway at two places higher up which cannot be crossed safely.  The lower section runs up the side of the hill and quickly becomes lost in the construction of the new four-lane road.  It picks up again on the other side of the new highway by using the small parking area marked for the Laurel Hill trail. 

Steps from the 1950’s, lead up to the old highway, abandoned but still in good shape.  The trail to the old wagon chutes on Laurel Hill take off to the left of the highway gaining ground quickly.  The road, in proper Sam Lancaster-style, loops back on itself so as not to exceed 5% grade.  Another loop further on was destroyed by the new road again higher up, though you can see the former road on both sides of the highway looking carefully.

BARLOW PASS

The old route went through Government Camp, now bypassed by the newer road.  Dropping down to the east, Highway 35 moves off to the north of US 26.  Just as you start out on Highway 35, a sign on the right points to Pioneer Woman’s Grave.  This section of the earlier route known as Buzzard Point.  The road is today leads to both the gravesite and a viewpoint of Mt Hood hidden deep in the woods.  The road has a definite air of possible abandonment. 

On the other end of the road at Barlow Pass, a large trailhead parking lot lets hikers further explore the Barlow Road still seen through the trees here.  The Pacific Crest trail crosses here, too, on its way to cross Highway 216 near Frog Lake.  An easy hike uses the Crest trail for a bit, then goes east to gain a wonderful view at Palmeteer Point from where you have a great view of Mt Hood and down the Barlow Creek valley formerly the route used by the Barlow Road.

Another forest road drops off from the trailhead – Forest Road 3530 – heading down the former route of the Barlow Road.  A half mile below takes one to the Devils Half Acre meadowed area, formerly used as a resting spot for wagons making their way up over Mt Hood on the Barlow Road.  This road should be reserved for high clearance vehicles and is not always open because of unsafe bridges or washouts.

SAHALIE FALLS AND BEYOND

Near Mt Hood Meadows Ski Area, another orphan section of Highway 35 is off on to the west.  This section crosses the East Fork of Hood River just below Sahalie Falls.  You can see the falls from the old 1928 concrete arched bridge constructed not by the Oregon State Highway department but by the US Bureau of Public Roads, predecessor of the Federal Highway Admininstration.  There is an old stone fountain on the northeast side of the bridge.  The road can only be accessed from the Elk Meadows trailhead-Hood River Meadows Ski area road.

Other small snippets of the former Mount Hood Loop can be seen coming off the straight run made by the highway today as it follows the East Fork north down through its canyon.  Originally, the road curved off following today’s Cooper Spur Road to the left.  This road runs into the Upper Hood River Valley just to the east of Parkdale and coming back into the present road at the community of Mt Hood.

Further north in the Middle Valley, the road took the route of today’s Booth Hill Road which runs back into the present highway in the south end of the Lower Valley.  The road ended at the junction with the Columbia River Highway just east of the city of Hood River.