Funds for The Dalles – Sandy Military Road gained appropriation from the Oregon legislature in 1872 – $50,000.  The road finally finished in 1876 after another $50,000 infusion.  The road suffers from memory – too windy and parts too steep (20 % grades!).  Much of the road was said to have been destroyed by the 1880 building of the railway through the Gorge.  Some areas remained to be incorporated into the subsequent Columbia River highway.  Other areas were abandoned, though only one section of the old wagon road – Shellrock Mountain – remains known from its day.