The (true) Gateway to Mount Hood
August 1st, 2008
The Gateway to Mount Hood.
As I write this, the villages on the south side of Mount Hood are struggling with an identity for our communities; this in preparation for future marketing of our area as a destination for tourism. This is crucial to several projects, including signage identifying us as more than a freeway.
The obvious choice is “The Gateway to Mount Hood”, but alas, our friends in Sandy, Oregon beat us to the punch. After all, they are an incorporated city, and we’ve just recently realized the importance of having political recognition, even if only to Clackamas County.
Why, you might ask, would I feel that we should have exclusivity to the name “Gateway to Mount Hood”? Well, because historically speaking we have substantial proof and documentation of that claim. The most obvious being the placement of the toll gate for the Barlow Road at Rhododendron. This gateway, at the time of its relevance to the era of two way traffic on the old road, was considered the gateway to Mount Hood. Heading east, one knew that they had made it to the Mount Hood area when you made it to the tollgate or at least to the Welch’s Ranch.
A replica of the Barlow Road tollgate is located at the east end of the village that is Rhododendron.
Further exemplifying the point that tradition considered our area the gateway to Mount Hood: In 1908 after the establishment of the Oregon National Forest, later (1924) to be named Mt Hood National Forest, a gateway was established welcoming visitors to the area. This gateway was built across the old road at Zigzag, in front of the Zigzag Ranger Station.
This gateway was there until the road was improved in the early 1920,s and lent its name to the Gateway Inn at the junction of Lolo Pass Road and the old road to Mount Hood, in the shadow of the gateway. The Gateway Inn, later Gateway Store and even later the Zigzag Store still exists today as a testament of the true “Gateway to Mount Hood”.
Sandy might consider themselves “The Gateway to Mount Hood”, but deep down inside they know that they were just the last livery stable/gas station on the way to the true gateway to Mount Hood.