Mount Hood History is a blog where I share the historical photos and ephemera that I have collected over the last several decades. My main collection consists of many old Real Photo Postcards but I seek out obscure photographs of landmarks that have come and gone on both the Mt Hood Loop Highway and the Historic Columbia River Highway.
I try my best to be accurate in my writing here but I am always glad to listen to the stories of others in hopes of receiving more information or another view of the history that I share here. Please use my Contact Page to get ahold of me for any inquiries.
Here’s a series of photos from 1927, ten years after the opening of the Historic Highway, showing a young man and his Harley Davidson motorcycle. It must have been in the Winter as there seems to be snow and rock fall in the photos.
One of the photos clearly shows road signs with familiar destinations – Portland, Sandy, Bull Run, Gresham, Troutdale and the Columbia River Highway. The best part of the photo is the additional temporary sign that reads “Columbia River Highway Closed To Through Traffic” placed in on top of one of the road’s stone and concrete guard rails. The second one shows some stone rubble along a roadway which looks much like a winter day at unstable spots along the old road today.
Views of Portland Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge – Antique Postcard Set
20 Assorted Views of Portland Oregon.
Here’s a great assortment of views of Portland Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge circa 1950. They’re printed using an offset printing process on canvas textured paper. Printed by the Angelus Commercial Studio in Portland, Oregon. The cards are the same as the postcards that the company printed but are half the size.
The set, labeled 20 Views of Portland Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge, takes one on a tour from Portland Oregon east through the Columbia River Gorge on the Historic Columbia River Highway to the Hood River Valley and then south on what is now Highway 35 to the south side of Mount Hood and the iconic historic Timberline Lodge.
This very same tour can be taken today via modern cars and improved highways in a day; A very full and satisfying day. The only things that have changed since the era that these cards were made are that the Columbia River Highway, Historic Highway 30 has been replaced with the more modern Highway 84 through the gorge. Also the old Mitchell Point Tunnel was demolished in 1966 during construction of Hwy 84, but there are efforts through the restoration of the old highway to consider restoring the tunnel by boring a new tunnel through Mitchell Point.
All of these Views of Portland Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge are available for your enjoyment today, but these old photos bring back a more bucolic era in the Portland and the Mount Hood countryside. One where tourism was more slow and laid back. One where the trip was about the ride and not the destination. One that allowed us to stop along the way and send a postcard or two.
20 Assorted Views of Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon, “The Rose City”, Mt. Hood (Altitude 11,225) in background. Population 500,000.
Portland, the largest city in Oregon, has varied industry and is one of the nation’s foremost fresh-water ports and ports of entry.
Four transcontinental railway lines use this terminal for trains operating in and out of Portland, and a traveler going through Oregon passes some of the finest scenery in America.
The St. John’s Bridge was completed in June, 1931, at a cost of $4,250,000, and its span of 205 feet above the Willamette River is sufficient to allow any type of vessel to pass under it. The Bridge is 3,833 feet in length.
Crown Point 25.5 miles from Portland, Oregon. A view of 35 miles both East and West can be seen from Vista House.
Probably no scenic Highway in America, except the 1600 mile long Oregon Coast Highway, offers such magnificent scenery in concentrated variety as that which borders the Columbia River Highway in Oregon.
Probably no scenic Highway in America, except the 1600 mile long Oregon Coast Highway, offers such magnificent scenery in concentrated variety as that which borders the Columbia River Highway in Oregon.
Beautiful Latourell Falls on Columbia River Highway has a sheer drop of 225 feet.
Bridal Veil Falls, Columbia River Highway, Oregon are considered by many a masterpiece of beauty.
Wah-Kee-Na Falls is considered by many the most beautiful and picturesque of all falls along the Columbia River Highway.
Multnomah Falls height 620 feet. The highest falls in the U.S. that runs water year ’round.
Lovely waterfalls leap from the Columbia River Highway gorge’s towering crags into the river below. Horsetail Falls hurtle through the air from a height of 205 feet.
Forty-two miles east of Portland on the Columbia River is the famed Bonneville Dam, rected at a cost of $65,000,000 sand completed in 1940.
Mitchell Tunnel has five openings or windows out of which a beautiful view of the mighty Columbia River may be obtained.
Portland, the largest city in Oregon, has varied industries and is one of the nation’s foremost fresh-water ports and ports of entry.
Mt. Hood and Hood River Valley where the best apples in the world are grown.
Mt Hood, Oregon, altitude 11,225 ft, “The Most Beautiful Mountain in America,” from the new “Loop” Highway. Mt. Hood is the only major peak in America that can be completely encircled by an automobile.
Mt Hood, Oregon, altitude 11,225 ft, “The Most Beautiful Mountain in America,” from the new “Loop” Highway. Mt. Hood is the only major peak in America that can be completely encircled by an automobile.
Timber Line Lodge, Mount Hood National forest, Oregon. Erected by the Federal Government at a cost of $1,000,000. Elevation 6,000 feet.
Mt Hood, Oregon, altitude 11,225 ft, “The Most Beautiful Mountain in America,” from the new “Loop” Highway. Mt. Hood is the only major peak in America that can be completely encircled by an automobile.
