Notes
Earl Deitz memorialized the completion of the Columbia River Highway just east of here on August 2, 1920. The caption says, "The last load of 'Hot Stuff' on the Columbia River Highway." The "hot stuff" was Warrenite, a patented type of asphalt which was used to pave the highway. I imagine that first drive to Mosier along the new highway was a thrill.
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Comments
Is the gentleman who is standing so straight, with the bow tie, Mr Butler who was also featured in opening the bridge over the Columbia?
# 434
Definitely a recognizable spot as soon as you open the photo.
l.e. on 19th February 2013 @ 8:02am
From a 1916 ebook "Good Roads Yearbook"
"Warrenite is not an oil coating for macadam roads but is a permanent surfacing which is composed of varying sizes of the best stone obtainable scientifically mixed with bituminous cement, laid and rolled while still hot, the fine particles of stone filling the voids and giving the surface the inherent stability a permanent country road surface requires."
l.e. on 19th February 2013 @ 9:08am
If that is, indeed, Truman Butler my mother said he played the mandolin.
Jill Stanford on 20th February 2013 @ 4:04pm
The Hood River glacier., August 05, 1920, Image 1
HIGHWAY PAVING
COMPLETED MONDAY
With simple ceremony the last shovelful of paving on the Highway between Hood River and Portland was spread at 4 o'clock Monday afternoon. As Hood River county officials, rnembers of the Kibbe Construction Co. paving crews and motor tourists crowded around the big truck that dumped the last "hot stuff," posed for a photograph, C. A. Bell called for three cheers for his old friend, S. Benson, father of the great highway, who demonstrates the feasiliity of the great monument by donating $I0,000 for construction of a mile of road at Shell Rock Mountain, declared by many to have been impossible. An Oregon convict crew turned the first earth at Shell Rock on May 23, 1912. Mr. Bell followed, leading three cheers for G.E. Kibbe, manager of the construction concern, who was present, and then for all members of the crew. H.C. Deitz was the photogrpaher for the party.
A party of Hood River people, as follows, motored out to see the paving finished: Mr. and Mrs. C A. Bell, Judge Blowers. A. R Cruikshank, Leslie Butler, Truman Butler, E.E. Brett, H.G. Ball, Mrs. H. G. Barklage, Miss Marjorie Wissinger, Bert Head and Joe D. Thomison, W. P. Smith, engineer for the state, was present, as was H. T. Elvane, divisional superintendent of the paving concern.
The first car, a Mitchell. traveling to the east, across the newly completed paving was driven by H. W. Mitchell, of the Mitchell, Lewis, Staver Co. Mrs. William Collins, wife of the superintendent in charge of the paving followed in a Nash. Leslie Butler, accompanied by Judge Blowers, and Bert Head driving abreast respectively in a Cadillac and a Chevrolet, made the first journey over the new paving to the west. Long lines of motor tourists awaiting completion of the road evidenced the popularity that the highway has already gained. License tags carried the names of Illinois, Michigan. Washington, California, Oregon and Colorado.
The paving of the Highway is complete and a new era for the Hood River valley and mid-Columbia was predicted by the men as they drove home and passed Wau Guin Guin hotel, where the states first strictly great tourist hotel is being projected. And,
it was remarked, S. Benson, who was willing to back his vision of the great highway with his money, is again pioneering. While Henri Thiele, chef of the Benson Hotel in Portland, is negotiating for the Wau-Guin Guin and neighboring property, Mr. Benson's
financial backing will make possible the hotel development, it is declared.
LMH on 19th May 2020 @ 9:15pm