2020 Crowdfunding Update #2

Moving ahead into this last week of the month, I wanted to remind folks that the crowdfunding campaign is still going on, and I could really use a little support right now since this is my only source of income for the moment.


GoFundMe Link: gf.me/u/xmar2w

I backed off on promoting the crowdfunding campaign for a bit. With the Covid-19 outbreak, I've had plenty of time to work on the website, and am very near completing the rebuild of the Lower Columbia River Highway segment, and have completed a significant amount of the work on the HCRH and Upper Highway Sections.

I am hoping to get the primary rebuild done by the end of the week and to be able to just focus on new content moving ahead after that (and I've got a ton of great stuff on deck that I can't wait to share!). With the extra time that the current situation is offering, I took some extra time on the Lower Highway section to add A LOT of new content while rebuilding that part of the site. Please check it out: 

https://sites.google.com/site/recreatingthehcrh/lower-columbia-river-highway

Since the crowdfunding campaign began, I've put in 262 hours on this project, and the website is not only getting repaired, but updated and reorganized, and will, hopefully, be much more user friendly experience moving ahead. My daily, page by page, progress can be tracked here: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JRWxizJp1E6rxhj8Ak4o9BX4F4ugiNIPNzlyJcuYlRM 

Thanks to everyone who has donated! Even with the extra time this crisis has brought, this work still would not have been possible without the donations made so far! 

Moving ahead, I really do not want anyone to donate if they are feeling like they not surviving financially through these uncertain times, but if you are able to help out at all, it would be greatly appreciated. My finances have been way scaled back, so only a few dollars will go along way towards making it through the next month. Even five bucks will go a long way for me right now.

Chasing down red herrings: Paradise Lane & McKay Drive

Spent way too long today chasing down these red herrings, but I did finally get them ruled out by the 1928 Metsker map that shows the CRH running on the west side of the tracks through here.

True, this could be a remainder of the pre-1920-ish Portland Road through here, so later research may put this page back up on the site.  If not, it will live here as an "early draft."

PARADISE LANE & MCKAY DRIVE

Route 2

Ruled Out

March 25, 2020

I'll probably just delete this page after ruling out McKay Drive, but it does provide an interesting look at the process I use on charting out the original highway, starting with Google Earth and lidar (if applicable) to identify likely suspects and to plan future field trips to confirm or reject the grades and roads as old CRH. Left out of the process, here, is looking at period maps, but those are not easily accessible to me at the moment.

Originally, I mapped out the major surviving fragments by just getting out on the highways and driving, spotting the roads and exploring. The major sections of the old route are pretty obvious if you know what to look for.

It's these sorts of bits and pieces fragments around the new and improved modern highways that are a lot more difficult to sort out.

Tiny section of possible old pavement on Paradise Lane (v.007) Google Earth Imagery Date: May 8, 2019

Above, there is a very interesting looking patch of possible old pavement on Paradise Lane, just west of W. Lane Road that I spotted while looking for Taylor's "Mile 22.8" fragment on Google Earth.

However, a quick look at the location in Google Street View almost immediately rules it out. Clearly, the grading shows that this is overflow parking for the church and not a relic of the original highway.

Paradise Lane suspect in Street View Google Street View Imagery Date: July 2018

I am only mentioning McKay Drive, which I wondered about long before spotting the Paradise Lane pavement, as a rule out. The south end, before the curve, is a better possibility than the north end, after it curves away from modern US 30 to meet with W. Lane Road.

Modern US 30 between Scappoose and the Old Portland Road into St. Helens feels way too straight for me. On the other hand, Old Portland Road itself, which is confirmed to be original highway, is pretty straight too.

Also, I am not seeing any clear paths for the original alignment coming into the north end of this short road.

Bottom line, McKay Drive is probably not original CRH, but I still want to check it out on the ground before I rule it out.

The south end makes this road look likely, but the north end goes no where... (v.007) Google Earth Imagery Date: May 8, 2019

A final possibility here comes from looking at the alignment of the south end of McKay Road, Paradise Lane, and the road on the highway side of the cemetery just south of Honeyman Creek (below).
McKay Drive. Probably not CRH, but curious enough to need to be ruled out (v.007)
Google Earth Imagery Date: May 8, 2019

While I suspect that if these were all parts of the original highway they would remain connected as a continuous frontage road, who know? Stranger things have happened over the years, and it is all worth checking out on the ground, making a few quick stops on the way west to more certain territory.

Cemetery and Honeyman Creek (v.007)  Google Earth Imagery Date: May 8, 2019

Delena, Oregon

Text from the old Delena page on the website, I am preserving this here because I want to, after the rebuild, check with Pamela and see if she still has the Panoramio photos.  These links are all dead since Google discontinued that service.

Old Delena School (2010)

Photo by Pamela Elbert Poland

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/41116710

Since 2010, the roof has been replaced. 

Old Delena School, Re-purposed With New Roof (2015)

Delena, Oregon. Columbia River Highway. May 9, 2015

Copyright © 2015 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved

Another good 2010 photo of the old Delena School, 1922, by Mark Zemlin on Panoramio: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/33457622

The Ghost Town of Delena is right here, but other then piles of 1970’s logging equipment there is little interesting to see.

Pacific Northwest Photoblog: Beaver Falls – Clatskanie Oregon

http://pnwphotoblog.com/beaver-falls-clatskanie-oregon/

Hudson School

Another old school, now re-purposed as a church.  It's a little bit off the old highway.

2010 Photo: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/41116316

I spent 4 years at Hudson School, which is off the old highway. It's now a church and they did some remodeling on it that totally changed its look. 

 [It closed] ...after they built the new school complex (which is on the old highway), which opened in the fall of 1978. They consolidated Hudson and Delena and put them in the new school called Hudson Park Elementary. I moved away from the area in 1984, so it was after that the grade school downtown was also closed and the kids moved up to the newer school.

Pamela Elbert Poland. Facebook Comments. May 23, 2015

I attended school here from October 1966 until June 1970, grades 1 through 4.

Pamela Elbert Poland. Panoramio.  September 22, 2010

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/41116316