Two Men Carved Their Names Inside an Oregon Highway Tunnel in 1921. Then Oregon Filled It With Rock

There are two names carved into the rock inside a highway tunnel in Oregon, and above them a date. Snowbound, November 19 to 27, 1921. Two men lived in that tunnel for nine days, cooking geese on camp stoves while a storm shut the road. And for decades, nobody could read what they had left there, because the state had filled the tunnel with rock. It was not the only tunnel on that road the state got rid of. One was packed with rubble in 1948. One was destroyed in 1966 to widen a freeway. And in March of last year, Oregon opened a brand new tunnel through that same mountain, to replace the one it destroyed. IF YOU ARE GOING UP THERE As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Oregon Atlas and Gazetteer (DeLorme) - the surviving stretches of the old highway, the trail sections and every road into the gorge are in here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1946494062?tag=oldalignment-20 WHERE IT IS The Historic Columbia River Highway runs east from Troutdale, just outside Portland, through the Columbia River Gorge. About 68 of its original 73 miles can be traveled again, by car on the surviving road and on foot or by bike on the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. The twin tunnels are on the car-free stretch of the state trail between Hood River and Mosier. From the trailhead at the Mosier end, they are less than a mile in. The new Mitchell Point Tunnel is reached from Interstate 84 eastbound at exit 58, or on foot along the state trail from Viento State Park, about two miles to the east. Oregon State Parks charges a day-use fee at some of the trailheads. The engineer is Samuel Lancaster, pronounced LANK-uh-ster. Mosier is pronounced MOH-zher, Multnomah is mult-NO-muh, and The Dalles is pronounced the DALZ. A NOTE ON THE IMAGES The research and the script are mine, from primary records and archives, and the sources are listed below. Where no photograph of a place survives, and for this channel that is often, the images are period material from elsewhere rather than the place itself. SOURCES Oregon Department of Transportation, Mitchell Point Tunnel project Oregon Department of Transportation, history of the Historic Columbia River Highway Oregon Department of Transportation, Oneonta Tunnel fire recovery Oregon Department of Transportation, Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail The Oregon Encyclopedia, Columbia River Highway Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Mosier Twin Tunnels Lewiston Tribune (Associated Press), "Tunnel reopening thaws out history", July 15, 2000 Highway Geology Symposium, "Oneonta Tunnel: Restoration, Fire, Restoration", 2019 KGW News, landslide on the Historic Columbia River Highway east of Corbett, March 2026 IF YOU WERE THERE If you have walked the twin tunnels, or you drove the old road before the freeway, or you have family who worked on it, I want to hear it. And if anybody still has the bottle of whiskey two men kept in a highway tunnel in November of 1921, I would very much like to know it still exists. Comment or write to [email protected]. Old Alignment. Abandoned American roads, railroads and infrastructure. New video every other day. #columbiarivergorge #historichighway #oregonhistory