The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1922-12-28
LACE MAKES
FIRST TRIP
NEW GRADE NEGOTIATED BY BUGGY
Pioneer Builder Recalls Early Highway
Construction MIR. Lage Super
visor Is Years

Newspaper mistakes are not always
unfortunate. The Glacier last week
carried a report that H. F. j. Siever-
kropp, pioneer of the East Side orch
ard district, who drove in over the
road in a bobsled drawn by farm
team, was the first citizen to travel
the entire distance from Pine Grove to
the city over the new Valley Trunk of
the Mount Hood Loop Highway. 1t
was an error, an error that resulted in
good.
The first citizen to travel over the
Hood River-Odell unit of the new road
was no other than Hans Lage, pioneer
rancher of Pine Grove. And it was
very fitting that Mr.. Lage should have
this honor. For Is years he was dis
trict road supervisor on the East Side.
1t was very fitting that the news re-
port was published. Otherwise, the
public might not have heard of Mr..
Lagos drive down the newly cut grade
Nor would they have had the benefit of
his fund of knowledge on early road
building.
Mr.. Lage called at the Glacier office
last week. In his good natured way.
which has become proverbial here, he
announced that he was going to lick
the editor, and then he gave his reas
Ons for the chastisement-ano man
had been given credit for the first trip
in over the highway. The editor didn't
get a licking but instead fine story.
This is the way Mr.. Lage told it:
II took my horse and buggy and
drove up the old road to the Wilson
Fike home about four miles from town
and then turned the nag north. This
occurred on December l. The con-
struction crew still remaining on the
grade. clearing up debris, told me
would be the first to make the trip
clear through.
"As drove down the magnificent
new road, with Its wide cuts and deep
fills, its graceful curves, | was made
to think of how magical has been the
development in road construction in
the past 35 years. | recalled in 1885, |
when had charge of cutting the first
grade from the east bank of Hood |
river just opposite the village of Hood
River, up over the hill. that the work |
Of making the entire mile and half |
passable to our heavy wagons, was
only $l92.50. Practically all of the |
work was volunteered by ranchers. |
About Is years later the orchard Sec
tion had become more thickly settled. |
Orcharding had been launched as a |
Columbia industry, and citizens |
felt the need of better grade to and |
from the city. A survey was made up |
the east side gorgesof Hood river. and
the new grade was cut, by contract. |
for $500.
1t is interesting to compare the cost
of the present grade with those of
earlier road building. The unit of the
Loop Highway, which intersects the |
Columbia River Highway near where
the original East Side grade began and |
extends to the Odell district, a dis
tance of 6.04 miles, was built by the |
E. A. Webster Co., at contract cost |
of $ll4. 1872 so. 1t is a confirmed fact |
that the contracting concern lost |
money. The old East Side grade was
considered at the time it was built the
first word in highway construction.
81 we'll remember when the work |
was completed" says Judge Blowers.
my father, the late Capt. A. S.
Blowers, was member of the WHsco
county board of commissioners, Hood |
River county not having been formed. |
The citizens rejoiced generally, and |
never did they dream then that it |
would be necessary to build another |
grade up the east side of the Hood
river canyon.
Mr.. Lage had charge of constructing
early roads all the way from Mosier to |
the Hood river canyon and as far south |
in the Hood River Valley as the Odell |
With the exception of the |
new Loop Highway he built practically
all of the early roads of the now popu-
lous district. He recalls how in early |
days, when he was supervising the
of a bridge over Rock |
creek at Mosier, he had to arise at 6 |
o'clock, in order to be at the work by |
o'clock and take charge of the crews. |
He invariably arrived home after dark. |
81 received a wage of 81 so per
day." says Mr.. Lage, land in those /
days that was considered princely
sum-"
Mr.. Lage has resided in the valley
for AZ years. He arrived here on the |
of March a. 1876 Six hours
later the late Z. L. Smith, one of the
builders of Hood River, and his family
from a river boat west of /
town.
The new Valley Trunk of the Mount
Hood Loop Highway will not only |
eliminate the old East Side grade. 1t /
will relegate pioneer highways all the /
way into the Upper Valley and pass
into the bounds of the Oregon National
Forest, where the Bureau of Public /
Roads has already cut about 20 miles |
Of new grade. FIVE of which have been /
surfaced. The old Booth Hill grade. a
bugabOO to travellers in the winter
months even when traffic was by horse
drawn vehicles exclusively.
The new grade. which is now under
q blanket of snow, was entirely COM
pleted this summer, except for few
hundred feet on the East Side. where
would have torn up exist
ing county roads during the season of
apple traffic, and about $500 feet in