Oneonta Tunnel reopens with a blast of history

Saturday event celebrates restored Columbia River Highway landmark

By Sharon Nesbit

The Gresham Outlook, Mar 18, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jim Clark / Gresham Outlook

Workers walk through the renovated Oneonta Tunnel at on the historic Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway. An official dedication will take place on Saturday, March 21.

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Beginning Saturday, people once again can follow the old Columbia River Highway right through the basalt heart of Oneonta Bluff.

The official reopening of the 125-foot Oneonta Tunnel, about 2 miles east of Multnomah Falls on the historic highway, is at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 21.

The restored 1914 tunnel, skinny by today’s standards, is open only to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. On Monday, worried highway officials were still at work at the site, checking for rock slides at the tunnel’s east end.

The stub of lava cliff known as Oneonta Bluff was always a problem in the Columbia River Gorge. The railroad track originally ran right beneath the bluff and was often plagued by rock falls. With the track so close to the bluff, historic highway engineer Samuel Lancaster had no choice in 1914 but to pierce the rock with a tunnel to accommodate his road.

PLACE OF PEACE
Oneonta apparently borrowed its name from a site in New York State, according to Lewis McArthur, Oregon historian and author of “Oregon Geographic Names.” The best guess, says McArthur, is that a sternwheeler named “Oneonta,” built in the gorge in 1863, traveled in the area likely lent its name to the steep gorge and creek. The name translates to “place of peace.”

By 1948 the passage was too small for modern cars and trucks. The railroad, having moved farther north, left room for the highway department to route the road around the bluff. The old tunnel was plugged with debris, leaving a stub end of the original road and a “bridge to nowhere” spanning Oneonta Creek.

These days, the historic highway, including pieces abandoned when Interstate 84 was built, is a national treasure. The Columbia River Highway was the first scenic highway in the United States and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Abandoned portions, such as the Mosier Twin Tunnels that reopened in 2000, are now a popular bike and hiking trails.