Old West Stagecoach and Team Mousepad

Oregon's scenic Wilson River Highway (State route 6) started life as the "Wilson River Boom, Toll Road and Improvement Company" road [aka "Runyon's Wilson River Rd.] in 1890, in order to give north coast residents a "shorter" [10 hour/47mile] trip to Portland and the Willamette Valley, than the more southerly Trask river route to Yamhill County. The road was hacked out of Oregon's Coast Range mountains timber by workers hired by W.S. Runyon, president of the aforementioned company, James Steel, vice-president and Claude Thayer of the Tillamook Bank. John H. McNamer and H.D. Jones were partners in livery stables in the towns of Forest Grove and Tillamook. They ran freight wagons and passenger coaches over the route's rugged terrain. Rainy or snowy weather conditions were [and continue to be] challenging, winter, spring or fall. The road's poor drainage caused cave-ins, washouts, landslides, and blow-down blockages of standing timber during fierce windstorms. In steeper sections leading up to Coast Summit [elev. 1743] mules drew the coaches, while horses with less "horse sense" were used down below the "Half-way House" This painting reminds me not to complain somedays re: the time it takes to get places via car, plane, etc. We could have it a whole lot slower - or would that be a good thing?