The Long Way
Washington and Tillamook counties County
A person hikes on a trail through a lush green forest.
Plate I. Forest trail, Trees to Sea Scenic Byway. From tillamookcoast.com
A historic black and white photograph showing vintage cars driving on a narrow dirt mountain road.
Plate II. Wilson River Highway, Trees to Sea Scenic Byway. From oregonencyclopedia.org
A historic black and white photo shows cars driving on a dirt road through a logged hillside forest with dead trees.
Plate III. Tillamook Burn landscape, Trees to Sea Scenic Byway. From oregonencyclopedia.org
A historic black and white photograph showing a dirt road under construction alongside a rocky cliff and forested hillside, with machinery in the foreground.
Plate IV. Historical road construction, Trees to Sea Scenic Byway. From oregonencyclopedia.org
A line of vintage cars and a bus driving through a dirt cut in the earth.
Plate V. Vintage traffic along Trees to Sea Scenic Byway. From oregonencyclopedia.org
A black and white photograph shows a winding dirt road carved into a logged hillside.
Plate VI. Early road construction, Trees to Sea Scenic Byway. From oregonencyclopedia.org

Trees to Sea Scenic Byway

Banks, Washington and Tillamook counties County, Oregon. State Byway; Year-round.

Details

Map. Banks, Washington and Tillamook counties County, Oregon. Larger map
Where
Banks, Washington and Tillamook counties County, OR. No street address stated. Directions
Getting there
Westward along Highway 6, entering the Tillamook State Forest near the Gales Creek Overlook (around mile marker 34).
Access
Most of the highway is unserved by cell towers, increasing emergency response time; fiber optic cable was laid in 2025.
Website
traveloregon.com
Established
2018.

One of Oregon's newest scenic byways, connecting Tualatin Valley through the Tillamook State Forest to the Oregon Coast.

Notable Events

  1. 1876Tillamook farmers William Baxter, Jacob Elliott, and William Doughty sought a more direct route up the Wilson River and down Gales Creek, but got lost and nearly starved before returning home. oregonencyclopedia.org
  2. 1893When the road was completed in 1893, travelers could cross the Coast Range in a day. oregonencyclopedia.org
  3. 1901The company was bankrupt by 1900, and stagecoach driver John McNamer assumed ownership of the road in 1901. oregonencyclopedia.org
  4. 1906Real estate developer E. F. Cannon and fellow Portland Automobile Club member O. W. Olsen claimed to be the first to drive an automobile from Tillamook to Portland on the Wilson River Road; it took them six days in a steam-powered Locomobile. oregonencyclopedia.org
  5. 1907Because of McNamer's insistence that travelers often clear the road themselves and pay tolls for commercial loads, people tore the gates down in 1907; Tillamook County soon took ownership of the road and eliminated the tolls. oregonencyclopedia.org
  6. 1921In 1921, the counties paid a surveyor to lay out the road. oregonencyclopedia.org
  7. 1930sHistoric WPA rock masonry work lines the highway for 20 miles between Mile Markers 33 and 13; 58 rock masonry features along the Wilson River Highway have been inventoried by ODOT. digitalcollections.library.oregon.gov
  8. 1933A major forest fire began in August of 1933 in the Gales Creek drainage; it was the first of four major fires to burn in the area, later collectively known as the Tillamook Burn. digitalcollections.library.oregon.gov
  9. 1934After years of false starts and funding woes, construction began in 1934 with federal assistance to improve the eighteen miles between Tillamook and Jordan Creek so loggers could haul trees killed by the 1933 Tillamook Burn. oregonencyclopedia.org
  10. 1936In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided the funds to finish the highway. oregonencyclopedia.org
  11. 1940The Devils Lake Fork Bridge at Mile Marker 32 was built under cooperative agreement by the US Public Roads Administration and the Oregon State Highway Commission in 1940. digitalcollections.library.oregon.gov
  12. 1941Twenty years after the initial road survey, the new Wilson River Highway opened to the public on October 15, 1941, cutting the travel time between Tillamook and Portland by 50 percent. oregonencyclopedia.org
  13. 1956In 1956, the Oregon Department of Transportation rerouted OR 6 near Dorman Pond to the Sunset Highway, saving drivers only two miles but cutting travel time by a half hour. oregonencyclopedia.org
  14. 2018In 2018, Oregon designated the Wilson River Highway as the Trees to Sea Scenic Byway in recognition of the landscape shifts along the route, from the farms and vineyards of Banks, through the Tillamook State Forest. oregonencyclopedia.org

People

  • E. F. Cannon, Real estate developer who claimed the first automobile drive from Tillamook to Portland on the Wilson River Road (1906).
  • Jacob Elliott, Tillamook farmer who sought a route up the Wilson River (1876).
  • John McNamer, Stagecoach driver who assumed ownership of the toll road (1901).
  • Loyal M. Graham, Washington County leader instrumental in getting the highway built; the Devils Lake Fork bridge was named after him.
  • O. W. Olsen, Portland Automobile Club member who claimed the first automobile drive from Tillamook to Portland on the Wilson River Road (1906).
  • W. S. Runyan, Led the group that began building the Wilson River toll road (1890).
  • William Baxter, Tillamook farmer who sought a route up the Wilson River (1876).
  • William Doughty, Tillamook farmer who sought a route up the Wilson River (1876).

Sources

  1. traveloregon.com/things-to-do/trip-ideas/scenic-drives/trees-sea-scenic-byway
  2. tillamookcoast.com/stories/blog/trees-to-sea-scenic-byway
  3. oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/wilson-river-highway
  4. digitalcollections.library.oregon.gov/nodes/view/122421
  5. forestgrovenewstimes.com/2018/05/03/highway-6-between-banks-coast-named-a-scenic-byway