A Glimpse of History: The Grand Scenic Highway Revisited (with Garbage Trucks)

By Tom Welch

When I wrote the following article back in 2007, I was interested in ‘what might have been’ on Orcas Island. A major roadway slashing across the island from end to end was one development that I was mighty glad had never occurred. The recent conversation about solid waste, and the possible closing of the ‘dump’, concerns another development I will be happy to see pass into history without becoming a reality. I can’t imagine huge garbage trucks joining the cars, contractors’ trucks, dump trucks, bicyclists, and deer on our small, hilly island roads.

‘The San Juan Islander newspaper reported in 1910 on plans developed by Robert Moran and a nationally-prominent ‘good roads expert’ named Samuel C. Lancaster to build a ‘Grand Scenic Highway’ on Orcas Island from Doe Bay to Deer Harbor. The proposed road was to be twenty five miles in length, would start at the Doe Bay waterfront, go up and over Mount Constitution, through Eastsound, up and over Turtleback Mountain, and would end at the waterfront in Deer Harbor.

Lancaster studied the contours of the land during a stay of several weeks at the Moran mansion at Rosario, and considered the project entirely feasible. He claimed Mount Constitution was ‘easy of ascent’, and thought the topography of the island no barrier to roadbuilding. While Lancaster drew up plans and went to Washington D.C. to try and interest the federal government in the project, Moran was reported to be considering financing the entire project himself, under ‘certain conditions’. Expected to cost about $100,000 each way for a two way road, or a total of $200,000.00, and to be paid for by government and state aid and private subscription, the completed road would “…rank with the great scenic highways of the world.”.

Wealthy island residents, including Charles F. Roehl, became interested in the local possibilities such a road would bring. Roehl announced plans to build on his property between Olga and Doe Bay a “…complete summer resort, equipped with baths and accommodations that are attractive to the tourist.”, and to seal the mouth of Doe Bay with a water-tight bulkhead that would have closeable gates and trap ‘warm’ tidal water for bathing. (The author supposes that Mr. Roehl spent very little, if any, time in our local waters.)

Convinced that the San Juan Islands in general, and Orcas Island in particular, were underappreciated for both their natural scenic beauty and low land prices, Robert Moran ‘boosted’ the islands every chance he got.

He had powerful connections in many places, not least with the transcontinental railroad lines, and their publicity departments all promised to advertise the San Juan Islands throughout the East in 1911. Moran stated that Orcas and the neighboring islands were to become one of the “…great summer homes sites of the earth, and Puget Sound is to become in summer what California is in winter.”

For a variety of reasons, the Grand Scenic Highway was never built. Despite the allure of a direct, high-speed road link between Doe Bay and Deer Harbor, island residents today continue to travel between these points on a slow, meandering road that never gets very much above sea level. Bearing up under the burden of incredible scenic vistas that open at every turn along the shoreline, and the mythic hush of the deep forest fleetingly captured on a hilly dash through the trees alongside Turtleback Mountain, we poor modern travelers are consigned to slow roads at low altitudes. Thank heaven the Grand Scenic Highway remains a long-forgotten dream.’

Now, for some reason apparently having to do with inaccurate budget forecasts (what a surprise!), we face the possibility of adding giant, lumbering garbage trucks to our scenic vistas. What a pitiful thought, to imagine taking that wonderful drive under the shoulder of Turtleback Mountain, passing the Crow Valley Schoolhouse, entering the shadow of the deepening woods – to come to a screeching halt as an immense garbage truck blocks the road. I can just see the tourists as they put their cameras away and head for the ferry landing, realizing that Orcas Island has become just another tarnished gem.