The Grand Scenic Highway as Envisioned by Moran

Hint: it’s not Mt. Baker Road

By Tom Welch

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.

Tom Welch, noted Orcas historian and author adds, “I can’t shake the thought that the sentiments expressed in the article apply quite well to the Mt. Baker Road expansion project. I don’t know a thing about highways and roads and emergency vehicles and the recommended speeds they should achieve while rushing to an emergency of some type….but I can’t help but think that what they plan for Mt. Baker Road is the wrong approach for Orcas Island.

” I don’t know what was in Mr. Moran’s mind when he hired the ‘expert’ to advise on Orcas Island roads all those years ago, but suspect it had something to do with his notion of ‘progress’. I do know that I don’t see any ‘progress’ in remaking an island road into something wider, smoother, and faster.

“Perhaps the county planners should take another look at the Grand Scenic Highway envisioned by Robert  Moran.”