Heading to Banks from Gales Creek? Take a different route while a fallen tree is cleared from Highway 6 west of Banks. Check Tripcheck for live traffic updates.
Highway 6 is back to two lanes after nearly a month of emergency repairs following December's landslide and sunken grade. Flaggers remain on site, with guardrail work scheduled for Monday.
Emergency repairs at the milepost 35 sunken grade continue on Highway 6, and this month, travelers can expect more delays as the Oregon Department of Transportation begins work on replacing guardrails along the corridor.
1926: A dream of a highway connecting Forest Grove to Tillamook continued. Dilley and Gales Creek feuded over flowers. Bacona, north of Buxton, still had a post office. Step into Forest Grove and Banks-area history from the lens of newspaper archives of the day.
With no long-term fix in sight for the crumbling Highway 6, county leaders declared an emergency Tuesday morning, asking the state to address the issues plaguing the Wilson River Highway.
A proposed toll road linking Forest Grove and Tillamook faced opposition, but Gales Creek residents would take any road they could get, according to a 1925 newspaper article.
"County Jail Filled to Overflow With Arrests Made" including Ernest Narver, Frank Kearns, Thomas Young, and Roy Kearns, all arrested at Balm Grove on liquor possession charges in Prohibition-era Gales Creek.
People are shooting exploding targets and firing hot lead into dry vegetation in the Tillamook Forest with predictable results: Five wildfires since May. These fires are all preventable, said Acting Forest Grove District Forester Stephanie Beall.
