U.S. Route 197

U.S. Route 197 (US 197) is a north–south United States Highway, of which all but 2.76 miles of its 69.93 miles (4.44 of 112.54 km) are within the state of Oregon. The highway starts in rural Wasco County in Central Oregon at an intersection with US 97. US 197 travels north as a continuation of The Dalles-California Highway No. 4 through the cities of Maupin, Tygh Valley, and Dufur to The Dalles. Within The Dalles, the highway becomes concurrent with US 30 and intersects Interstate 84 (I-84) before it crosses over the Columbia River on The Dalles Bridge into Washington. The highway continues through the neighboring city of Dallesport in Klickitat County and terminates at a junction with State Route 14 (SR 14).

U.S. Route 197
US 197 highlighted in red
Route information
Auxiliary route of US 97
Maintained by ODOT and WSDOT
Length	69.93 mi[a] (112.54 km)
Existed	1952[3]–present
Major junctions
South end	US 97 near Shaniko, OR
Major intersections	OR 216 in Tygh Valley, OR I-84 / US 30 in The Dalles, OR
North end	SR 14 near Dallesport, WA
Location
Country	United States
States	Oregon, Washington
Counties	OR: Wasco WA: Klickitat
Highway system
United States Numbered Highway System List Special Divided
Oregon Highways Interstate US State Named Scenic
State highways in Washington Interstate US State Scenic Pre-1964 1964 renumbering Former
← OR 194 OR → US 199 ← US 195 WA → SR 202

US 197 was established in 1952 using the existing The Dalles-California Highway, itself created as a part of the initial named Oregon highways in 1917. US 197 traveled from its current northern terminus at Dallesport to US 97 in Maryhill along Primary State Highway 8 (PSH 8) and US 830, successors to the original State Road 8 designated along the corridor in 1907. The Dallesport–Maryhill section was transferred to SR 14 in 1979, but was not recognized by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) until 2006.

Route description

US 197 runs 69.93 miles (112.54 km) in Oregon and Washington and is maintained by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).^[1][2]

Oregon

US 197 crossing the Deschutes River into Maupin in rural Wasco County

US 197 begins at an intersection with US 97 at Shaniko Junction in Wasco County, located between the cities of Madras and Shaniko in Central Oregon. The highway, a continuation of The Dalles-California Highway No. 4,^[4] travels northwest over the 3,363-foot-high (1,025 m) Criterion Summit and down along Stag Canyon through the community of Criterion towards Maupin. US 197 crosses the Deschutes River and a BNSF rail line on a warren truss bridge,^[5] becoming Deschutes Avenue as it passes South Wasco County High School and through the city of Maupin. The highway continues west into the Juniper Flat and intersects Oregon Route 216 (OR 216), designated as Wapinitia Highway No. 44,^[4] and forms a concurrency. US 197 and OR 216 travel north and northwest to Tygh Valley, where OR 216 leaves the concurrency and heads east on Sherars Bridge Highway No. 290 towards Grass Valley.^[4][6][7] The lone highway continues north up Butler Canyon onto Tygh Ridge, passing through the 2,710-foot-high (830 m) Tygh Grade Summit. US 197 travels east of Dufur and down into the Columbia River Gorge, entering the city of The Dalles. The highway begins a 0.24-mile-long (0.39 km) concurrency with US 30, traveling north over an east–west BNSF rail line to a diamond interchange with I-84.^[5] US 197 leaves the interchange and the state of Oregon on The Dalles Bridge, crossing over the Columbia River into Washington.^[8][9] An ODOT survey measuring traffic volume for any average day of the year, expressed in terms of annual average daily traffic (AADT), was conducted in 2011 on US 197 and calculated that the busiest section of the highway in Oregon was on The Dalles Bridge, serving 5,800 vehicles, while the least busiest section of the highway was north of its terminus at US 97, serving 390 vehicles.^[10]

Washington

US 197 is carried by The Dalles Bridge over the Columbia River into Washington

US 197 enters Washington on The Dalles Bridge, a steel cantilever truss bridge that crosses the Columbia River downstream of The Dalles Dam, and travels into Dallesport in Klickitat County. The highway continues north for 2.76 miles (4.44 km) past Columbia Gorge Regional Airport to its northern terminus, an intersection with SR 14.^[2][9] US 197 is defined by the Washington State Legislature as SR 197, part of the Revised Code of Washington as §47.17.382.^[11] Every year, WSDOT conducts a series of surveys on its highways in the state to measure traffic volume, expressed in terms of AADT. In 2012, WSDOT calculated that the Washington section of US 197 served between 3,700 and 6,100 vehicles, mostly on The Dalles Bridge.^[12]

History

US 197 northbound on Tygh Grade between Tygh Valley and Dufur

US 197 within Washington was added to the state highway system in 1907 as State Road 8, later designated as PSH 8 in 1937, traveling east along the Columbia River from Vancouver to Maryhill.^[13][14][15] US 197 within Oregon is designated as a segment of The Dalles-California Highway No. 4, created as part of the initial named state highway system, adopted by the Oregon State Highway Commission on November 27, 1917.^[3] The highway traveled south from The Dalles through Central Oregon to the California state line south of Klamath Falls.^[16][17] Under the United States Numbered Highway system, approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) on November 11, 1926,^[18] State Road 8 in Washington was co-signed with US 830 from Vancouver to Maryhill and The Dalles-California Highway in Oregon was co-signed with US 97 from Shaniko Junction to the California state line.^[19] The Oregon State Highway Department created a numbered state highway system to complement the U.S. route system on May 18, 1937, and The Dalles-California Highway from Shaniko Junction to The Dalles was numbered as OR 50.^[3] OR 50 was renumbered to OR 23 on May 26, 1950, and became the Oregon section of US 197 when it was established in 1952.^[3]

US 197 traveled north onto the newly constructed The Dalles Bridge over the Columbia River to US 830 and PSH 8 northeast of Dallesport and traveled east with the two highways to end at US 97 in Maryhill.^[14][20] US 830 and its concurrency with US 197 were removed from the U.S. route system in 1968,^[21][22][23] leaving US 197 concurrent with the successor to PSH 8, SR 14, after the 1964 state highway renumbering.^[24] The concurrency with SR 14 was removed from the Washington state highway system in 1979,^[11][25] but remained as a part of US 197 as defined by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) until September 22, 2006.^[26]

Major intersections

State	County	Location	mi[b]	km	Destinations	Notes
Oregon	Wasco	​	0.00	0.00	US 97 – Madras, Bend, Shaniko, Biggs	Southern terminus
		​	24.74	39.82	OR 216 west – Government Camp, Portland	South end of OR 216 overlap
		Tygh Valley	33.28	53.56	OR 216 east – Tygh Valley, Wamic, Sherars Bridge, Grass Valley	North end of OR 216 overlap
		The Dalles	66.24	106.60	US 30 west – The Dalles	South end of US 30 overlap
			66.48– 66.56	106.99– 107.12	I-84 / US 30 east – The Dalles, Portland, Arlington	Interchange, north end of US 30 overlap
Columbia River			67.17 0.00	108.10 0.00	The Dalles Bridge Oregon–Washington state line
Washington	Klickitat	​	2.76	4.44	SR 14 to I-82 – Vancouver, Kennewick	Northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus

Notes

1. Total mileage is a summation of the state mileages.^[1][2]
2. Milepost numbers reset at the Oregon–Washington state line crossing.^[1][2]

References

1. "Straightline Charts: The Dalles-California Highway No. 4" (PDF). Oregon Department of Transportation. May 2012. pp. 1–3. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
2. Staff (2012). "State Highway Log: Planning Report 2012, SR 2 to SR 971" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transportation. p. 1212. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 10, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
3. Singh, Ron (January 2007). "History of State Highways in Oregon" (PDF). Oregon Department of Transportation. pp. 89–98. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
4. "Cross Reference Table of Highway Route Number to State Highway Number" (PDF). Oregon Department of Transportation. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 31, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
5. State of Oregon: Oregon Railroads (PDF) (Map). Oregon Department of Transportation. July 7, 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 19, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
6. Oregon Transportation Map Showing Federal Functional Classification of Roads: Wasco County (PDF) (Map). Oregon Department of Transportation. 2012. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
7. Oregon Transportation Map Showing Federal Functional Classification of Roads: Wasco County (PDF) (Map). Oregon Department of Transportation. 2012. p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
8. Oregon Transportation Map Showing Federal Functional Classification of Roads: Wasco County (PDF) (Map). Oregon Department of Transportation. 2012. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
9. "U.S. Route 197" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
10. Staff (2011). "Traffic Volumes on State Highways" (PDF). Oregon Department of Transportation. p. 6. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
11. "47.17.382: State route No. 197". Revised Code of Washington. Washington State Legislature. 1979 [1973]. Archived from the original on October 3, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
12. Staff (2012). "2012 Annual Traffic Report" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transportation. p. 156. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved March 23, 2013.
13. Washington State Legislature (March 13, 1907). "Chapter 151: Providing for the Establishment, Construction and Maintenance of State Roads and Making Appropriations for Certain State Roads". Session Laws of the State of Washington (1907 ed.). Olympia, Washington: Washington State Legislature. pp. 310–311. Retrieved March 17, 2013. State Road No. 8, or the Columbia River road: This road shall begin at the town of Washougal in Clarke county, Washington, and run thence over the line as surveyed for such state road through Clarke and Skamania counties, and thence over the most practicable route to the town of Goldendale, in Klickitat county.
14. Washington State Legislature (March 17, 1937). "Chapter 190: Establishment of Primary State Highways". Session Laws of the State of Washington (1937 ed.). Olympia, Washington: Washington State Legislature. pp. 937–938. Archived from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2013. SEC. 8. A primary state highway to be known as Primary State Highway No. 8, or the Evergreen Highway, is hereby established according to description as follows: Beginning at Vancouver on Primary State Highway No. 1, thence in an easterly direction by the most feasible route by way of Stevenson to Goldendale, thence in a northeasterly direction by the most feasible route by way of Satus Pass to a junction with Primary State Highway No. 3, southeast of Yakima.
15. Long, Priscilla (June 12, 2006). "The Dalles Bridge spanning the Columbia River is completed on December 18, 1953". HistoryLink. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
16. Constitution and statutes of the state of Oregon relating to roads, highways, bridges and ferries. Oregon Secretary of State. 1917. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
17. "To Cinder State Highway". The Spokesman-Review. June 19, 1917. p. 13. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
18. Weingroff, Richard F. (January 9, 2009). "From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System". Highway History. Federal Highway Administration. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
19. Bureau of Public Roads & American Association of State Highway Officials (November 11, 1926). United States System of Highways Adopted for Uniform Marking by the American Association of State Highway Officials (Map). 1:7,000,000. Washington, DC: United States Geological Survey. OCLC 32889555. Retrieved November 7, 2013 – via Wikimedia Commons.
20. The Dalles, 1953 (JPG) (Map). 1:250,000. United States Geological Survey. 1953. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
21. Northwest, 1967 (Map). Rand McNally. 1967. Archived from the original on August 30, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
22. The Dalles, 1971 (JPG) (Map). 1:250,000. United States Geological Survey. 1971. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
23. "State Approves Route Extension". Lewiston Morning Tribune. April 21, 1966. p. 12. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
24. Prahl, C. G. (December 1, 1965). "Identification of State Highways" (PDF). Washington State Highway Commission, Department of Highways. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 2, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
25. Staff (1980). "Annual Traffic Report, 1980" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transportation. p. 152. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 18, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
26. Washington State Department of Transportation (September 22, 2006). "An Application from the State Highway or Transportation Department of Washington for the Elimination of U.S. Route 197 (part)" (PDF). American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 26, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2013.

External links

Template:Attached KML/U.S. Route 197

KML is from Wikidata

• US 197 at US Highway Ends
• The Dalles-California Highway #4 at Oregon Highways
• US 197 at Highways of Washington State