tiers had relied on stagecoaches or steamboats. Astoria, the state's oldest city, had no railroad until 1898. Not until 1911 were coyotes on the high plateaus of central Oregon startled by steam whistles, and then the air was made doubly shrill by the construction race to Bend between the Hill and Harriman lines. Marshfield waited until April 5, 1918, to greet its first train. Burns, center of the cattle country, had to wait until 1924.
But the smell of gasoline was already heavy in the air. The good roads movement opposed at the outset by many who were to benefit most from it, was well under way by 1910. Auto travel demanded speedy and accessible highways. Presently the first of the one-man stage and truck lines appeared, automobiles that bumped over the still-dusty roads at 25 miles an hour, stopping anywhere and everywhere for passengers and freight, and delivering them to cities or remote mountain hamlets. Ribbons of asphalt, macadam, and concrete radiated from the more populous centers, and stretched out a few miles at a time across and up and down the state. The Columbia River Highway was begun and completed. The Pacific Highway became a hard-surface reality in 1932. By the end °f J939> there were almost 50,000 miles of road in the state, of which about 5,900 had medium or high type improvement.
Meanwhile the rail carriers were entering the bus and truck transport business and were pulling up rails that had outlasted their usefulness. Today, there are innumerable trucking lines, both interstate and intrastate. Much of the inland freight trade of Oregon's coast communities was first made possible by trucking companies, and the vast spaces of southeastern Oregon are still served entirely by motor.
Oregon was quick to grasp the significance of air transport. No soonei had stunt flying in crude planes become a part of state and county fair programs than adventurous individuals began buying machines for private use. Pastures near population centers became landing fields. As these pioneers showed the possibilities of flying, progressive cities started building airports. By 1936 there were 32 established airports in 31 cities. Three of these—Portland, Medford and Pendleton—are transcontinental lines and many of the others have been recognized as intrastate ports. There are also many emergency landing fields. In recent years the United States Forest Service has used planes for detecting and fighting forest fires.
The year 1936 saw the development of important Oregon airports, when the Works Progress Administration allocated one and one-half million dollars for their modernization and improvement. The new Port
