Lewiston Hill

C. C. Van Arsdol laid it out, and a bronze on a stone shaft at this pullout remembers him as its engineer and the engineer of another highway and three railways. The grade climbed from about 725 feet in the valley through 64 curves to the 2,756-foot summit. It cost the state and the Lewiston highway district $141,587, and took so much of the highway fund that other parts of Idaho complained. On one November day a counter at the Eighteenth Street bridge tallied 1,280 cars climbing it. The current four-lane grade replaced it in 1977.

What the plaque says

Lewiston Hill When automobile traffic made steep old wagon roads obsolete, a remarkable new highway grade was built down this hill in 1917. With a series of sharp curves that let cars go 20 or 30 miles an hour--a good speed for that time--a gradual 10-mile 2000-foot grade was designed. It still can be used by anyone not in too much of a hurry who wants to see an engineering model of early highway construction. 417 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spalding — 9.3 mi
  The Nimiipuu went to St. Louis asking about a book. What came back was a mission, a printing press and a museum.

More markers nearby

• Steamboats — steps away
• Mackenzie's Post — 1.2 mi
• Lewis Clark State College — 1.2 mi
• The First Capital — 1.2 mi