Oregon Route 6 is a state highway in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

that runs between the city of

Tillamook Tillamook may refer to: Places: * Tillamook County, Oregon, United States * Tillamook, Oregon, a city, the seat of Tillamook County * Tillamook River, United States * Tillamook Bay, a bay in the northwestern part of Oregon * Tillamook Head, a natu ...

on the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

, to the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

, near

Banks A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

. OR 6 traverses the Wilson River Highway No. 37 of the Oregon state highway system, named after the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

paralleling the highway's western segment.

Route description

OR 6 begins (at its western terminus) at a junction with U.S. Route 101 and Oregon Route 131 in downtown

. From there it winds eastward though the

Northern Oregon Coast Range The Northern Oregon Coast Range is the northern section of the Oregon Coast Range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region, located in the northwest portion of the state of Oregon, United States. This section of the mountain range, part ...

along the Wilson River, and through a portion of the

Tillamook State Forest The Tillamook State Forest is a publicly owned forest in the U.S. state of Oregon. Managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry, it is located west of Portland in the Northern Oregon Coast Range, and spans Washington, Tillamook, Yamhill, and C ...

. The stretch through the Coast Range is well known for its scenic beauty (as well as frequent accidents; the highway is a highly traveled route despite numerous twists and turns and steep grades). Emerging from the Coast Range, it passes through a few foothill communities. At the base of the Coast Range,

Oregon Route 8 Oregon Route 8, also known as Oregon Highway 8, is an Oregon state highway which serves the western suburbs of Portland. The road is locally known as Canyon Road and Tualatin Valley Highway, and travels through the center of the Tualatin Valley ...

forks off to the east, heading towards the communities of Gales Creek and Forest Grove; whereas OR 6 continues to the northeast. OR 6 soon passes south of the city of

, where it has an interchange with the Nehalem Highway ( OR 47), and Wilkesboro. A few miles east of Banks, OR 6 ends at an interchange with U.S. Route 26, the Sunset Highway. Travelers generally continue east on US 26 (which is a freeway east of the interchange) into Portland. OR 6 passes through some of the areas devastated during the

Tillamook Burn The Tillamook Burn was a series of forest fires in the Northern Oregon Coast Range of Oregon in the United States that destroyed a total area of of old growth timber in what is now known as the Tillamook State Forest. There were four wildfir ...

, a series of fires that occurred in the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s in eastern Tillamook County.

History

During the Great Depression workers from the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

assisted in the construction of the road. Before 1957, OR 6 included the entirety of today's

, plus an additional stretch into downtown Portland. With the completion of the Sunset Highway (and the new alignment through Banks), the route through Gales Creek and the

Tualatin Valley The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon in the United States. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, ...

was renumbered as OR 8; and OR 6 was placed on the alignment it has today. The section from Glenwood east to the US 26 junction was a former and temporary routing of US 26, continuing north through Timber. This routing was used by US 26 while the final stretch was completed. In 2022, the state legislature passed a law that requires the

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

to conduct a survey of the highway to reduce hazardous road designs. This came in response to seven fatalities in the previous year and other collisions, many of which involved "lane departures".

Major intersections

References

External links

Oregon Highways

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Route 006

006 Alec Trevelyan (006) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1995 James Bond film '' GoldenEye'', the first film to feature actor Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Trevelyan is portrayed by actor Sean Bean. The likeness of Bean as Ale ...

Transportation in Washington County, Oregon Transportation in Tillamook County, Oregon Works Progress Administration in Oregon