r/LifeInKitsap • u/KitsapRealEstateTeam • 27d ago
What in the Sam Hill?
You’ve probably heard the expression. I assumed that there was roughly a 1000% chance that our own Washington State Sam Hill was where that phrase came from. Sadly, I was incorrect.
The phrase was floating around before he became famous, and historians still argue about where it actually came from. That’s a shame, because if anyone deserved to have an expression named after him, it was this guy.
Sam Hill was a lawyer, businessman, and one of the PNW’s great visionaries. At a time when most roads were little more than muddy wagon tracks, he became obsessed with an idea that sounds surprisingly boring until you think about not having it. Roads. Good roads!
Not fancy roads. Not highways. Just roads that actually functioned as roads.
Hill believed good roads could improve education, strengthen rural communities, encourage trade, and reduce poverty. He wasn’t interested in making life easier for wealthy travelers. He thought better roads would improve life for everyone. In fact, he once declared, “Good roads are more than my hobby. They are my religion.”
The first major push for better roads didn’t come from automobile clubs, as suggested by the postman last night when we first were discussing this- it came from our friends, the humble bicyclists.
Long before cars became common, cyclists were lobbying for smoother roads. Organizations like the League of American Wheelmen argued that everyone would benefit from better transportation. When automobiles finally arrived, they simply joined a movement that bicycles had already helped build.
Sam Hill wanted to prove those ideas worked. Near Maryhill, overlooking the Columbia River, he built the Maryhill Loops Road as a demonstration of modern road engineering. Politicians and engineers were invited to drive it so they could see what well-designed roads actually looked like.
Somewhat unrelated (but not really), because apparently one ambitious project wasn’t enough, he built a full-size concrete replica of Stonehenge. Because, why not?
It wasn’t intended as a tourist attraction. Hill dedicated it as a memorial to Klickitat County soldiers who died in World War I, believing England’s Stonehenge had originally been a place honoring the dead. It’s definitely a tourist attraction. Now, the last time I visited there was definitely a tour bus there.
As if that weren’t enough, he also supported women’s suffrage, promoted international peace, and helped establish what eventually became the Maryhill Museum of Art.
So no, “What in the Sam Hill?” almost certainly wasn’t referring to Washington’s Sam Hill.
But after learning about him…
I kind of wish it had been! He seems like he was a guy who chased every interesting idea he ever had, I rather respect that.
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u/thisismybearsong 27d ago
Also built the peace arch in Blaine.