Gale-force winds long made travel through the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River difficult for explorers and emigrants, and journals from the 1800s portray this singular passage in the Cascade Range as treacherous, with 60 mile-per-hour gusts common. By the 1880s, steamboats and a new railroad connected Hood River with communities to the east and west. Its spectacular scenery and drier climate made this blustery place a popular refuge from the dampness and drizzle of western Oregon, and after the Historic Columbia River Highway reached Hood River in 1916, Portlanders flocked there in their Model Ts. Today, those same conditions that gave the area its dry, breezy appeal at the turn of the century provide ideal conditions for windsurfing, drawing many visitors to watch boardheads in this colorful sport.