Between the rainy Cascades and the eastern Oregon deserts, Mosier developed in a unique climate that covers its hillsides with spring wildflowers and later supported an agricultural economy. Jonah H. Mosier settled there in 1854 on a donation land claim after traveling west to California in 1849 and to Oregon in 1853, and he and his wife ran an impromptu stage station serving Oregon Trail emigrants moving down the Gorge toward the Willamette Valley. The railroad's arrival in 1882 brought a real estate boom as settlers bought land for its transportation access and supposed promise for apples, though cherries later proved better suited to the soil. Another surge of industry came with the Columbia River Highway in 1921, when roadhouses, restaurants, and service stations lined the route through town for touring cars bound to or from The Dalles. Sawmilling long stood as Mosier's primary industry, with three mills at one time processing logs from nearby hills, while cherry orchards dominate today. West of town, the Mosier Twin Tunnels, Mosier Falls in Pocket Park, and the Mosier Creek Bridge, a graceful deck arch bridge designed by Conde B. McCullough and completed in 1920, reflect this history and landscape within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.