Finding a Lost Roadhouse
For many years, the Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn existed in obscurity and long-lost memories. One day an old photo was found in the Mt Hood Cultural Center and Museum‘ in Government Camp’s archives labeled simply as being on the Mount Hood Loop Road. It was a cute cabin style log building with a profile of a rooster on the peak of its roof and a sign that read, “1/2 Chicken and Hot Biscuit” There was no other context or explanation to where it sat in its day.
One evening I was sorting through some of the ephemera that I have gathered through the years looking for information about a separate story that I was researching when I opened a folder and a thin cardboard menu in the shape of a rooster was staring me right in the yes. It read, “Cock-A-Doodle-Do at Cedar Creek on Mt. Hood Loop Highway – 5 miles east of Sandy, Oregon” At the top of their menu of available dishes was, “1/2 Chicken and Hot Biscuits 50c”.
I had to go find the photo to see if it could be the same. I was convinced but I had to go and search the newspaper clippings to see what I could find. There wasn’t very much information but sure enough, I found an article about a fire at the Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn Mount Hood Loop Highway in 1935. The photo that was included in the article was in flames, but the building is unmistakable. It matched the old photo that Lloyd had found.
A Roadhouse Born of the Automobile Era
The Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn operated during the early years of automobile travel to Mount Hood, shortly after the Mount Hood Loop Road opened in 1923. Like many businesses of its kind, it was designed to capture the attention-and spending money-of motorists heading to and from the mountain.
Newspaper advertisements and notices consistently place the inn five miles east of Sandy, on the Mount Hood Loop Highway at Cedar Creek. Today, that location is best known as the site of the Oregon Candy Farm and the Mount Hood Pie Company, but in the late 1920s and early 1930s it was a strategic stopping point along a busy recreational route.
The Cock-a-Doodle-Do was described repeatedly as a log cabin inn, a style that fit both the mountain setting and the romantic image travelers expected along the highway.
More Than a Café
Social columns from 1930 provide a glimpse into how the Cock-a-Doodle-Do was used. One notice describes a “highway breakfast” held there by the Upsilon chapter of Sigma Kappa, honoring young women entering Oregon State College. Events like this suggest the inn was considered respectable and welcoming—not merely a roadside café, but a gathering place.
Surviving menus reinforce that impression while also revealing the inn’s personality. Printed in the shape of a rooster, they advertised fried chicken, brook trout, hot biscuits, corn pone, homemade pies, coffee, milk, and beer. One slogan invited guests to “Come and dance until the rooster crows.”
Like many roadhouses of the period, the Cock-a-Doodle-Do blended dining, socializing, and entertainment into a single destination meant to keep travelers from simply passing by.
A Log Building with a Distinctive Chimney
The Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn was built entirely of logs, including one feature that would later become critical in identifying it: a log chimney. Chimneys constructed of stacked logs were unusual, even among log buildings, and they stand out clearly in photographs.
For years, a photograph shared by longtime Mount Hood historian Lloyd A. Musser showed an unidentified log building along the Loop Road advertising chicken dinners and featuring a rooster sign. At the time, its identity was unknown.
Only later did a comparison with newspaper fire photos reveal the match. Both images showed the same distinctive log chimney, confirming that the unidentified building was in fact the Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn Mount Hood Loop Highway.
Destroyed by Fire in 1935
On January 7, 1935, the Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn was destroyed by fire. Newspaper accounts report that the blaze was sparked by the chimney and spread rapidly through the log structure.
The fire was so intense that traffic on the Mount Hood Loop Highway was stopped. More than 100 vehicles were forced to wait until the building was completely consumed before they could pass. Photographs taken during the fire show flames pouring from the log chimney, confirming details described in the written accounts.
Mrs. Bernice Bruce, identified as the manager and operator, was able to save only a few belongings. No estimate of the loss was given, and there is no indication that the inn was ever rebuilt.
A Vanished Landmark, Recovered by Clues
The Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn disappeared quickly after the fire, leaving little trace behind. Unlike some Mount Hood roadhouses that evolved, rebuilt, or survived into later decades, it vanished entirely—its memory preserved only in scattered clippings and ephemera.
Yet its story fits squarely into a larger pattern. As soon as the Mount Hood Loop Road opened, roadside businesses appeared almost overnight. Restaurants, inns, and taverns lined the route, each hoping to capture a share of the growing recreational traffic. Nearby places like Wistaria Farm Inn were part of the same brief boom.
Most of these roadhouses are gone today. Only a handful, such as the Barlow Trail Inn and the Zigzag Inn, remain.
The Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn may have lasted only a short time, but it represents a vivid moment in Mount Hood history—when a log cabin, a rooster sign, hot biscuits, and a dance floor were enough to stop traffic on a mountain highway.
Sources
- The Oregonian, September 7, 1930; June 15, 1930; January 7, 1935.
- The Oregon Daily Journal, June 15, 1930; September 9, 1930; January 7, 1935.
- Cock-a-Doodle-Do Inn rooster-shaped menu, early 1930s, private collection of the author.
- Historic roadside photograph of a log roadhouse on the Mount Hood Loop Road, originally shared by Lloyd A. Musser (2020).
- Mount Hood Loop Road historical context and geographic references, including Cedar Creek east of Sandy, Oregon.
About the reconstructed images on this website.
Some images in this article may be reproductions based on historic photographs or newspaper articles that survive only in poor condition. These images have been digitally restored to improve clarity and, where necessary, reconstructed to represent the originals accurately. All reconstructions are guided by historical evidence and are intended to clarify-not reinterpret-the original scenes.