MARYHILL -- It is only correct that the roads leading to the Maryhill Museum of Art -- highways 14 and 97 -- are paved with asphalt.

Sam Hill would be pleased to know that his roadbuilding legacy endures.

What better day trip than to visit the house Hill built and named for his daughter but never lived in? But why would anyone construct such a castlelike place in such a remote spot?

And why is it filled with art that should be in a metropolitan museum, not in a massive edifice on a hill 100 miles from the nearest city big enough to deserve such a cultural wonder?

The answers lie within Maryhill's walls, where visitors can draw close to the wealth and opulence of 20th-century Romanian royalty, see exquisite chess sets from around the world, discover the flamboyant art form of dancer Loie Fuller, study the plaster molds of Auguste Rodin's sculptures and look at an extensive collection of Native American artifacts gathered from throughout North America.

All this is tucked inside what began in 1914 as a mansion atop a stark overlook from the Washington side of the Columbia River near Biggs, Ore. Hill acquired 5,000 acres on that high place 101 years ago with the vision of creating a Quaker agricultural community.

Even today, Maryhill is easy to miss. Visitors have to keep a sharp eye out for the hairpin entrance off Highway 14 just west of the turnoff to Biggs.

From the free ranging peacocks that parade on well-kept grounds to the spectacular view of the river where the subtle shifts in sky-scapes excite the expansive view, the mansion seems perfectly scaled for the wide-angle scene.

But beware: No visit to Maryhill should be less than three hours, or it would be a waste of money and time.

"This is something you would expect to see in a metropolitan museum of fine art, or in Europe," said Betty Long-Schleif, collections manager.

Most visitors begin on the second (main) floor where Queen Marie of Romania's royal regalia dominates. Gold-gilded furniture, a replica of the queen's crown, and exquisite personal items belonging to the queen are displayed.

Visitors, which average about 10,000 a month in the summer, learn that Hill became acquainted with Queen Marie during his world travels and that she attended the museum's dedication in 1926. But it was the "queen of sweets," Spreckels sugar heiress Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, whose support and persistence saw the museum opened to the public in 1940 -- nine years after Hill's death.

The mansion looks substantial because it is as stout as a bank vault, constructed of steel I-beams, steel studs and poured concrete walls and floors.

When World War I came, Hill built a concrete a full-scale replica of Stonehenge on a bluff just east of Maryhill. He had it dedicated as a peace memorial, with each standing concrete stone bearing the name of a Klickitat County soldier or sailor who died in that war.

The Romanian royal treasures in the main level easily capture the eye of visitors, but they should not neglect a much smaller room to the side that is devoted to Hill's life and accomplishments. Here is the history of a man who made his fortune and fame as a builder of roads.

Among Hill's lasting achievements are the Maryhill Loop Road built in 1913 as the first asphalt paved road in the Northwest. Several miles still are open to bicyclists and walkers, but it is quite a climb. Hill also built the Peace Arch at Blaine and lobbied hard to see the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway built above Multnomah Falls.

A self-guided tour of all three levels includes the Rodin art, a series of panels depicting Fuller's highly acclaimed dance forms, magnificent chess sets from around the world and Native American displays in the lower level. The upper level houses the Theatre de la Mode -- a delightful collection of doll-sized mannequins in city-scapes depicting high fashion from post-World War II Paris, and the special exhibits galleries, which currently features "Andy Warhol and Other Famous Faces." The Warhol showing will run through Nov. 15.

A cafe on the lower level serves lunches, and picnicking is encouraged on the grounds and sculpture garden.

Museum admission is $7 for adults, $2 for students 6-16 and those under 5 are allowed in free. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

An arts festival is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 16-17, where 50 artists will have works for sale, with performances and live music planned.

A day trip from the Tri-Cities to Maryhill and back will require fuel for 200 miles, and at least eight hours for a comfortable cultural and educational tour.

But if one can invest another two to three hours and 60 miles more in travel cost, the day can include a side visit to the Sherman County Agriculture Museum in Moro, Ore., which is 30 minutes from Maryhill on Highway 97 south of Biggs.

Sherman County's all-volunteer museum in the Moro, a town of 380 survivors, is a scrapbook about the hardscrabble life of dryland wheat farming during the last century.

Many of Moro's founding families can be found in old family pictures displayed in the museum, along with thousands of artifacts that were essential to those old-timers for daily living.

The museum has a section with hands-on displays for children who can try on old-fashioned clothing, grind wheat by hand, do rock art rubbings and experience being in a teepee or sitting on a real saddle on a wooden pony.

Bigger stuff for bigger people includes a 1940s John Deere harvester pulled by tractor, and various horse-drawn rigs that helped farmers grow and bring in the crops 100 years ago.

The museum has a strong educational component about wheat, soil conservation and cultivation, which helped earn the museum a North America award in 1994 for state and local history.

The Albert B. Corey Award recognizes all volunteer museums for vigor, imagination and scholarship shown in their work, said Sherry Kaseberg, museum coordinator.

The Sherman County Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May through October. Admission is $3 for adults, and $1 for children.