About 30 miles west of Ely, Nevada – a fishy sunrise. I took two photos with my fisheye lens, and converted to rectilinear and stitched them together, resulting in what is about a 165 degree field of view! The large version of this image is nearly 11000 pixels wide.

(by the way, to convert the 10.5mm Nikon DX fisheye to rectilinear, use 142 degrees horizontal and 98 degrees vertical coverage. I use Panotools to do the remapping, which lets me enter these two constants directly – your methods may vary.)

There are, as far as I found, seven Lincoln Highway concrete posts in the state of Nevada. They were all put up in 1928. This is the only one that, as far as I can tell, is in its original location, as opposed to being moved by the state of Nevada in the intervening years.

Based on some new information I just received – this Lincoln post was put up in the mid-1980s. There are subtle differences between the original 1928s and a bunch that were made in the 80s when the highway’s revival began. I alas was not looking for these differences, so I do not know if any of the 7 posts I found were 1928s.

We start our day in Ely, and this sign greets us on the outskirts of town. Nevada declared US-50 to be the Loneliest Road in America in 1986. Not quite true – Nevada’s own US-6 is far less traveled – but it led to some great signage. Unfortunately, the signs have been disappearing without replacement since the original signage, and now there are only two left!

Early, early dawn – just west of Ely.

Moon setting as the sun starts to think about rising.

Sun about to rise, as we look east.

Some serious purple on the horizon.

The view to the south.

Did I mention this turned into a great sunrise??

The sun appears! Between the previous batch of photos and this one, I drove forward into a bank of fog, and thus we get extremely diffuse lighting and clouds.

Did I mention the fog? It gives us intermittent views of the mountains to come.

The last of our morning alpenglow on the mountains.

An example of a Lincoln Highway post associated with a historic marker. Five of the seven markers I saw were clearly moved by the state, around 1984, to be near historic markers. As mentioned above – they were made around 1984, at the same time as the historic markers.

Heavy deer crossing. This doe – out of maybe 20 does and bucks that I observed in the same cluster, crossing the highway at the same time – has decided to look back to see just what she survived.

A mountain range about to disappear into fog.

Okay, fair enough, the road is plenty lonely. Nothing but silver mountains and observer.

Spot the halo. It’s faint, but it is there, intersecting the land at the perfect spot just between the mountains.

Super-extra-close-up of the distant mountains.

Approaching Austin. Fog in the lowlands.

Descending into said fog.

Older gantry. Alas, I did not find any 1961-spec shields in Nevada. A lot of signs were replaced during the great renumbering of 1975-1982 – even though the US routes kept their numbers, it was an excuse to update the signs.

We just came from that bank of fog.

Certainly a sign that dates to 1982 at the latest… and a mountain range in the fog behind it.

Useful billboard. Around the bend, approaching the town of Austin, is invariably the Nevada Highway Patrol. At least, they were out on Christmas morning! The hydrant and posts in the background were painted for the bicentennial in 1976, and have stayed that way.

Yellow and yellow. 1950s sign, 1950s farm equipment.

The other survivor. This one is on the outskirts of Austin, heading east.

Middlegate Junction. This car must’ve gotten stuck and stayed another 80 years and counting.

Old alignment of US-50 heading out of Middlegate Junction.

I do not remember the name of this mountain, but there is a green guide sign that points it out.

Old culvert, old painted marker. Original to the 1920s? That I do not know – but it sure is old.

Standing atop the culvert, and looking east along the old road: US-50 and the Lincoln Highway.

How’s this for concentric halos around the sun? It must’ve hidden itself behind some ice clouds, resulting in this view.

Turning off US-50 past Fallon; we are now heading up old state highway 79 towards Virginia City.

New Geiger Grade, 1936. The old Geiger Grade was a major route connecting the mines of Virginia City to civilization, as early as the 1860s when the Comstock Lode was discovered. This was the first major silver deposit found in Nevada, and it meant that Virginia City was, in 1880, the second-largest city in Nevada: just behind Carson City, and ahead of Goldfield. Las Vegas? Barely existed at the time!

What’s this, a ’61 spec shield? Indeed, this is ’61 green guide sign specification, and this sign is at the NV-341 (Geiger Grade/Virginia City) junction with the new 395 freeway bypass.

Why yes, that is an orange interstate shield. Interstate 580 (aka the just-mentioned US-395 bypass freeway in Reno and Carson City) is undergoing heavy rebuilding, especially around the junction with I-80.

Finished with Nevada, and back in California. An old US-395 alignment, a railroad underpass… and mountains in the distance.

Yep, that is a 395 paddle!

Lassen County uses these green squares to mark their county routes – and sometimes they use the blue pentagons too.

Route 29… wait, what?? Really, route 29? That is a reference to the 1909 legislative route definition of various highways around the state. The routes were not signed until 1928 (US highways) and 1934 (state routes), and upon signing they got a set of different numbers. So California has existed in this weird state of limbo, with two different sets of numbers – one legislatively defined, and one signed – and here is a very, very rare example of a legislative route number being actually posted on a sign.

Route 29 was defined in 1909, and was signed as state route 7 in 1934-1935 until US-395 was extended south from Washington and took over the routing.

This may be the only example of a 1909 legislative route being signed in the state. I have a photo from the 1920s of legislative route 64 (US-60/70, as signed) but that picture is from the 20s. This is an example that stands as of last week!

By the way, yes, this is an old alignment of bear route 7 and US-395.

Back on a modern alignment of 29/7/395.

Susanville is the capital of surviving CSAA signs. I counted at least 50, and that was just by driving the main drag and occasionally looking down the side streets. There may be more CSAA signs in Susanville than in every other town in California combined!

What is this sudden influx of snow? We’re taking highway 44 from Susanville across the mountains… and the precipitation is increasing.

It alternates between rain and snow.

The Pitt River, as we approach sunset.

As darkness arrives… one more town to explore, looking for old signs. Well, that is a 1930s picket, but the sign affixed to it is clearly much newer.

Dark. Temperature falls. Can you say “oh shit”? Gotta cross the mountains, with the snow falling … well, let’s just say that I made it. No snow tires, no chains, but I knew that I was past the top of the pass when this scene presented itself – so my task was to keep going forward and try to keep the car on the road.

Did that. Took me an hour and a half to do the last 38 miles to interstate highway 5, but hey, better late than stranded, right?

Next time: less snow!

those that click on the large versions of the photos may notice… new camera! Larger pictures for your enjoyment. When my D50 died at 99872 exposures, I upgraded to the D5000. This trip served to field-test it in a variety of conditions.

Pointy rocks and high clouds, by the side of the Kelso-Cima Road, which is a very old US-91 alignment. Before they built the road in the 30s that would be upgraded to I-15 in 1962, a somewhat more indirect highway followed the railroad between Cima and Kelso, and that was US-91.

US-50 in western Utah. 1am on a foggy night. As there was no place to pull over, I stopped the car in the middle of the road and set up the tripod next to it. No cars came in the six or seven minutes I was stopped. Indeed, no other vehicles between Hinckley, Utah and Majors Junction, Nevada – over 100 miles!

Altogether too much traffic on I-15 as we depart heading towards Riverside County.

Taking I-10 instead of I-15 or I-215 gets us off the main road with all the Los Angeles to Las Vegas traffic. While you wouldn’t think of putting Christmas and gambling in the same sentence… apparently, half of LA’s population did!

This sign dates to 1966, when 62 became a state highway.

And now, the Amboy Road, which connects Twentynine Palms to Amboy. We’re taking a somewhat circuitous route, but at least the traffic levels are favorable.

Kelso-Cima Road again, but this time with some more context.

I think San Bernardino County is responsible for this sign.

The sign that this replaced survives: it has “US 91/466″ to the left, and is a 1950s porcelain Auto Club sign: white with black legend.

We’re back on I-15, as that is the only way into Nevada in the area. The town of Primm, formerly known as State Line, is in the distance.

The mountains turn red.

A bit of poor planning gets us sunset at the worst of Vegas traffic. Oops.

Red skies… and traffic lights.

I’ve taken more realistic photos of I-15 through the Virgin River Gorge on more than one occasion, but this one came out so over-the-top misexposed that I just had to keep it. About 80% of this photo’s pixels are railed to one maximum or another. Gotta love it.

There we go – a much better exposure. Or, combination of exposures as the case may be. The very discontinuous star trails should give a good idea as to which photos of a series I selected to combine.

The I-15 routing through the gorge is one of the rare examples of an interstate that replaced an old two-lane road, making the trip more scenic in the process. I-70 vs US-50 between Green River and Salina, Utah is another example, as is I-68/US-40 at Sideling Hill in Maryland.

And we’ve made it to Utah. Don’t tell Enterprise, as they do not allow the car past Nevada and Arizona. Note the “loop 15″ shield – this is a direct replacement of an older button copy sign, which did not have the resolution for a detailed Business Loop 15.

And some actual button copy. This, and a corresponding sign southbound, are – I believe – the only button copy signs left on I-15 in Utah.

The highest posted speed limit in the country. Texas has it on I-10 and I-20 in the sticks out west, and Utah has three segments of it now on I-15. From milepost 65 to 85, then miles 116 to 133 (ending at I-70 at Cove Fort), and one more section from 144 to 164. There may be more north of US-50 as well that I did not notice.

This is where we get off I-15 and head west on US-50 all the way to Carson City, Nevada.

What do we have here? An early 1960s US-50 shield, complete with the custom Utah font! Alas, the I-15 is much newer. The 50 was probably paired with a US-91 to begin its life.

Brand new beehive 100 shield, with extra wide white margin.

Standard-font 1961 spec shields are not difficult to find in Utah.

We leave Hinckley with an eye on the gas gauge. Past here, there is gas only at the state line (83 miles away), and then Ely, Austin, Middlegate Junction, and Fallon as we cross the most uninhabited portions of Nevada.

Yep, that’s a cutout US-93 marker in Nevada. It was put up quite recently (2005 or so) at Majors Junction. There were, at one point, US-6 and US-50 cutouts as well, but those are gone.

I should’ve stopped for this one, as opposed to shooting a hand-held 5 second exposure out the window. The view is from a sweeping curve along Connors Pass, and there was absolutely no place to pull over and visibility for stopping in the road… and surprisingly many vehicles at that time of the night, so I kept going.

At small size, it looks all right, but the full-size version is very blurry. It should actually be fairly easy to get rid of the motion blur: all the stars should be points, so taking a star track and inverting it should give us the appropriate deconvolution filter. Quick, where’s my knowledge of Fourier transforms?

And that does it for the first day of the trip. Next up: US-50 across Nevada.

Our first stop is the abandoned town of Rhyolite – just west of Beatty, this was once a mining town with a population of over 5000 people.

The sign find of the day: a 1949 historical marker, complete with the Auto Club of Southern California and the National Park Service logos. There are two: the other one is on the other side of the post. Interestingly, the post is much newer than the signs … someone must want to keep them here. We obliged by not borrowing them.

A bighorn sheep. A helpful park ranger pointed this one out, as we would’ve never noticed it high up on the cliff wall. In fact, he told us there were fourteen of them to be spotted!

Moonrise over the Panamint range.

Getting an early start on things. Down we go from Beatty to Death Valley.

Ghosts of Rhyolite. How I managed to make this look like a 1950s Kodachrome print that’s been sitting in the sun for too long, I will never know.

Jeff makes a new friend.

Strange artifacts abound in Rhyolite.

An inert truck.

At one point, this was the main bank of Rhyolite.

Another somewhat derelict old building.

We’re suddenly hit by direct rays.

The old railroad station. And yes, that is a barbed-wire fence around it. The TSA must’ve been here.

A lucky shot with the flash – right out the window as I had to make the decision on which 190 we wanted to get to. (We chose wrong.)

The idea that the California route marker is supposed to be a miner’s spade was apparently lost on whomever put this sign together.

This historical marker dates to 1962.

The Furnace Creek visitors’ center.

This may very well be the original post that this sign once hung on! (If not this exact spot, then within a couple dozen feet for sure.) Now the sign is in Jeff’s collection.

A 1955 example of a historical marker. Note the Division of Highways logo at the bottom. They dropped that midway through 1956.

A fairly typical view of the eastern rim of Badwaster Basin.

And the western rim. This is one of the many dirt roads we didn’t travel on. Really, we didn’t – we didn’t have a good enough vehicle. It is impossible to ask for a high-clearance 4×4 vehicle when renting, because then they know you’re planning to break the contract. If one is lucky, they can end up with one. Not this time.

All that’s left of the Eagle Borax Works is this … information kiosk?? Jeff wonders “wtf, where did it go?”

The other Bennett’s Long Camp sign.

Guess what time it is? Yep, it’s time for another installment of Oddly Shaped Tree!

Abandoned equipment in Badwater Basin. Back in the day, this was one serious mining area!

Perfect day for clouds.

An old geological survey marker. It dates back to 1943.

Too bad the elevation is not filled in – it would be well below sea level.

Those dang meddlesome Hungarians…

Fun with shapes at Ashford Mill.

A coyote appears.

Spot the sheep. There are eight bighorn sheep in this picture.

And four here.

And finally three, for a total of … fifteen!

Heading up the eastern basin road.

Old Dinah is now parked at Furnace Creek.

Looking back east, as we head towards Stovepipe Wells.

And one more of these. Plenty in Death Valley.

Top of the world. Well, at the very least, a local maximum. This is the Skidoo road, which leads to an old mining town. Alas, the truck couldn’t make it up the incline, so we hiked the last several hundred feet. This view is southeast, with Badwater Basin visible.

Pete Aguereberry’s mine, in the Panamint Range, to the west of Death Valley.

Fun with shapes at Pete Aguereberry’s old mine.

Pete’s Buick? Not quite – Pete died in 1945, and this is a 1951 Roadmaster.

As you can see, the car is in perfectly serviceable shape, and ready to be driven off the lot.

The road to Ballarat. This was our last dirt road of the day, because our tire was deflating at an alarming rate…

One last moonshot, and then it’s full speed to the airport. We ended up making it, despite having to stop every 20 miles to re-inflate the tire. We figured that it would take over an hour to figure out how to change the tire, and that would cause Jeff to miss his plane.

After the dropoff, I change the tire, and … I was right! It took me an hour and 15 minutes at a gas station in Jean, Nevada, mainly because the spare tire was held on by some esoteric contraption, and the instruction manual may as well have been in Japanese. But hey, all’s well that ends well, and next time we’re securing a real 4×4 and going down some real roads!

Dale, can I borrow your International??

Enthusiasts of railroads, old highways, and the general western frontier experience are strictly obligated to check it out.

the Laws Railroad Museum

this is a photo gallery of their highway sign collection. They mainly focus on the Auto Club of Southern California, as they are the ones who signed the Bishop area between 1913 and 1947 exclusively. Their sign collection concentrates mainly on the 1910s and 1920s, with a couple of 1930s and later items as well.

This is just the left wall of one tiny corner of the museum! An incredible display of highway signs from the 1910s and 1920s. The one on the left says “Indian Picture Rock” – (thanks Jason and Shemp!).

Many guide signs referring to the Bishop area, including Beatty Station from Death Valley (leftmost diamond-shaped sign).

Topping it all off, a Grand Army of the Republic Highway marker, representing US-6 between Provincetown, MA and Long Beach, CA, as was designated in 1952.

Looking directly back through the vehicle garage exhibit of the museum, where the old signs are to be found … here, we see in the background a set of yellow diamond cautionary signs, each posted by the Automobile Club of Southern California, sometime between 1947 and 1956. In the foreground, we see a red stop sign which dates to between 1929 and 1942.

A 1957 black porcelain guide sign. Posted at a junction with US-395, somewhere between Bishop and Lee Vining.

Another porcelain sign, this one dating back to the early 1950s. US-395 was getting expanded to a four-lane road both north and south of Bishop, and this sign likely came from that stretch of road.

A 1929-1934 guide sign, featuring destinations in Death Valley: Andrews Camp, Schubers Resort, Parchers Camp, and South Lake. Parchers may be the most apt description, and that lake may just be an illusion.

Before the 1950s or so – when several specific routes were upgraded to be the primary conduit between Point A and Point B, and Death Valley was made a National Park – dozens of trails crisscrossed the inhospitable landscape, and it was the Auto Club’s responsibility to sign each of them. It made perfect business sense: the more travelers that could find their way out of danger, the fewer claims they would have to pay.

So the diamond (1913-1929) and, later, the white rectangle (1929-1956) signs sprung up everywhere, at every intersection of every potential minor rut-in-the-sand road that a traveler could take. They survive to this day, if you know where to look, preserved in the boiling dry air, for the adventurer to discover.

A close-up of the Grand Army of the Republic Highway sign. This sign was placed between 1952 and 1957.

The right wall of the museum – featuring two Midland Trails that we have seen before, and a great variety of 1930s signs. The white rectangle guide signs, with “Automobile Club Southern Calif,” spelled out (as opposed to just the logo with no text) date to between 1929 and 1934. The Elevation sign, with the twin logos of both the US Forest Service (the redwood cone) and the Auto Club of Southern California, with the bell, dates to the mid-1930s. An incredible slice of history is found here in Bishop.

One last photo, just the scenery of the Laws Railroad Museum. Definitely a place worth visiting!

http://www.lawsmuseum.org/

Nope, this is not the Great Salt Lake – this is the Bonneville Salt Flats in winter, when there is a thin layer of collected rain and melted snow… and people drive in it.

Tiny houses, colossal mountains. Somewhere in Nevada at sunset.

Well past dusk, near Battle Mountain, Nevada.

Donner Lake, the next morning.

Clouds over the east bay. The view from I-680; and yes, that part of California is greenest in … January.

Heading out on old US-40 into the mountains just west of Salt Lake City. Just after dawn.

this alignment of 40 turns into a road that services an industrial concern, and thus gets rather lousy rather fast.

We probably shouldn’t be going this fast… but we are.

Uh oh, road dead-ended. Time to get out of here. This speed is not all that impressive – except for the fact that we are going [i]in reverse[/i].

Unusual warning signs of the world.

Salty old sign on US-40, pointing (as amended), both directions to the east … because, while Wendover is indeed to the west, the on-ramp to I-80, the freeway that replaced US-40, is to the east, just like Salt Lake. The sign goes back to the early 60s, and every year it lists just a little bit more. It was once green and white – now it is white and green. The green background got covered in salt condensation from the Bonneville Salt Flats, while the white letters with reflectors just plain fell off.

Mountains reflecting in the salt wash.

Whatever it is … that’s what it is. Somewhere next to I-80 in western Utah.

More trails in the salt. More fun.

Where cars go to go fast.

And this is how far my rental car went. I can’t remember what it was – some kind of Chevy. Malibu maybe?

We’re in Nevada now. Mountains near Wells.

A distant airplane, over an old, unplowed US-40 alignment.

A river – again near old US-40.

Mountains starting to glow in the last rays of sunset.

Peaks and valleys.

Orange clouds far overhead.

Pretty in pink.

Sun’s gone, but the clouds remain a bit longer.

Heading west on highway 80.

Oddball of a highway sign in Reno, Nevada.

Some ’57 spec I-80 shields float around Reno. Here is one. In fact, I’ll tell you exactly where it is!

US-395 around Reno is interstate 580. Why they sign it only on the paddles, I will never know.

The only embossed sign ever put out by California’s Division of Highways. This example sits on the wall of the snowplow depot in Floriston, serving I-80 and Donner Pass.

Old US-40 approaching Donner Pass.

Climbing up Donner Pass.

The view from Donner Pass. Donner Lake down below.

Clouds, as seen from I-80 coming down from the mountains.

A perfectly located sundog.

And that’s all for now!

Next set – coming up next time… as I plan my Chile and Argentina trip for sometime in 2011!

here is the first day of that trip – the Bay Area to Arco, Idaho.

The Sierras, in southeast Oregon. Just about the northernmost extent of this mountain range.

Not an incredibly old sign, but likely 1980s. Note the state name on the 80 shield – Nevada doesn’t often do that for green guide signs.

Between nothing and nowhere. 95 goes through a very barren and remote section of southeastern Oregon and I was hoping for old signs… alas, no such thing did I find. As far as I know, there are no more OREGON/US cutout shields left. The last one was a 97 in Klamath Falls. There are some of the state route eagle shields left, however.

A hilariously incorrect sign.

Remote post offices of the world: Arock, Oregon. Note the 1950s-style mail dropbox tied to the tree!

Now that is a remote road. It’s a 4×4 trail between eastern Oregon and western Idaho. Interestingly, it is labeled on the Rand McNally map, but good luck with actually taking it!

We’re in Idaho now, and the precipitation keeps getting worse.

Old Idaho historic marker. Note the narrow fonts on the US-95 shield and the number 192 (which identifies this particular marker).

How about a state-named Idaho shield? They are very rare, but here’s one in Boise. There are three altogether in the same area, and they are all brand new. 2005 or so vintage.

Snow clouds at dusk. I-84 eastbound near Twin Falls, Idaho.

1960s cutout “welcome to Idaho” sign! The border between Utah and Idaho on old US-30S, which was bypassed by I-80N (later renamed I-84) by the 1960s.

Identify this matter. It is ice on the top of a steel gas pump, in the appropriately named Snowville, Utah. I do not remember how the place was lit up to provide this effect.

The last state-named shields in Utah. Where? Under these two. Note the original 1960s wooden arrows. The new aluminum signs were simply bolted onto the older wooden ones!

Another section of old US-191. 191 is a strange one: it originally went from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City, and then it got truncated (thus the “old” remnants) around southern Wyoming… and then it got extended, to many times its original length. It now goes from US-2 in northern Montana all the way to the Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona. It ends up not even intersecting the severely truncated US-91, which it once connected to.

How about an old white guide sign pointing to a town that no longer exists? Okay, half an old white guide sign!

Grain elevator by the side of old US-91 somewhere in southeast Idaho.

Christmas decorations in rural Idaho, two days before the holiday itself.

Old US-91 in the middle of the night. Note the snowglow in the air – a full moon is reflected off the ground, and then again the clouds in the sky… it was bright enough at midnight to drive without headlights!

And that’s all for our run from the bay area to Idaho in one night and one day and a bit of another night. Next up, we pick up in Arco, Idaho – and head north into Montana on US-93. Lost Trails Pass, Inflatable Biker Santa, old signs along US-10, and of course snowstorm after snowstorm.

This Midland Trail overview is made possible by the indispensable research of Devon Mich’l, the foremost authority on Nevada highway signs in general, and especially the Midland Trail. All accurate facts in here are to be credited to Devon. Any misinformation, on the other hand, is certainly due to my oversight!

Overview

The Midland Trail was an unimproved wagon trail dating to the 1860s that crossed central Nevada and served the silver and gold camps of Tonopah and Goldfield in the early 1900s. It was still nothing more than a dirt trail in 1913 when it received its name, Midland Trail, as part of a much longer transcontinental route of that name. It became the first road in Nevada to be federally funded.

In this article, I talk only about the westernmost section of the Midland Trail, from Ely, Nevada (where it met the Lincoln Highway) to its terminus in Los Angeles.

The Automobile Club of Southern California marked the route very well, starting in 1915. With the Midland Trail well marked from Ely, Nevada to Los Angeles, Southern California was now connected to the Lincoln Highway.

A portion of the Midland Trail that survives near Goldfield, Nevada, in condition similar to what was seen in the 1910s. Photo by Devon Mich’l, 2009.

The Midland Trail was added to the U. S. federal highway system in 1937, with the extension of highway 6 from Denver westward. With only two exceptions (Railroad Valley, and Westgard Pass), the Midland Trail was signed as US-6. It was further given the appellation “Grand Army of the Republic Highway” in 1953.

In 1964, the great decommissioning of US routes in California truncated US-6 to Bishop, but one can find the Midland Trail by taking US-395 south from there, then turning on to California state route 14, which parallels the old road, and then San Fernando Road (old US-6/US-99 multiplex) into Los Angeles.

Highway Signs of the Midland Trail

There were four distinct generations of Midland Trail signs produced. They were all made of porcelain enamel and featured a vertically oriented red, white, and blue design. The signs were manufactured by the California Metal Enameling Company (CAMEO) of Los Angeles, and placed in the field by the Auto Club, who also did the surveying work.

First Generation Signs

click on each thumbnail to bring up larger images!

Here are three surviving first-generation signs. They were placed during the initial signing of April, 1915. Each was given an identification number, as seen in the upper right corner. Sign #1 was posted in Ely at the beginning of the trail, and the numbers increased westward. #50 was in Tonopah, #60 in Goldfield, and the state line was somewhere between #69 (Lida) and #80 (Big Pine).

Alas, no state-line sign survives, but if I had to make my guess, I’d say #73.

The first generation can be distinguished by the serial number, and also the mileage in tenths, the feathered arrow, and the arced red and blue top and bottom fields.

As you can see, over the years the signs have put up with uncountable abuses – being folded in half to take up less space in the junkyard, and of course occasionally receiving a face full of 45s.

Some signs were used to identify particular hazards. Here, the center of the trail turned into a mud puddle, and to avoid bogging down and creating an impassable situation, drivers were advised to keep to the right.

Here is what appears to be the very first sign of the trail, placed in Ely. It is a 24×32 inch sign, as opposed to every other one I have seen, which is 18×24.

The legend is a bit hard to read, but here is what we have been able to decipher: all year route to California/Los Angeles: 569.6 via Tonopah, Goldfield, Big Pine.

The number of miles is a conjecture: 569.6 is plausible because it is the total distance from Ely to Los Angeles.

The second sign on the gantry (click the picture to see it) is also an Auto Club of So Cal installation: Special notice: motorists to Los Angeles take right hand road to Copper Mt., then return to this point for Los Angeles route. Perhaps the town of Copper Mountain paid for the publicity!

The photo is from a 1920 Auto Club magazine, provided to me by the Caltrans Library.

One final first-generation sign: this temporary sign has no mileages, and no identification number. It was intended as a temporary placement before a new one could be manufactured with the proper distances.

Second Generation Signs

The second generation of signage was placed between 1916 and April, 1917. That is when the US entered World War I, and such trifles as highway signage were put aside until the armistice of November, 1918.

These three signs are of the second generation. The leftmost one is the very first one from Ely, where the Midland Trail diverged from the Lincoln Highway. The arced backgrounds still remain, but are shaped slightly differently, and the font is different as well. This is the only sign set that had “Mi.” after the mileages.

Furthermore, there is no number on the front in the upper right corner. However, these signs were numbered on the back, in a black stamp similar to other Auto Club signs. Numbers for Midland Trail signs were all around 2200, according to Devon.

Third Generation Signs

The third generation, posted from November, 1918 (1919, in all practice) to 1921, was the last generation to feature the feathered arrow. The top and bottom fields were no longer arced, and the dividing line between directions was made to stretch all the way across the sign.

The first two signs are from Nevada, and the last one is from California. The photo appeared originally in a 1919 Auto Club publication.

The third generation signs had no number on the back.

Fourth Generation Signs

The fourth generation reflected the general Auto Club practice, starting in 1921, to change from feathered to block arrows. Furthermore, signs that did not feature destinations were added to the repertoire: the middle photo says, simply “CAUTION DRIVE SLOWLY” and could be placed anywhere along the route to warn of a particular hazard.

For stability, a third mounting hole was added as well. Furthermore, the signs in Nevada no longer featured Los Angeles as a destination. Finally, the fourth-generation signs did have a standard black stamped number on the back.

The fourth-generation signs were placed between 1921 and 1923. It is unknown how the route was signed after 1923 and before February 1929, when the Auto Club started using the black and white rectangle format of guide signs universally, to replace the diamonds and the red, white and blue rectangles.

Later Signs

Starting in February, 1929, the Auto Clubs consolidated all the sign styles into this format.

This sign is somewhat larger than the previous ones, at 36 by 24 inches. The names of the old trails are no longer identified on this set of signage.

The signs do have numbers on the back. Starting in 1934, those signs that were posted on California state highways (including most of the Midland Trail in California, which was state route 7 before being renumbered to U. S. highway 6) featured a standard California code, identifying the date, the district, and the serial number of the sign. A typical code would be “A7D40″, where A is the year (1934 is A, 1935 is B, etc), 7 is District 7 (Los Angeles and Ventura counties), D stands for “directional sign” or “distance sign”, and 40 is the serial number. Nevada signs continued to have just a simple serial number.

The Midland Trail Today

In many cases, the Midland Trail was upgraded continuously to better standards, and exists as two-lane roads in California and Nevada. For example, Historic US-6 through Rosamond, Lancaster, and Palmdale, California is the Midland Trail, as is state route 168 over Westgard Pass.

US-95 heading south out of Tonopah. This alignment was bypassed only in the 1980s by a new four-lane road. This section of 95 was built directly on top of the 1860s unimproved road that became the Midland Trail. Photo by Devon Mich’l, 2009.

Further Information

For more information on the Midland Trail, to contribute any knowledge and pictures of signage, or if you’re interested in trading Midland Trail and other old highway signs, please contact me at jake@aaroads.com, or Devon directly at 702-296-9393.

Gallery

Some more photos of the older Midland Trail signs.

first generation

third generation

fourth generation

Part of the collection of someone who wishes to remain anonymous. Well, the signs are visible to anyone from the public right-of-way, so you can go find them if you want! This style of directional sign, complete with glass reflectors, was used on high speed thoroughfares from 1933 to the early 50s.

Nevada state route 167 branches off of old US-91. The road is lit from the side by a truck stop immediately behind us, that serves Interstate 15.

The truck stop, now with actual truck.

The Virgin River Gorge – Arizona interstate route 15. Whereas old US-91 went around it, I-15 was blasted straight through, saving about 30 miles.

Fires in Los Angeles result in skies like this in Utah.

One from Dan, from the same general vicinity. His pictures can be found here. Go look, as his are generally like mine, except more awesome.

Plenty of old auto club signs in Calexico, where the Greyhound bus makes its first stop. Why a Greyhound bus? Because Yuma, AZ is the cheapest place to pick up a rental van.

Behind this 1960 porcelain sign is the Mexico border fence.

This sign dates back to the early 1950s and features the California Division of Highways logo.

And now we’re in Yuma. Button copy is getting pretty hard to find in Arizona, especially the kind with the non-reflective background.

Heading westbound on I-8 in California, through the mountains that separate San Diego and Imperial counties.

Classic porcelain signage in San Diego. This sign dates to 1968.

Odd transitional sign at the same intersection – this one is from 1973, when they stopped using porcelain, but had not started using pre-made button copy letters. Here, the buttons are glued onto white non-reflective letters on a green background. Shortly thereafter, they decided having the letters pre-made with reflectors was far more economical.

Ominous skies over US-395.

This sign is in a museum in Randsburg. It points down the US-6/395 multiplex, with Los Angeles being accessed by US-6. US-6 was truncated in 1964, so now the stretch of road is only US-395. Don’t mind the black spot at the bottom – the sign is hanging in a closet, and I stood about eight inches away and used the flash.

A near-exact copy of an old white auto club guide sign. The logo is missing, of course, and the sign is green reflective, and not white porcelain, and the original did not have a crossbar… but that font is classic 1938!

Another one – the colors are modern but the font is original. Someone must’ve gone through this area in the last few years and done an exact replacement, just as the contract stated.

This is the style that succeeded the first Barstow picture: starting in 1948, with the plastic reflectors. This one does not have the Division of Highways logo, but is black, dating it 1957-59.

More of the same collection. The 66 shields are replicas, but the guide signs in the back – red, white, and blue; blue diamond; and white rectangle, are all original. Be sure to click for the high-resolution version. The owner was, alas, not home, so I could not get any closer photos.

One more from the same truck stop.

Interstate 15 barely cuts into Arizona between Las Vegas and St. George, Utah.

Approaching the Virgin River Gorge.

The view north through the gorge.

And the view south, from the same overpass.

Highway 59 leads south into Arizona.

Sunrise with lots of smoke.

And now we’re in Arizona, looking back north into Utah.

Heading south (east, really) on US-89A and leaving the smoke behind.

Looking back west on 89A.

Stopping for a bit to get up close and personal with the red rocks. I took this photo with the fisheye and converted it back to rectilinear.

Another one; slightly different direction.

Crossing the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, near Page. Somewhat disconcerting roller-coaster look achieved by running the de-fisheye converter on an image that was rectilinear to begin with.

There’s a hydroelectric plant somewhere around here.

next up, actual Antelope Canyon

The only button copy sign in Nevada. This one is very, very old.

Ominous clouds over old US-91 in southern Utah.

Red rock country. Utah, everybody.

Highway 95 at sunset.

Highway 95 somewhat past sunset. This wide-angle shot (about 140 degrees field of view!) is made possible by a fisheye lens and a rectilinear conversion tool. Large version of image is 7000 pixels wide!

On top of the creatively named Mountain Pass between southern California and Las Vegas, just north of Baker. Don’t mind the foreground – I combined several exposures and kept the stars in place.

Las Vegas under the fog.

How old is the button copy sign? That’s a scraped off US-91 shield on the back of the sign! There’s a 466 on the other side, and you can go here to see some actually clear (daytime!) photos of the shields. US-91 was gone by 1974, US-466 by 1971 … and that style of sign dates back to before 1963!

Sunrise, somewhere in southern Utah on old US-91.

The business loop in St. George.

Unlike Nevada, Utah is filled with button copy signs.

Do not get eaten by cows.

Red rocks on Utah state highway 14, heading east from Cedar City.

What’s this, we’re driving into a snowstorm?

Turning north onto highway 143, and looking back west at the one remaining patch of clear sky.

About to hit the top of the pass (10420 feet). And yes, I did make this photo black-and-white. It wasn’t quite that gray out – but it was close!

Just about at the pass.

And coming down now.

There’s really no place to pull over to take pictures, so I employed the Norwegian technique of just stopping in a lane and figuring people are smart enough to go around.

Definitely a view worth stopping for.

This may very well be the oldest interstate shield in Utah … and alas, it lacks the state name. There are none left with the state name, unless you count two in Salt Lake City that have been covered up.

Some cutout shields intended for green sign use made it onto poles on the 70/89 multiplex.

All the green has fallen off of this sign.

The longest gap between services on the interstate system.

Turning south onto state highway 72.

72 ends at 24, and here we head east into red rock country.

Utah features this sort of land for hundreds of miles.

I don’t know what causes the kind of wavy line present in the clouds at upper right.

Now on highway 95, which heads towards the Four Corners area.

Getting close to sunset.

Past sunset, and just north of the Colorado River crossing on highway 95. This is a combination of two exposures – with a single shot, either one has no detail on the ground, or one blows out the skies.

And here is the river itself. If you look carefully, you can see the bridge.

Even further past sunset.

And here we’re finally getting to the bridge.

An extra-wide-angle shot showing all the clouds.

And an actual sign photo to close things off with. Coming up, Colorado to New Mexico.