The AARoads Blog

the second day of my Utah/Nevada/California trip – this time focusing almost exclusively on Nevada, except for at the end of the day, where we cross into California, and are nearly buried alive in snow. On this day, we cover US-50 in Nevada (the Lincoln Highway), and on the next day we head to California and drive down I-5 through the Central Valley.

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.

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Over the holiday weekend, I took a trip that concentrated heavily on US-50 from I-15 in Utah to Carson City. This batch barely gets us there, as we head up the US-91 corridor (approximately) from San Diego to Utah, and then turn west, stopping in Ely, Nevada for the night.

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!

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The second batch of Death Valley photos. We wake up in Beatty, Nevada and then scour Death Valley for at least a little while before realizing that our vehicle is simply not up to the challenge presented by the terrain. Oh noes! We then run for dear life, as we notice the tire pressure slowly sinking, while Jeff’s plane is not catching itself.

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.

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Some photos, from a visit to the Laws Railroad Museum, in Bishop, California in October, 2010.

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.

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The last of the trip from December ’07. Utah, Nevada, and California.

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.

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these photos go very far back – to a trip I took in December, 2007 … crossing the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide several times, including a dead-of-night blizzard trip across the treacherous Million Dollar Highway in western Colorado!

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.

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The first in a series of articles about historic highway signage. We will be featuring many, many more articles, on a great variety of sign-related topics, on the AARoads Shield Gallery.

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.

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Photos from late August of this year, when Daniel Brim and I drove from California to New Mexico … in a moving van. Always fun doing three-point turns on narrow old alignments. We stopped at Antelope Canyon along the way – and this set will not include any pictures from there, as it ends just as we get there. The next batch will be the canyon itself.

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.

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Time for some photos from my trip from San Diego to eastern New Mexico and back, in November 2008. This batch is from the first day of my trip, and is heavily centered around Utah. Specifically: highway 95 in southeast Utah, crossing the Colorado River in red rock country.

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!

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