Info needed on old U.S. 466 through Tehachapi Pass

[CaliforniaRoadologist]

Greetings! I'm a newbie here on the forums, but have been familiar with AA Roads for years.

As a roadologist, which I like to call myself, I have always been interested in learning about the old roads that our ancestors took to travel from one place to another. I started with the Route 66 thing 20 years ago, but I have moved onto other highways, mainly throughout the central and southern parts of California. My interest right now is focusing on a strip of old highway that used to, and still does, in some parts, pass through the Tehachapi Pass between Bakersfield and Mojave. From what I have researched, this road was given U.S. highway designation in 1934 as U.S. 466, and remained that until 1964, even though realignments, widening and bypasses had taken place between those years. Auto Club has always produced good, detailed maps of California, going back to the early-30's, but I have not yet been able to find an early map of 466 through this vicinity. I do have an old, undated 10 1/2 x 3 1/2 card type Auto Club map (attached) that shows the this road from Bakersfield to Mohave, but there is no highway designation on it. I've been told that it could be from 1929-30, but it couldn't be confirmed. Maybe someone on here is more aware of this type of map. Nonetheless, it gives a good graphic of just how twisting and winding that road was through that pass. I have no idea when the road was constructed through there, but I'm assuming that it followed what would have been a wagon trail of some sorts, since a lot of mining was done up in that area. California Highways and Public Works doesn't give much info on that road in their early 30's issues other then some grading projects and even some surveying through the pass in Nov. 1928, but nothing about the opening of the highway, the first time around.

Now, my question has to do with the AA Roads issue of "U.S. 466: from Caliente to Edison to Bakersfield," in which it's stated that highway turned off of Woodford-Tehachapi Rd/Bena Rd. onto Bealeville Rd towards Caliente, then turning west onto Caliente-Bodfish Road and connecting back onto Bena Rd. The confusing part of this is that the map I have posted of a pre-466 numbered highway never shows the main highway ever going up to Caliente, but instead continuing (east or west) on Bena Rd. Does anyone have a good, detailed pre-1940 map showing that Caliente-Bodfish and Bealeville Roads were actually part of 466?   

[sdmichael]

I'll dig through my CHPW magazines and see what I can find. My guess is that Caliente, if it was along US 466, was bypassed very early. There wouldn't be need to climb up a steep hill, only to descend another, to come back up another, instead of keeping the same grade... but then roads did that.

[CaliforniaRoadologist]

I'll dig through my CHPW magazines and see what I can find. My guess is that Caliente, if it was along US 466, was bypassed very early. There wouldn't be need to climb up a steep hill, only to descend another, to come back up another, instead of keeping the same grade... but then roads did that.

I'd appreciate that. I tried looking through them on Internet Archives.com, but it became very tedious when the search option for a specific city wasn't turning up anything, even though I would see the town or city name pop up as I paged through some of the issues.

[NE2]

my text is bigger
1934 Kern County shows it not on Bena Road but closer to the railroad.



late 1930s Kern County (page 6 first image and page 5 third image) shows old and new alignments.



1955 topo shows the old alignment in detail. Comparing it to the 2005 aerial, the north 2/3 is still there as an unimproved road, with traces still visible of the remainder.


Finally, the 1919 Automobile Blue Book, right at the bottom of the page: "Left leads to Caliente and Kernville." implying the main road did not go through Caliente.

[hm insulators]

CaliforniaRoadologist, first of all, welcome to aaroads! the section of road marked on your map probably was an early version of 466. The section past the Tehachapi Loop (where the railroad track crosses over itself and a train long enough will pass over itself; it's a favorite spot for railroad buffs) still exists. I used to drive that section of road from time to time, but haven't been that way in years.

[mrsman]

I don't know the history specifically of this road, but sometimes if a road description says City A to City B to City C, it doesn't necessarily mean that the road passed through the heart of each city.  The road marked on your old ACSC map passes near enough to Caliente that it would be fair to include it, even if the main road never actually went to town because of the grades involved.

[andy3175]

Welcome! The webpage in question is https://www.aaroads.com/california/us-466wc_ca.html. The assumption that US 466 runs through Caliente was based on a conversation I had with several other historic California highway folks, but I had never seen any detailed map for that area earlier than 1940. So if you can find evidence that US 466 did not go through Caliente, please let me know so I can amend that page.

[CaliforniaRoadologist]

Thanks for the great info and warm welcome, guys. You've posted lots of great maps, but with all of those maps I'm still not finding the missing link to the puzzle.

Now, Andy...you say that you got the assumption that 466 ran up to Caliente from conversations with other historic California highway folks and never had seen an earlier map for that area earlier than 1940. So, what I'm wondering is did you also see a post-1940 map that showed it going to Caliente to help with your determination that it did go up through there?

NE2...the '34 Kern map is great. It's a little more compacted than the other maps so is it showing the main highway passing farther south of Caliente on Bena Rd. as well?  The late 30's map is also great, but the part I have boxed in red is confusing me because that portion doesn't seem to show up in the other maps. It can't be Bena Rd. because Bena Rd., I'm assuming, is the road marked with "466."




After looking through some Calif. Hwys. and Public Works issues online, the only article I could find on the highway was out of a January 1940 issue about the opening of a new, straighter alignment from what they mention starting at Bear Mountain Ranch (at the Bealville Rd. turnoff) and ending 1 mile north of Keene. In that article, I found a small mention of the history of the pass and of a small wagon trail that passed through it during the mining days of the 1800's:



Still nothing about the trail heading through or near Caliente.  Here are some more pics of that widening project.







I found this in a 1928 issue of CHPW showing all of the existing highways at that time, but notice that no highway is shown yet connecting Mojave to Bakersfield.



I guess the real way to find out is actually going to Caltrans in Kern Co. and looking through their maps, but I'm all the way down near Ontario in the I.E., and getting there on a weekday when they are open would be hard because my working hours are 8-3, and they are closed on weekends, I'm sure.  Any suggestions? 

[NE2]

NE2...the '34 Kern map is great. It's a little more compacted than the other maps so is it showing the main highway passing farther south of Caliente on Bena Rd. as well?  The late 30's map is also great, but the part I have boxed in red is confusing me because that portion doesn't seem to show up in the other maps. It can't be Bena Rd. because Bena Rd., I'm assuming, is the road marked with "466."

That boxed road is the only road shown in 1934 (and presumably on your ACSC map). The part of Bena Road between Caliente Bodfish and SR 223 does not appear at all until the late 1930s.

Here's a drawing of your boxed road on a modern aerial: http://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zJ6tKQcwi70c.kVoDHFZol5Jw

and a screenshot of that on a map: