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Author Topic: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History  (Read 3074 times)

cahwyguy

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CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« on: January 08, 2018, 05:50:44 PM »

I just received an email at cahighways.org from the Executive Director of the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau.  They are working to rejuvenate the awareness of historic CA Route 49 — the Golden Chain Highway — in time for the commemoration of its 100th anniversary the second week of October 2019.  He had two requests/questions for me, and I felt they would be appropriate to forward on to this board.

First: He is looking for individuals or organizations that might be interested in this effort. If you can think of any, please send them to me (faigin@cahighways.org) and I'll get them to him.
 
Second: He has been asked by a County Supervisor to look into the historical significance of what is now Old Highway in Mariposa County. They believe that it was a state highway before the building the current extension into Mariposa town proper and a subsequent reclassification as Route 140. He has asked CalTrans; they referred him to me and also sent along a map of historical significance regarding this road.  So if you have any ideas or suggestions, we can discuss them here and I'll pass on the info (or you can email them to me and I'll pass them on).

Thanks,

Daniel
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Daniel - California Highway Guy ● Highway Site: http://www.cahighways.org/ ●  Blog: http://blog.cahighways.org/ ● Podcast (CA Route by Route): http://caroutebyroute.org/ ● Follow California Highways on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cahighways

Max Rockatansky

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2018, 06:50:18 PM »

I was going to work on a 49 road blog coming up, I can bump it up in priority though.  I’ll have a look at the old Divisions of Highway Map from 1935 from Mariposa County, I believe they are correct about 140 being on Old Highway.  I might have touched on it already with 140 on that road blog I did for the El Portal Road/Yosemite All-Year Highway also earlier this year. 

Edit:  To clarify I would definitely be interested in helping with this project. 
« Last Edit: January 08, 2018, 06:55:01 PM by Max Rockatansky »
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Max Rockatansky

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2018, 07:18:12 PM »

I’ll have to do some more digging to see if Old Highway was once state maintained but appears 140 west of Mariposa has always been on the general current aligned during the signed State Route era.   Old Highway is seen as a County maintained road in 1935:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~247310~5515366:Mariposa-County?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:California%2Bdivision%2Bof%2Bhighways;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=46&trs=163
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Max Rockatansky

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2018, 07:55:05 PM »

It looks like Old Highway was the primary state road between Cathay and Mariposa.  The 1932 map shows the modern alignment of CA 140 being constructed north of Old Highway:


https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239597~5511898:Map-Showing-State-Highway-System--C?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:Caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=75&trs=86


The 1930 map shows a clear alignment on Old Highway:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239599~5511899:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:Caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=76&trs=86

The 1934 still shows State Maintenance on Old Highway:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239594~5511896:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:Caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=73&trs=86

Oddly the shift north off of Old Highway doesn’t appear on the state map until 1938:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239588~5511892:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:Caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=69&trs=86


I’d say that 1935 map of Mariposa County from the Division of Highways is probably more accurate than the state highway maps.  It seems that Old Highway was likely replaced circa 1934 or 1935. 

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roadfro

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2018, 10:46:43 AM »

Second: He has been asked by a County Supervisor to look into the historical significance of what is now Old Highway in Mariposa County. They believe that it was a state highway before the building the current extension into Mariposa town proper and a subsequent reclassification as Route 140. He has asked CalTrans; they referred him to me and also sent along a map of historical significance regarding this road.  So if you have any ideas or suggestions, we can discuss them here and I'll pass on the info (or you can email them to me and I'll pass them on).

The bolded part made me chuckle out loud. You'd think CalTrans would know whether or not they owned/maintained/relinquished an old road or not, and not have to refer someone to a roadgeek... I guess that just goes to show that TPTB realize you've really done your research on their highway system!
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Roadfro - AARoads Pacific Southwest moderator since 2010, Nevada roadgeek since 1983.

Max Rockatansky

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2018, 11:09:25 AM »

Second: He has been asked by a County Supervisor to look into the historical significance of what is now Old Highway in Mariposa County. They believe that it was a state highway before the building the current extension into Mariposa town proper and a subsequent reclassification as Route 140. He has asked CalTrans; they referred him to me and also sent along a map of historical significance regarding this road.  So if you have any ideas or suggestions, we can discuss them here and I'll pass on the info (or you can email them to me and I'll pass them on).

The bolded part made me chuckle out loud. You'd think CalTrans would know whether or not they owned/maintained/relinquished an old road or not, and not have to refer someone to a roadgeek... I guess that just goes to show that TPTB realize you've really done your research on their highway system!

That doesn’t surprise me the least bit.  Even if Caltrans had the information in their Archives somewhere someone needs to research it.  ADOT out in Arizona generally has more accessible records but they’ll just tell you they don’t have an answer for you.  Probably better to defer to someone like Daniel than paying someone at Caltrans to dig through maps. 
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cahwyguy

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2018, 11:40:20 AM »

The bolded part made me chuckle out loud. You'd think CalTrans would know whether or not they owned/maintained/relinquished an old road or not, and not have to refer someone to a roadgeek... I guess that just goes to show that TPTB realize you've really done your research on their highway system!

Actually, Caltrans has used me as a reference for a long time, probably because I bring a lot of historical stuff together (and I'm getting better at it -- I'm starting now to go back and postmile most references -- thanks to the Postmile tool). The alternative would be to use the history library in Sacramento, and any corporate library has tight staffing and resource constraints these days.
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Max Rockatansky

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2018, 05:59:02 PM »

Bumping this thread back up.  I took a phone call about this project today.  Basically everything is in the early stages but it sounds like this is certainly up the alley of a lot of folks on this board with the historical aspect of this project.  I’ll be working something up on Sure Why Not Now with map references and some of my own custom stuff.  If anyone is interested or has any pointers on stuff like historical 49 photos please give a shout out, I’m sure additional contributors would be greatly welcome. 
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Max Rockatansky

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2018, 06:28:45 PM »

Figured it was time to bring this thread back to life given that I just finished the blog entry on the segment from CA 16 north to CA 89:

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2017/06/california-state-route-49golden-chain.html

I left an open question in regards to Sierraville and the north terminus of CA 49 from 1940 to 1958.  CA 49 was one of the state highways in the 1930s signed on county maintained roads, in this case north of Sierraville.  The signage appeared to have been yanked from 1940 until the state took over maintenance in 1958.  The question is did CA 49 end at CA 89 coming down off of Yuba Pass or did it still multiplex it to a terminus in Sierraville?  The state highway maps I have access to don't have the detail necessary to draw a clear conclusion.
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Max Rockatansky

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Re: CA Route 49 / "Old Highway" / Mariposa Yosemite History
« Reply #9 on: April 29, 2018, 09:14:10 PM »

I got around to completing the blog entry on CA 49 from CA 41 north to CA 16.  I'm fairly certain that I captured all the alignment shifts at least to some extent:

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/04/california-state-route-49-golden-chain.html

The photos are substantially older in this blog post and not exactly up to the standard of the more recent stuff I've been posting.  CA 49 is presently closed in the Merced River Canyon.  Once I can get out to CA 49 there I'll take some new materials to get the photo more up to a highway guide format.
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