Paper Highways; CA 169 and early CA 96

[Max Rockatansky]

This time on Paper Highways I wanted to look at the back story of CA 169 which has a notable large gap between it's two segments along the Klamath River.  CA 169 was added to the State Highway System was part of Legislative Route 46 between Legislative Route 1 (future US 101) and Legislative Route 3 (future US 99) near Yreka.  Interestingly when the Sign State Routes were initially rolled out CA 96 was slated to follow the entirety of LRN 46 and may have even temporarily used Bald Hills Road to reach US 101 by way of Orick.  At some point between 1935 and 1938 CA 96 was shifted off of LRN 46 at Weitchpec south on Legislative Route 84 to US 299.  Interest in finishing LRN 46 west of Martins Ferry appears have resumed after floods in Northwest California in 1955 which culminated in the highway reaching the Yurok Reservation.  The December Floods of 1964 in Northwest California likely killed whatever remaining ambitions there were at completing the newly designated CA 169.  CA 169 in particular is interesting due to the west segment containing the Through Tree (a Coastal Redwood) and the east segment being one of the last one-lane State Highways.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2020/05/paper-highways-modern-california-state.html

[Max Rockatansky]

Added some new photos to the above blog which includes the Klamath Tour Thru Tree:

0 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

[sparker]

Back in the early days of the DOH, it's likely that they considered the original alignment of SSR 96 that followed the current CA 169 path to US 101 at Klamath a potential "water-level" commercial corridor from the coastal corridor to the US 99/Pacific Highway path.  Remember the trucks of the day were prone to overheating and/or mechanical breakdown on extended grades, so a route that followed a river valley inland would have been considered a significant benefit -- so it's no wonder that a singular signed route was planned over the length of the riverside route.  Of course, the region never developed to the extent that such a corridor was necessary, and the shorter and less-convoluted SSR 44/later US 299 corridor became the default interregional arterial, since it more directly connected the two areas that did experience growth, Eureka and Redding.