Old Coulterville Road

[Max Rockatansky]

I've spent some time these past two months plotting out the alignment of the Old Coulterville Road from Coulterville east to Yosemite Valley.  For those who aren't aware, in the 19th Century the State of California had a habit of handing out toll franchises to private operators to build early highways.  The franchise toll roads in the Sierras in particular often morphed into what we see now with the majority of the highways crossing the Sierras.  In the case of Yosemite National Park the first franchise toll road to reach it was the Coulterville Road in 1874 which beat the Big Oak Flat Road by a short period of time. 

The Coulterville Road unlike the Old Big Oak Flat Road and Old Wawona Road was really never all that popular which meant it never was upgraded with a modern variant (unless one considers CA 140/El Portal Road to be it's modern analog).  That being the case, the majority of the Old Coulterville Road is open to vehicle traffic aside from the Merced Grove and a segment destroyed by landslides east of Foresta.  I found an 1897 Punnett Brothers on David Rumsey which allow me to transcribe the Old Coulterville Road onto modern Goggle images.  Said 1897 Punnett Brothers map can be found in these two images:

A 1897 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

B 1897 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Below are the custom Google Images I made showing the alignment of the Old Coulterville Road.  The Forest Service has detour routes in Stanislaus National Forest that make the Old Coulterville Road that allow traffic to reach Yosemite but there is no way to explore the Merced Grove but on foot.  I haven't checked out the land slide section east of Foresta but I'm assuming it can be hiked:

C Coulterville Area by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

D Dudley Ranch Area by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

E Bower Cave Area by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

F Yosemite Boundary Area by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

G Yosemite Boundary 2 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

H Merced Grove Area by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

I Foresta Area by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

J Yosemite Valley Area by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

[Max Rockatansky]

Finished up the blog post on Gribblenation regarding the Old Coulterville Road:

This past November I spent some time tracking down part of what was the Old Coulterville Road.  The Old Coulterville Road was a Franchise Wagon Road which opened in June of 1874 and was the first Highway to Yosemite Valley.  The Old Coulterville Road sought to have an exclusive Toll Road Franchise to Yosemite Valley but was denied when the State Legislature ensured the franchise to the Big Oak Flat Road was maintained.   The Old Coulterville Road unlike the Big Oak Flat Road and Wawona Road was never really modernized.  The Old Coulterville Road fell into decline when better transportation means such as the Yosemite Valley Railroad and Legislative Route 18/CA 140 were built on the Merced River.  Much of the Old Coulterville Road was rebuilt in the 1950s but segments such as the Merced Grove are no longer open to vehicle traffic.  The blog below contains the history of the Old Coulterville Road, historical maps, the route of the Old Coulterville Road transcribed onto Google Maps imagery and a photo tour on numerous segments.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2019/12/the-old-coulterville-road-first-highway.html