Tollhouse Road in the city of Fresno?

[Max Rockatansky]

Yesterday I posted something on the Gribblenation Facebook account about the general history of Tollhouse Road in Fresno County.  I bolded relevant text below to the point of this thread:

"Tollhouse Road is one of the oldest highways in the Sierra Nevada range of Fresno County.  The corridor presently begins in at Clovis Avenue in downtown Clovis and extends northeast to Huntington Lake. 
In 1866 the Woods Brothers established mining claims on Pine Ridge.  In 1867 Fresno County would grant the brothers a toll franchise to construct a roadway to the desirable logging areas atop Pine Ridge and near Dinkey Creek.  The Woods would establish a tollhouse at the start of their franchise road and lumber mill.   The lumber mill attracted settlers which led to the establishment of the mountain town of Tollhouse. 

Fresno County would purchase the Tollhouse Road in 1878 and make it a public highway.  The county would remove the tolls and incorporate the corridor into the existing county road network.  Prior to the establishment of Clovis in 1890 the Tollhouse Road extended all the way west into Fresno.  In 1923 the corridor between Tollhouse andd Pine Ridge would largely be realigned onto switchbacks.  The older alignment often appears as Burrough Mountain Road on modern maps.

The Tollhouse Road would become part of the State Highway System in 1933 following an extension of Legislative Route Number 76 west of the Bishop area.  The corridor was largely added to the State Highway inventory to help facilitate travel to the Big Creek Project. 

The Tollhouse Road would be assigned as part of California State Route 168 when the initial run of Sign State Routes was announced.  Through the duration of the 1930s the Forest Service would pursue construction of the Piute Pass Highway to connect Hunting Lake over the crest of the Sierra Nevada to Lake Sabrina.  The Piute Pass Highway would have incorporated Kaiser Pass Road and connected it to the eastern part of Legislative Route Number 76 (also part of California State Route 168) at Lake Sabrina. 

During the 1960s the Tollhouse Road was slated to be replaced via a planned freeway realignment of California State Route 168.  The freeway corridor was planned to begin in Fresno and extend up Pine Ridge up to the vicinity of Shaver Lake.  Within the Sierra Nevada this new freeway would open between Lodge Road and Auberry Road by the early 1970s.  This new freeway bypassed the community of Tollhouse and the largest incline on the Tollhouse Road.

California State Route 168 was subsequently realigned off a portion of Tollhouse Road via Morgan Canyon Road, Auberry Road and Lodge Road.  This alignment was intended to be temporary and took it through the community of Prather.  Ultimately the planned freeway extension west to Clovis was never constructed.  Caltrans District 6 still posts the Prather alignment of California state Route 168 with "T" Postmile paddles. 

California State Route 168 in Clovis would be moved onto the Sierra Freeway between 1999 and 2001.  The State Highway corridor still utilizes Tollhouse Road from the northeast Clovis city limit to Morgan Canyon in addition to the segment east of Auberry Road to Huntington Lake."


One of the commentors on a Fresno History group I shared this post with pointed out that there is a disconnected segment of Tollhouse Road actually located in Fresno at the southwest corner of Ashlan Avenue and Millbrook Avenue:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/RmnjqF9e6uXRS1UHA

According to the commentor the city of Fresno apparently pursued building their own extension of Tollhouse Road.  This apparently went nowhere because the city was far too developed to continue the project.  Much of the constructed right of way was converted into an unnamed park. 

From what I've found looking at USGS maps the Tollhouse Road segment in Fresno begin first to appear on the 1965 Fresno North maps.  At the time there wasn't a lot of available land northeast of Ashlan and Millbrook. 

Worth noting, on Zillow I'm seeing 1957-1958 era stuff pop up a lot for the homes on the Tollhouse Road segment in Fresno.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3985-N-Tollhouse-Rd-Fresno-CA-93726/18732119_zpid/

This whole idea of extending Tollhouse Road into Fresno never seems to have been a concept for CA 168.  I've never seen anything to suggest that the established surface routing of Shaw Avenue, Clovis Avenue and Tollhouse Road was ever seriously considered for alterations prior the freeway era.  The freeway corridor for CA 168 was always planned to follow the current Sierra Freeway the highway now occupies.

So, here are the open questions I can't answer.  When did Fresno consider building an extension of Tollhouse Road?  Was this extension intended to be part of CA 168?  When did Fresno decide to abandon the idea and convert the right-of-way for park usage?