Tuolumne County Route E17

[Max Rockatansky]

I recently drove Tuolumne County Route E17 and started looking into all the weird stuff going with the alignment in Tuolumne City.  The county route still uses Carter Street as a bridge between Tuolumne Road North and Tuolumne Road.  A reassurance shield is still posted at the corner of Carter Street approaching Tuolumne Road.  There is a lot of guide signage indicating how to get towards Buchanan Road towards Cherry Lake and I suspect this is why E17 was never moved west to the Tuolumne Road North extension.   

These are some of the notes with relevancy to the corridor E17 that I wrote up:

"Tuolumne County Route E17 is largely comprised of Tuolumne Road and Tuolumne Road North.  This county route corridor begins at California State Route 108 near Twain Hart and follows Tuolumne Road North to Carter Street in downtown Tuolumne City.  From Tuolumne City the county route corridor follows Tuolumne Road westward to California State Route 108 Business at Mono Way near Sonora.

Tuolumne City is located in the geographic center of what was the East Belt Placer Gold Rush.  Settler Franklin Summers would arrive in the area in 1854 and would construct a log cabin.  In 1858 James Blakely would discover quartz lode in the North Fork Tuolumne River which would form the basis for the Eureka Mine.  The Summersville town site would soon begin to emerge as workers began to flock to the area amid the boom at the mine.

Summersville can be seen located east of the Sonora Pass Road on the 1882 Bancroft's map of California.  Summersville is shown to be accessible via a road passing through the community of Soulsbyville.  From Summersville the road turned northward towards back to the Sonora Pass Road via Cherokee and Arastraville.  This corridor north of Summersville to the Sonora Pass Road today forms the basis for much of Tuolumne Road North. 

Summersville would eventually be renamed as Tuolumne City and become part of the Sierra Railroad.  The Sierra Railroad would begin to establish numerous sidings east of Oakdale after incorporating in February 1897.  The line was opened between Oakdale and a temporary terminus at Cooperstown by June 1897.  The siding facility at Cooperstown included a wye which trains could use to turn around. 

The Sierra Railway completed tracks east of Cooperstown to Chinese Camp by November 1897.  The company would plot Occidential, Paulsell, Warnerville, Copperstown, Crimea (now Keystone) and Chinese siding during the initial run of line construction.  The line would later be extended further east of Jamestown to the community of Tuolumne City by 1900.  The Sierra Railway from the outset has been a freight corridor which has mostly been focused on the hauling of lumber.

The Sierra Railroad terminus in Tuolumne City linked with the West Side Lumber Company Railroad.  The West Side Lumber line was a narrow gauge-line which began operations in 1898 as the Hetch Hetchy & Yosemite Railroad.  The narrow-gauge railroad linked Tuolumne City with the West Side Lumber Mill which was located east of the North Fork Tuolumne River in what is now Stanislaus National Forest.

As part of the expansion of the Sierra Railroad a frontage highway would be constructed from the outskirts of Sonora at the Sonora Pass Highway to directly to Tuolumne City.  The Tuolumne Road can be seen as a major highway linking Sonora and Tuolumne on the 1917 California State Automobile Association map. 

In 1974 Tuolumne County Route E17 was commissioned.  The county route corridor began at California State Route 108 near Twain Hart and followed Tuolumne Road North to Carter Street in Tuolumne City.  The county route corridor followed Carter Street through downtown Tuolumne City where it turns westward at Tuolumne Road.  From Tuolumne City the remaining mileage of County Route E17 follows Tuolumne Road to the outskirts of Sonora to Mono Way (California State Route 108 Business).

In May 2001, the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians would open the Black Oaks Casino near Tuolumne City.  The initial casino was a small operation which was initially based out of a temporary structure.  The casino was rebuilt as a modern facility and would reopen in 2009.  The casino required additional access which included an extension of Tuolumne Road North southward from Carter Street to Tuolumne Road.  This extension effectively acts as a bypass of Tuolumne City but as of the publishing of this blog the corridor Tuolumne County Route E17 remains aligned on Carter Street."

I have found several E17 shields while exploring this County Route corridor.  This county route is signed, just not signed "well."

-  There is an E17 shield on westbound CA 108 approaching Tuolumne Road North.
-  There is an E17 shield on westbound Tuolumne Road North a short distance from CA 108.  There is a sign which indicates Tuolumne City to be "6 miles away."
-  I already mentioned the E17 shield at the corner of Carter Street and Tuolumne Road.
-  There is a heavily faded E17 shield on westbound Mono Way (Business CA 108) approaching Tuolumne Road. 
-  There was another E17 that I can't seem to find near Wards Ferry Road.