Sierra Crossing: First Roads to California

A critical era in California's history and development--the building of the first roads over the Sierra Nevada--is thoroughly and colorfully documented in Thomas.
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From Ice House Road to the crest of the Sierras, US 50 is a steadily rising mostly two-lane road, staying just north of the river except for a cutoff that crosses the river twice in quick succession west of Kyburz , the boyhood home of ski racer Spider Sabich. Several hairpin turns take the highway up a grade east of Strawberry , after which US 50 continues east alongside the river to its source at Echo Summit. Echo Summit is the highest elevation U. In , it was the site of the U. Olympic trials for men's track and field, held at a temporary facility in the parking lot of the Nebelhorn ski area.

From Echo Summit down to the Lake Tahoe Basin , the roadway slowly descends the side of a steep hill; it then curves northeast to its south junction with SR 89 which heads south to Luther Pass beginning co-signing of SR 89, and then turns northward near the city of South Lake Tahoe.


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Where US 50 and SR 89 split, at an intersection known as "The Y", the former turns east on the four-lane Lake Tahoe Boulevard, which it follows to and along the south shore of Lake Tahoe , then it enters the state of Nevada. US 50 has been added to the California Freeway and Expressway System by the state legislature, [10] and is part of the National Highway System , [11] a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.

The earliest roads used by Europeans to cross the Sierra Nevada into California were branches of the California Trail. The first route near the present US 50 was the Carson Route , laid out in by an eastward Mormon party that wanted to avoid the Truckee Route and its deep crossings of the Truckee River. Chiles , who was leading a westward wagon train to California, and told him of their new trail. The route became the primary westward route into California at the start of the Gold Rush.

John Calhoun Johnson of Placerville surveyed and cleared a shorter, lower and thus less snow-covered trail east from that town in , completing the work by the summer. Rather than following the ridge to the Sierra's crest as the Mormons had, Johnson headed eastward to the South Fork American River , crossing to its north side near the present Pacific Ranger Station in order to follow Peavine Ridge around a rocky stretch of the river.

SIERRA CROSSING: First Roads to California by Thomas Frederick Howard | Kirkus Reviews

Returning to the river between Kyburz and Strawberry , he then continued alongside it to the crest at Johnson Pass , where a steep slope descended to Lake Tahoe. By , Bartlett's Bridge had been built at the trail's westernmost crossing of the American River, allowing wagons to follow the cutoff; [18] it was soon washed away by a freshet on March 7, , and replaced by Brockliss Bridge , several miles to the east.

Johnson's Cut-off was the only trail that could be used year-round, but it still had problems, as it had been built without use of earth-moving equipment, and thus did not always take the optimal route. The state adopted a survey by Sherman Day in September , but failed to make use of it.

Two years later, the counties of Yolo , Sacramento , and El Dorado , all of which would be benefited by further improvements, began planning and carrying out work. The state legislature created a "Board of Wagon Commissioners" on March 8, , and it completed the improvements by the end of that year.

This new route had better grades than the old cutoff, deviating from it in several places: By , the immense traffic over the road and lack of maintenance had worsened it to the point that it could no longer be used by stagecoaches. To provide for better maintenance, improvements funded by tolls were authorized. Two other competing toll roads soon opened across the Carson Range: The first toll-supported bypass of Peavine Ridge was built by Oglesby and opened in , leaving the old road from Placerville at Pollock Pines , following the ridgetops and slopes south of the South Fork American River, crossing the river east of White Hall , and then following US 50 along the north bank to the county road west of Kyburz.

Johnson began work on a lower-grade replacement on the north side of the river in , but stopped when Pearson and McDonald opened a road over the present alignment of US 50, leaving the pre main road southwest of Brockliss Bridge and following US 50, across the river at Riverton , to Oglesby's road east of White Hall. Toll collection ended in California in , when El Dorado County bought the privately improved sections and made them public roads.

West of Placerville, the wagon road headed south to Diamond Springs , where it turned west along the original Carson Route over relatively gentle terrain to Sacramento , generally following the present US 50 on parallel surface roads, such as Pleasant Valley Road and White Rock Road. The route was further cut back to Placerville, where messages were passed to the telegraph , from July to its discontinuance in October.

At the dawn of the automobile era, the state legislature authorized California's first state road on March 26, , by creating the post of "Lake Tahoe Wagon Road Commissioner" to maintain the road from Newtown Road near Smith Flat just east of Placerville to Nevada. Funding was only enough for minimal improvements, including a new stone bridge over the South Fork American River at Riverton in The Department of Engineering took over its maintenance in , immediately completed a survey and posted granite milestones that marked the distance from Placerville, and in started sprinkling the dirt road with water in summer to keep down dust as had been done in the s.

A law added the short distance from Smith Flat west to the east limits of Placerville to the state road. With the passage of the first state highway bond issue in , the Department of Engineering was directed to lay out and construct a system connecting all county seats. Placerville, seat of El Dorado County, was connected to Sacramento by the The Lincoln Highway , one of the earliest marked highways across the country, split in two over the Sierra Nevada. The main route followed the present I alignment over Donner Pass , but an alternate "Pioneer Branch", designated as part of the initial routing in , turned south at Reno, Nevada to Carson City and then crossed the Sierras via Johnson Pass and the Placerville route.

Contrary to the Lincoln Highway Association's policy of marking the most direct route, this deviation was explained simply as "for those tourists desiring to see Lake Tahoe". However, it actually became shorter in , when the Fallon Cut-off opened from Carson City directly east to the main route near Fallon , bypassing Reno. Highway system was created in , and this route along with the main Lincoln Highway east of the cutoff became part of U. The Donner Pass route was U. Route 40 , crossing Nevada on the Victory Highway. It generally followed the route of current Interstate to the Interstate junction.

The crossing of the Sierra crest at Johnson Pass was bypassed in by a better-quality route over Echo Summit ; the lower part of the current road east of the summit opened in , bypassing Meyers Road. Since Business 80 was not a valid legislative designation, the remainder became State Route For many years, the four lanes from Sacramento stopped at Riverton, where the original two-lane road continued through the canyon and over Echo Summit. The route through the South Fork American River Canyon remains vulnerable to mudslides and other storm damage.

One particularly bad slide closed the highway east of Riverton for 28 days from January 24 to February 21, , only a week after a similar day closure caused by flooding on January 1.

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A project to make more permanent repairs and prevent future closures began on July 31, and from September 2 to October 24 the highway was closed during the week to allow for more efficient reconstruction. Route 50, [68] a designation not approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials , which generally assigns new bannered U.

Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in , based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary for a full list of prefixes, see the list of postmile definitions.

The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Questions?

For the congressional district, see California's 50th congressional district. This article is about the section of U. Route 50 in California. For the entire route, see U. State highways in California Interstate U. California Department of Transportation.

Sierra Crossing. First Roads to California

Archived from the original XLS file on June 30, Retrieved June 30, Retrieved 5 May Retrieved July 6, Streets and Highways Code. Retrieved June 9, Retrieved October 14, Retrieved July 1, Retrieved June 8, The trip up Donner Pass was so difficult that wagons had to be disassembled. Did someone build a road to ease travel or did they continue to use Coldstream Pass until the Dutch Flat Rd. They must have some information and so a query was sent.

The librarian there recommended this book as being helpful. The Dutch Flat Rd. There are so many routes and that means a lot of history is covered. The book covers all the routes to California by giving their stories: Some of the better used routes are analyzed more than others. Howard starts the whole story with the first trappers and explorers, then moves on to the emigrants, first road building attempts, State action, stagecoaches, National action, and then the coming of the railroad.

You learn about the explorers: Walker, Chiles, Fremont and their backgrounds. You learn about the stories behind the different routes: They even sent agents to Ft. Hall to convince emigrants to take their particular routes. There are lots of emigrant quotes when the emigrant routes are discussed. If you like general history books about California history this book does a good job with this obscure topic. Who knew there were so many routes.