Throwback Thursday - November 16, 2017

After spending the past few days exploring the countryside of Western New York, Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, I decided that this week's Throwback Thursday would pay homage to an August 2004 trip that I made to the Keystone State. I had taken PA 28 on my way northeast from Pittsburgh and encountered a bunch of old signage along the way from Pittsburgh to Kittanning. The aging, button copy signs have since been replaced. This particular example is on PA 28 northbound at the Blawnox exit, near Aspinwall and Blawnox. It even looks like the Exit 9 may have been tacked on the sign as an afterthought.

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New River Gorge National Park & Preserve - Thurmond

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve is best known for whitewater rafting and other forms of adventure tourism. Yet, found in the hollows and isolated valleys are quiet farms and former coal mining towns. Well off the beaten path and isolated from much of its surroundings, Thurmond provides a unique view into Central West Virginia's industrial past. Thurmond began as a railroad town in the late 1800s. Sparked by the arrival of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and the local coal industry, Thurmond quickly grew into a sizeable transportation and coal center. When it incorporated as a town in 1903, Thurmond was a full-fledged community - home to two banks, two hotels, and many other services and stores. A CSX freight train passes the old coaling tower in Thurmond. It was here that many steam locomotives would refill and refuel. Thurmond was home to a C&O railyard which serviced the numerous steam engines passing through the narrow valley. Thu...

The Tale of Tollhouse Road, western California State Route 168 and failed Piute Pass Highway

Western California State Route 168 is entirely located in Fresno County and is linked historically to the Tollhouse Road corridor. 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 1...

Old Dunlap Road (former California State Route 180 in Yokuts Valley)

When California State Route 180 was commissioned in August 1934 the alignment in took in Sierra Nevada range was very different than from today. The original highway alignment from Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) to east Grant Grove (then part of General Grant National Park) originally followed what is now Ruth Hill Road, Dunlap Road, Pinehurst Road (modern California State Route 245), Dark Canyon Road (partially now Forest Road 14S45). After funding fell through for the planned Kings Canyon Road the was corridor eventually picked up as a 30-mile-long cooperative project between the Division of Highways and Federal Government. Much of current alignment of California State Route 180 bypassing Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) and Dunlap was complete by 1941. The post-1941 alignment of California State Route 180 in Squaw Valley was shifted onto what was once Dunlap Road in Squaw Valley. This alignment itself was later bypassed by modern California State Route...

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