Ghost Town Tuesday; Santa Claus, AZ (Santa literally for sale)

I figured that I would start this series off with something festively Christmas themed given it is December; the ruins of Santa Claus, AZ.

Circa 2011-2012 I often found myself traveling to Clark County Nevada for work and would often utilize US Route 93 to do so. About 14 miles south of Kingman I often noticed a weird accumulation of festively themed buildings on the south side of US 93. After looking into a map of Mohave County, Arizona on Ghosttowns.com I learned what I was looking was once an inhabited place called Santa Claus.

With the completion of the Hoover Dam in 1936 travel directly between Kingman and Las Vegas had become possible first with US 466 followed by US 93 likely in 1938. Santa Claus traces it's roots back to 1937 when Santa Claus was opened by Nina Talbot. The original vision for Santa Claus was a resort-like community surroundings the Christmas shop which was to act as a centerpiece so to speak. Santa Claus essentially was a company town which was populated by workers of the Christmas shop. Apparently the size of Santa Claus (more likely the notable name) actually warranted post office service.

After decades of decline the Santa Claus Christmas shop shut down and the site largely has been for sale ever since off the side of US 93. Apparently there was still roughly 10 people living in Santa Claus as of 2000 but they were all apparently gone by 2006. My understanding is that postal service continued to 2005. Back in 2012 the Christmas shop was still standing off the western side of US 93, it is still standing on the 2016 Google Car Image. I found the town sufficiently weird and kind of creepy to warrant my attention on the way back from Las Vegas on the way home from a work trip.

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California State Route 77; the real "Shortest Signed" State Highway

Over the last two weeks I visited almost every State Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area. The shortest State Highway by a large margin in the Bay Area is California State Route 77.

CA 77 is presently only 0.45 miles in length and is located entirely within the City of Oakland. CA 77 begins at Interstate 880 and heads eastward on 42nd Avenue to CA 185 on 14th Street. As presently completed CA 77 would rank as the third shortest State Highway only behind CA 275 and CA 283.

CAhighways.org list of Shortest State Highways

CA 77 presently has a 13.4 mile portion that has not been constructed. CA 77 as originally envisioned would have continued northeast towards Concord and would have junctions with; I-580, unbuilt CA 93, CA 24, I-680 and CA 242. According to CAhighways.org the present route of CA 77 was designated as Legislative Route Number 233 which was approved by the State Legislature in 1953. The legislative description of LRN 233 was changed to LRN 235 by 1957.

CAhighways.org on…

Local Sign Find - Georgia Route 280 found in Sutersville, PA?

Sign errors happen - a US shield in place of a state highway shield or vice versa. It's interesting to some and a pet peeve to others. But when Mike Natale found a Georgia 280 shield in Sutersville, Pennsylvania, you have to think something must be up.
And in this case, there's a reason for it. It's a prop for a television series. Netflix's popular TV series "Mindhunter" is shot in the Pittsburgh area. Mike came across the GA 280 sign in October 2018 and it is possible that the scenes involving Georgia 280 should be in Episode 6 or 7.

Georgia State Highway 280 is located in northwestern and western Atlanta. That's a far cry from the Mon Valley. It is common for television or movie scenes to be shot elsewhere than where they are set at. However, it is very rare to see a sign prop out in the wild while production is on going. This is a great find by Mike!

The strange evolution of Interstate 280 in San Francisco

Recently while in the San Francisco Bay Area I wanted to check out the north terminus of Interstate 280 in downtown San Francisco. I-280 as currently aligned diverges significantly from what was originally planned in the City of San Francisco.

Much of the finalized planning of the Interstate Highway System in the San Francisco Bay Area was largely plotted out by 1956. Between CA 17 in Los Gatos and CA 1 in San Francisco the path of I-280 ultimately followed Legislative Route Number 239 which was designated by the State Legislature in 1957.

CAhighways.org on LRN 239

LRN 239 can be seen appearing on the State Highway Map City Insert of San Francisco connecting to CA 1 by 1958.

1958 State Highway Map City Insert

I-280 was to take a far different route than it currently does in San Francisco. The original plan for I-280 was to follow CA 1 on LRN 56 towards the Golden Gate Bridge where it would terminate at I-480/LRN 224 and US 101. The original planned alignment of I-280 becomes apparen…

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