Skip to main content

California State Route 120; US Route 6 west to US Route 395

Back in 2016 I was returning home from Bishop via Tioga Pass.  Conventional wisdom would have dictated using US Route 395 all the way from Bishop to the Tioga Pass part of CA 120 but I wanted to try something different and took US 6 north to Benton in Mono County.  California State Route 120 has a eastern terminus in Benton which I took westward to US 395.

Interestingly Benton was originally located four miles to the west on CA 120 which is now the site of Benton Hot Springs.  Benton Hot Springs is sometimes referred to as "Old Benton" denoting that it was site of the community.  Apparently mining claims were found near Old Benton in 1862 but it seems the area was used earlier as a checking station for travelers heading to the Californian Gold Country.   One of the buildings in Old Benton shows an establishment date of 1852. 


The first map reference to Old Benton is listed as Bentonville on this 1873 Map of California.

1873 Map of California

By 1883 the Carson and Colorado Railroad would arrive in vicinity of Old Benton to the east where the modern community now lies on US 6.  I'm not sure when the name Benton was shifted to the modern site but it appears to have happened relatively quickly.  This 1883 Map of California shows the Carson and Colorado Railroad bypassing Old Benton to the east.

1883 Map of California 

Old Benton lies at approximately 5,600 feet above sea level in the Mojave Desert.  West of Old Benton CA 120 climbs to an elevation of approximately 8,200 feet above sea level and actually receives enough snow that it closes in the winter.  The only major road crossing before US 395 is at Benton Crossing Road.

Approximately 32 miles of Old Benton is the ghost town site of Mono Mills.


Mono Mills located at approximately 7,300 feet above sea level was founded by the Bodie Railway and Lumber Company in 1880 to service Bodie.  Bodie is located to the north on the opposite side of Mono Lake in the Bodie Hills.   The Bodie & Benton Railroad between Mono Mills and Bodie was completed by 1881, it can be seen on the above map of California from 1883.  As the fortunes of Bodie began to decline it had a direct effect on Mono Mills which was abandoned by 1917.  There is not much left in Mono Mills but a couple trace remains of a sawmill.



Of course the story of Bodie is one of the most well known ghost town tales in the United States.  More details on the subject can be found on my California State Route 270 to Bodie blog.

California State Route 270 to Bodie

The remaining approximately 9 miles of CA 120 west to US 395 are fairly conventional aside from the obvious traces of volcanic rock.  CA 120 has an approximately 5 mile multiplex of US 395 before splitting west towards Tioga Pass and Yosemite National Park.  More information on the Tioga Pass Road can be found on this previous blog entry.

California State Route 120 (Tioga Pass Road)

According to CAhighways.org CA 120 between modern US 395 and US 6 was part of Legislative Route 40 which was adopted in 1933.

CAhighways.org on CA 120

Interestingly it would seem CA 167 may have been planned as a realignment of CA 120 north of Mono Lake.  More information can be found here.

California State Route 167

CA 120 east of what was the first CA 7 (modern US 395) east to US 6 can be seen south of Mono Lake on this 1935 California Division of Highways Map of Mono County.

1935 Mono County Highway Map

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...