Skip to main content

California State Route 266

By

 
California State Route 266 is 12 mile State Highway entirely contained within Fish Lake Valley of remote eastern Mono County.  California State Route 266 begins at the southern terminus of Nevada State Route 264 at the Nevada State Line/Esmeralda County Line and jogs southward to California State Route 168 at the small community of Oasis.  From Oasis the alignment of California State Route 266 swings eastward to a terminus at Nevada State Route 266 at the Nevada State Line/Esmeralda County Line.  California State Route 266 has one of the lowest average daily traffic counts on any California State Highway with a 1992 estimate of 70-110 vehicles daily.  Pictured above is the northern terminus of California State Route 266 at the Nevada State Line transitioning onto Nevada State Route 3A as depicted in the July/August 1966 California Highways & Public Works.  




The history of California State Route 266

The eastern segment of California State Route 266 ("CA 266") came into modern relevance as part of the National Roosevelt Midland Trail.  The National Roosevelt Midland Trail was a ocean-to-ocean Auto Trail which was established during 1913.  The National Roosevelt Midland Trail entered California via what is now Nevada State Route 266 ("NV 266") westward from Lida to Oasis in Fish Valley of Mono County.  From Oasis the Roosevelt Midland Trail continued westward over Gilbert Pass and Westgard Pass towards Owens Valley.  Westgard Pass lies in a gap between the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains at an elevation of 7,313 feet above sea level.  Westgard Pass is named after Anton L. Westgard who made a cross country journey in his Pioneer Freighter truck circa 1911.  The National Roosevelt Midland Trail can be seen passing through Fish Lake Valley and Westgard Pass towards Owens Valley on the 1920 Clason Highway Map of California.  



Historically Westgard Pass was tied to the mining fortunes of Lida, Nevada.  Mining claims in Tule Canyon during the 1860s led to the establishment of the town of Lida (also known as Alida) in 1872.  The formation of Lida was soon followed up with Post Office Service being established in 1873.  A stage route westward through what is now Gilbert Pass and Westgard Pass was subsequently established to Owens Valley.  Oasis was established as a stage stop on Cottonwood Creek of Fish Lake Valley in the the early 1870s near the mines of Sylvania west of Lida.  Post Office Service in Oasis began in 1873 signifying the community was notable for it's time.  Oasis can be seen on the 1882 Bancroft's Map of California and Nevada displayed as Ropers Ranch.  The stage route west of Oasis can be seen traversing the then unnamed gap in the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains.  


Legislative Route Number 63 ("LRN 63") was added to the State Highway System by way of the 1919 Third State Bond Act.  The original definition of LRN 63 simply was a highway originating in Oasis and terminating at Big Pine of Owens Valley.  The projected line of LRN 63 first appears on the 1920 California Highway Commission Map.  


LRN 63 appears in the August 1924 California Highways & Public Works as a secondary State Highway.  LRN 63 is stated to be 38.6 miles in length from Big Pine east to Oasis.  


1931 Legislative Chapter 82 extended LRN 63 from Oasis 2.5 miles east to the Nevada State Line.  The extension of LRN 63 was made with the simple rationale that it provided a logical connection with NV 3.  The extended LRN 63 can be seen east of Oasis for the first time on the 1932 Division of Highways State Map.  


The extension of LRN 63 east of Oasis to the Nevada State Line first appears in the August 1932 California Highways & Public Works.  


LRN 63 can be seen in detail on the 1935 Division of Highways Map of Mono County.  A local road north of Oasis and LRN 63 can be seen connecting to NV 3A at the Nevada State Line.  


LRN 63 in Westgard Pass is seen a primitive state in the January 1939 California Highways & Public Works.


During the 1964 California Highways Renumbering all the Legislative Route Numbers were dropped.  Legislative Routes which did not have a Sign State Highway attached to them were given designations.  LRN 63 east of Big Pine to the Nevada State Line was added assigned as an extension of CA 168.  CA 168 east of Big Pine to the Nevada State Line by way of Oasis appears for the first time on the 1964 Division of Highways Map.  



1965 Legislative Chapter 1875 added CA 266 as a new State Highway with the following definition:

"Route 168 near Oasis to the Nevada state line via Mono county road 101"

The adoption of Mono County Road 101 into the State Highway System is discussed in the July/August 1966 California Highways & Public Works.  CA 266 was adopted during October of 1965 via Legislative Chapter 1875.  The adoption of CA 266 included the 7 miles of paved highway from CA 168 in Oasis north to NV 3A at the Nevada State Line.  The same article features CA 168 east of Big Pine and the history of Westgard Pass.  



During the 1976 Nevada State Highway Renumbering NV 3A from the northern terminus of CA 266 was reassigned as NV 264.  NV 3 from the eastern terminus of CA 168 was reassigned as part of NV 266.   It is unclear if the assignment of NV 266 was intentional or a coincidence given many of the Nevada State Highways of Esmeralda County were assigned numbers in the 200-299 range.  NV 264 and NV 266 both appear for the first time on the 1978-79 Nevada Department of Transportation Map. 


1986 Legislative Chapter 928 extended CA 266 east from Oasis to the Nevada State Line via transfer from CA 168.  The extension of CA 266 provided a continuous multi-state highway via NV 266 east to US Route 95 near Goldfield.  The extended CA 266 appears for the time on the 1988 Caltrans Map.  



A full photo tour of modern CA 266 can be found on Corco Highways:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

By
  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
Post a Comment
Read more

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two
1 comment
Read more

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
  Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third
Post a Comment
Read more