Skip to main content

Echo Valley Road (Monterey County)

By


Echo Valley Road is an approximately three mile connecting highway through the Gablian Range in the Prunedale area.  The corridor begins at Monterey County Route G12 at San Miguel Canyon Road and extends east to an interchange located at US Route 101.  Echo Valley Road originated near the founding of Prunedale during the 1890s but did not become a modernized roadway until the middle of the twentieth century.  




Part 1; the history of Echo Valley Road

Echo Valley is located in the community of Prunedale.  Said community was founded near the junction of San Migeul Canyon, Langley Canyon and Echo Valley.  Watsonville settler Charles Langley (namesake of Langley Canyon) was one of the prominent early community settlers.  The Prunedale Post Office would open for the first time in 1894 but would close by 1908.  Early agriculture in the area consisted of Plum Trees which failed due to a lack of irrigation.  

What is now modern Echo Valley Road can be seen on the 1917 California State Automobile Association map.  Said map shows the roadway extending east from the site of Prunedale along modern San Miguel Canyon Road east to Legislative Route Number 2 at the San Juan Grade (future US Route 101).  The corridor is shown be a minor roadway and also comprises what is Crazy Horse Canyon Road.  


During 1932 US Route 101 was realigned off the San Juan Grade through the so-called "Prunedale Cutoff" through Langley Canyon.  The then new alignment of US Route 101 spurred development of Prunedale and the community reobtained Post Office service in 1953.  A modernized roadway through Echo Valley first appears on the 1956 United States Geological Survey map of the Prunedale area (courtesy historicaerials.com).




Part 2; a drive on Echo Valley Road

Eastbound Echo Valley Road begins from San Miguel Canyon Road (Monterey County Route G12) in Prunedale. 


Eastbound Echo Valley Road ascends into the Gabilan Range and crests an unnamed pass at 523 feet above sea level.  The summit of the unnamed pass faces towards Fremont Peak.  














Echo Valley Road ends at an interchange with US Route 101.  The roadway continues east as Crazy Horse Canyon Road east to the San Juan Grade.  




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

By
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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

By
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

California State Route 73

By
California State Route 73 is 21 mile limited access highway aligned over the Corona del Mar Freeway and San Joaquin Hills Toll Road.  California State Route 73 connects Interstate 5 near San Juan Capistrano westward to Interstate 405 in Costa Mesa.  Prior to the construction of the Corona del Mar Freeway and San Joaquin Hills Tollway California State Route 73 was a surface highway located on largely MacArthur Boulevard. Part 1; the history of California State Route 73 What became California State Route 73 ("CA 73") entered the State Highway System in 1933 as Legislative Route Number 184 ("LRN 184").  LRN 184 was given the following route definition: "LRN 60 near Corona Del Mar to Santa Ana via Main Street" LRN 184 was announced in the April 1933 California Highways & Public Works .   LRN 184 appears for the first time on the  1934 Division of Highways Map .   LRN 184 appears under State Maintenance from US Route 101/LRN 2 in Santa Ana south ...
Post a Comment
Read more