Skip to main content

Lockwood-San Lucas Road

By


Lockwood-San Lucas Road is a fifteen-mile rural highway located in Monterey County, California.  As the name suggests, Lockwood-San Lucas Road connects the communities of Lockwood and San Lucas.  The highway begins at Lockwood-Jolon Road in San Antonio Valley.  From San Antonio Valley the highway crosses the Santa Lucia Mountains and enters Salinas Valley where it crosses the 1915 Salinas River Bridge near San Lucas.  Lockwood-San Lucas Road originally connected with Main Street in San Lucas, but the crossing was removed in the 1970s.  




Part 1; the history of Lockwood-San Lucas Road

Lockwood-San Lucas Roads connects the two namesake communities via the San Lucia Mountains and Salinas River.  Lockwood lies in San Antonio Valley east of Mission San Antonio de Padua.  Lockwood is named in honor of Belva Lockwood who ran for President on the Equal Rights Party ticket in 1884 and 1888.  Post Office Service in Lockwood was established in 1888.  

By 1886 the Southern Pacific Railroad was extended southward from Soledad through Rancho San Lucas.  The Southern Pacific Railroad established a railroad siding which took the name of "San Lucas" in honor of the property donated by Alberto Trescony.  By 1887 Post Office service was transferred from nearby Griswold and has remained operating ever since.  

During 1915 a truss bridge over the Salinas River southwest of San Lucas was installed by Monterey County.  The Salinas River Bridge functionally made direct automotive travel between Lockwood and San Lucas possible.  

The entirety of modern Lockwood-San Lucas Road (displayed as Lockwood Grade) appears on the 1919 United States Geological Survey Maps of King City and Bryson.  Lockwood-San Lucas Road is shown to cross the Santa Lucia Mountains via San Lucas Canyon and Espinosa Canyon.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road appears as a major local highway on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Monterey County.  

The US Route 101 and California State Route 198 bypasses of San Lucas opened during 1972.  US Route 101 was shifted to a new freeway west of Cattlemen Road and California State Route 198 was extended directly to it via an interchange structure southwest of San Lucas.  The then new terminus of California State Route 198 bisected part of Lockwood-San Lucas between the Salinas River Bridge and San Lucas.  

Former California State Route 198 in San Lucas was also partially severed after the highway was realigned.  Mary Street no longer directly connects traffic from California State Route 198 to Main Street.  The Southern Pacific Railroad crossing from Main Street to Cattlemen Road/Lockwood-San Lucas Road was removed.  The new alignments of US Route 101 and California State Route 198 appear on the 1975 Caltrans Map.




Part 2; a drive on Lockwood-San Lucas Road

Northbound Lockwood-San Lucas Road begins at the outskirts of Lockwood along Lockwood-Jolon Road.  Traffic is notified that San Lucas is fifteen miles away.  


Lockwood-San Lucas Road climbs into the Santa Lucia Mountains via San Lucas Canyon as a single lane.  The road crests at an elevation of 1,673 feet above sea level.  


















Lockwood-San Lucas Road descends through Espinosa Canyon and enters Salinas Valley.




















Lockwood-San Lucas Road widens to two-lanes approaching an interchange with US Route 101.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road makes a left-hand turn at Paris Valley Road.  


Lockwood-San Lucas Road makes a right-hand turn at Oasis Road towards the Salinas River.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road crosses the 1915 Salinas River Bridge. 




Below the now missing dedication placard which once was affixed to the Salinas River Bridge (courtesy southern Monterey County historian John Jernigan). 


Lockwood-San Lucas Road approaches another interchange with US Route 101 and the eastbound start of California State Route 198.  




As noted in Part 1, a disconnected segment of Lockwood-San Lucas Road exists east of the US Route 101 freeway.  From the intersection of Cattlemen Road (former US Route 101) and Lockwood-San Lucas Road the razed former grade of California State Route 198 to Main Street in San Lucas can be observed.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Abandoned Fowler Avenue in Clovis, California

By
Originally Fowler Avenue in the city of Clovis had a brief discontinuation approaching Herndon Avenue.  Fowler Avenue traffic heading northbound was required to detour briefly onto westbound Herndon Avenue.  During 2001 this discontinuation was removed when Fowler Avenue was reconfigured to access the Sierra Freeway (California State Route 168) via an interchange.  This led to a segment of the original alignment of Fowler Avenue just south of Herndon Avenue to be abandoned.  Despite a shopping center opening over part of the original Fowler Avenue alignment in 2016 much of the abandoned roadway remains.   The history of the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue in Clovis The original alignment of California State Route 168 departed downtown Clovis eastbound along Tollhouse Road.  This original alignment did not interact with Fowler Avenue at the Herndon Avenue intersection.  Fowler Avenue north of Tollhouse Road ran north to Herndon Avenue...
Post a Comment
Read more