Skip to main content

Madera County Road 620

By

Madera County Road 620 is an approximately six-mile-long rural highway in the Sierra Nevada range north of Oakhurst. The corridor spans from California State Route 41 west to Madera County Road 628. The segment west of Old Yosemite Road alternates between asphalt and dirt surfaces.
What is now Madera County Road 620 was originally built as a trail from Bissett's Station at the Fresno-Yosemite Road (now Old Yosemite Road) west to the junction of the Mariposa Road (now Road 628) and the Wawona Stage Road (now Miami Mountain Road). In 1934 Bissett's Station would be bypassed to the east by the then new California State Route 41 which followed Lewis Creek. The Bissett Station trail was extended east to California State Route 41 and improved to facilitate automotive travel. When Madera County dropped road names in favor of a numbering system Bissett's Station Road became Road 620.




Part 1; the history of Madera County Road 620

During 1908 Elick and Emma Bissett established Bissett's Station five miles north of Fresno Flats along the Fresno-Yosemite Road.  Bissett's Station housed machinery which was frequently used to haul materials to both Sugar Pine and Wawona.  The location can still be found today at the northeast corner of modern Old Yosemite Road and Madera County Road 620.  

What is now Road 620 was originally built as a trail from Bissett's Station at the Fresno-Yosemite Road west to the junction of the Mariposa Road (now Road 628) and the Wawona Stage Road (now Miami Mountain Road). Said trail can be seen on the 1912 United States Geological Survey Map of Mariposa.


During 1933 the Fresno-Yosemite Road would be added to the State Highway System as a component of Legislative Route Number 125.  The new State Highway annexed numerous existing plans to straighten the Fresno-Yosemite Highway, including a bypass of Bissett's Station.  Said bypass was announced as an advertised project north of Oakhurst in the March 1934 California Highways & Public Works.  


The bypass of Bissett's Station was complete during 1934 which led to the business being shuttered.  The new State Highway north of Oakhurst followed Nelder Creek and Lewis Creek.  The entirety of Legislative Route Number 125 north of Fresno would be assigned as California State Route 41 during August 1934.  

The trail to Bissett's Station would be extended east to the then new alignment of California State Route 41 and improved to facilitate automotive travel.  The corridor would be named "Bissett Station Road" and can be seen on the 1935 Division of Highways Map of Madera County.  


Madera County would drop road names in favor of a numbering convention during the middle of the twentieth century.  Bissett's Station Road would be reassigned as Madera County Road 620.  



Part 2; a drive on Madera County Road 620

Westbound Road 620 begins from California State Route 41 a couple miles north of Oakhurst.


Road 620 ascends to a bluff which faces south overlooking Oakhurst.







Road 620 continues west and intersects Old Yosemite Road at the site of Bissett's Station.  










Road 620 west of Old Yosemite Road continues for several miles before becoming a dirt surfaced highway.














Road 620 continues west and crosses Carter Creek via a concrete ford.  The dirt surface appears to be top layering weathered asphalt.  











Road 620 begins to ascend a steep grade and resumes a normal paved surface approaching the western terminus at Road 628.  























Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

By
  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hot Springs Drive (Tulare County Mountain Road 56)

By
Hot Springs Drive is an approximately twenty-mile rural highway in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Tulare County.  The Hot Springs Drive corridor begins at Old Stage Road at Fountain Springs and extends eastward to Parker Pass Road near California Hot Springs.  Hot Springs Drive is carried by Tulare County Mountain Road 56 and acts as an extension of Avenue 56 (Tulare County Route J22).   What is now California Hot Springs originated as the Deer Creek Hot Springs Resort in 1882.  The resort on Deer Creek was originally served by a Control Road which required traffic alternate at different times of the day.  The modern California Hot Springs resort would incorporate in 1905 following an ownership change.  The Control Road corridor was replaced by Hot Springs Drive around 1915 which intended to serve increasing amount of automotive traffic to California Hot Springs.  Much of the resort would later burn in 1968 but was rebuilt in the 1980s. ...
Post a Comment
Read more