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Buckeye Road (Mariposa County)

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Buckeye Road is an approximately three-mile rural highway corridor located in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Mariposa County.  Buckeye Road begins at Ben Hur Road and extends west to the intersection of Old Highway/Yaqui Gulch Road near the ghost town of Bridgeport. 

Buckeye Road is named after Buckeye Creek and the Buckeye Mining District.  The roadway was constructed in 1947 along with the current bridge over Mariposa Creek.  Buckeye Road functionally acts as a continuation of the far older corridors of Yaqui Gulch Road and Agua Fria Road. 




Part 1; the history of Buckeye Road

Buckeye Road is named after Buckeye Creek and the larger Buckeye Mining District.  Said district originally began being worked during the 1860s near the communities of Bridgeport and Guadalupe.  The district was originally accessible via the road to the original Mariposa County seat of Aqua Fria (now Agua Fria Road and Yaqui Gulch Road).  

Buckeye Creek appears south of Guadalupe and Bridgeport on the 1868 Whitney map of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to Yosemite Valley.  No crossing of Mariposa Creek (then called Mariposa River) is shown connecting to Ben Hur Road.  


The 1912 United States Geological Survey map of Mariposa displays Yaqui Gulch Road ending at the Granite King Mine which was part of the larger Buckeye Mining District.  This map displays Ganns Corral Road crossing Mariposa Creek and terminating at Ben Hur Road near Silver Bar Road.  A crossing over Mariposa Creek is shown to service a single home west of Ben Hur Road.  This crossing (marked by blue pin) is where Buckeye Road would later cross Mariposa Creek.  


The Granite King Mine was worked sporadically until shuttering in 1941.  Following World War II in 1947 Mariposa County would construct the Buckeye Road Bridge over Mariposa Creek.  The then new bridge was a steel stringer design.

Modern Buckeye Road appears on the 1947 United States Geological Survey map connecting spanning from Old Highway east to Ben Hur Road.  Functionally Buckeye Road acts as a continuation of Yaqui Gulch Road and Agua Fria Road.  




Part 2; a drive on Buckeye Road

Westbound Buckeye Road begins at Ben Hur Road.  Traffic is advised that California State Route 140 is accessible six miles away via Buckeye Road and Yaqui Gulch Road.  




Westbound Buckeye Road crosses over the single lane Mariposa Creek Bridge.  


Buckeye Road continues west and terminates at Old Highway near the former town site of Bridgeport.  Westbound traffic can continue west on Yaqui Gulch Road to California State Route 140 and Agua Fria Road to California State Route 49. 











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