A drive along Jose Basin Road above the San Joaquin River Canyon of Fresno County is what one might call a "slow, jerky and expensive" affair. Jose Basin Road is approximately 9.6 miles in length and is overlaid atop the grade of the San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad. This San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad was in use between 1912-1933 during the early construction of the Big Creek Hydroelectric project. Said fifty-five-mile line originated in El Prado and snaked through the Sierra Nevada of Fresno County to the site of Big Creek Powerhouse #1. The San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad was famous for having 1,073 curves, 43 trestles and grades as high as 5.3%. The line was often to referred to jokingly as "Slow, Jerky and Expensive." Following the shuttering of the San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad much of the grade east of Auberry was repurposed as public roadways. Jose Basin Road was widened by the late 1940s was widened to be mostly wide enough to carry two-...
Gribblenation
Because every road has a story.