Great Lakes Road Trip Day 7 Part 1; Clinching M-26

I started the morning in Houghton just as the sun was coming up. I had a pretty decent view of US 41 northbound on Shelden Avenue and the Portage Lake Lift Bridge from the hotel.

My understanding is that M-26 used to go directly through Atlantic Mine but the modern highway bypasses it. The next major inhabited location south of Atlantic Mine and Houghton is South Range. South Range was settled in 1902 and incorporated in 1906 with said name because it was at the southern end of the copper mining district in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

South of South Range is Trimountain and Painesdale. At least in the case of Painesdale it was built for the Champion Mine in 1889 which operated nearby.

The next community southbound is Toivola which was settled in 1845. Toilova was originally a logging town but became a stop on Copper Range Railroad which operated from 1899 to 1972.

South of Toivola is the ghost town Donken. Donken appears to have never been much more than a rail siding for the Copper Range Railroad. Supposedly postal service operated in Donken from 1919 to some time in the 1930s. There isn't much left of the town other than a couple abandoned buildings off the side of M-26.

South of Donken M-26 enters Ontonagon County and picks up M-38 for about a mile before splitting off towards Mass City.

Mass City was settled in 1848 when copper deposits were found in the area. Apparently the town was never incorporated but more officially plotted out in the 1850s. Apparently Mass City takes it's name from the Mass Mining Company which operated the deposits nearby.

South of Mass City M-26 meets US 45 and terminates. Before the US Route system M-26 actually used to connect to what was WI 26. Odd to think that many of the Mid-West states already had well plotted out highway systems before the US Routes that have stood the test of time over the last century.

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Interstate 210 and California State Route 210 on the Foothill Freeway

This past December I was passing through the Los Angeles Area on a weekend I took a detour onto Interstate 210 eastbound on the Foothill Freeway to California State Route 2. I-210 and CA 210 on the Foothill Freeway essentially serve as the closest thing to a Los Angeles bypass that the L.A. Metro Area has.

I-210/CA 210 on the Foothill Freeway is an approximately 85.31 mile highway which begins at I-5 in the northern outskirts of Los Angeles and travels east to I-10 in Redlands of San Bernardino County. I-210 exists as the 44.9 mile segment of the Foothill Freeway between I-5 and CA 57 whereas CA 210 makes up the remaining 40.41 miles east to I-10. I-210 originally utilized CA 57 from Glendora south on the Orange Freeway to I-10. CA 57 south to I-10 is still FHWA recognized as part of I-210 which likely won't change until California seeks approval to add CA 210 to the Interstate System.

Part 1; the history of I-210 and CA 210

I-210 was approved as a chargeable Interstate during …

California State Route 1; the Cabrillo Highway through Big Sur and the Monterey Peninsula

This past January the winter weather was mild and conditions out in the Big Sur region were especially nice. That being the case I decided on a weekend cruise northbound on California State Route 1 via the Cabrillo Highway from CA 46 near Harmony northward through Big Sur and the Monterey Peninsula to CA 156 in Castroville.

CA 1 through the Big Sur region isn't uncharted territory for Gribblenation. Back in 2017 when the Mud Creek Slide, Paul's Slide and the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge collapse occurred the topic of CA 1 in Big Sur was common on this blog site. That being the case even though the topic of CA 1 through Big Sur has been covered extensively I never really examined much of the history of the highway in the Monterey Peninsula. Aside from the fact that I wanted to feature CA 1 through the Monterey Peninusla I'm always game for a top level scenic highway. To that end the photos that I took on this most recent trip to CA 1 far exceed what I was taking in 2017 and …

Locans, California ghost town site

This February I stopped at the site of the abandoned railroad siding known as Locans in eastern Fresno County.

Locans was a railroad sidings of the Southern Pacific Railroad spur line known as the Stockton & Tulare Railroad. Locans was located on what is now Temperance Avenue just south of Bulter Avenue. The Stockton & Tulare Railroad was completed in 1887 but it doesn't appear that Locans was one of the original sidings. Locans doesn't appear on the 1889 George F. Cram Railroad map of California but nearby Butler does.

The first reference to Locans I can find is on the 1891 Thompson Atlas of Fresno County. A large parcel of land next to the Stockton & Tulare Railroad can be seen east of of Butler owned by F. Locan. Locan's land holdings surround a small siding known as Minneola which was about a half mile east of where the site of Locans would eventually be plotted.

Locan's property appears again on the Stockton & Tulare Railroad between Butler an…

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