1882 Fowler Rail Depot

Over the last month or so I've been driving by a mysterious red building at Clovis Avenue and Lincoln Avenue near California State Route 99 in Fresno County. The building greatly resembled a rail depot and I noticed it displayed the name of the City of Fowler. It turns out that the building is the 1882 Fowler Rail Depot which was moved northwest out of downtown Fowler to it's present location. The Fowler Rail Depot appears to have once been a business as it has a large security fence is surrounding it and there is handicap parking zones. The sign on the Depot shows San Francisco 216 miles to the west and New Orleans 2,271 miles to the east.

Rail service dates back to 1872 when the Central Pacific Line through San Joaquin Valley was completed. At the time the Central Pacific line was completed there was a rail switch also built to the ranches of State Senator Thomas Fowler known as Fowler's Switch. There is a small monument about Fowler's Switch located at 7th Street and Merced Street.

The Fowler Rail Siding was constructed also in 1882 along with a Post Office. The map below shows the 1882 Fowler Rail Depot located at Main Street and 7th Street.

1892 Map of the City of Fowler

Presently there is nothing but a vacant lot at Main Street and 7th Street in downtown Fowler where the 1882 Fowler Rail Depot once stood.

Comments

Kevin said…

I've got an 8mm movie film, recently digitized, showing this depot moving to the new spot in Fowler. I'll share the link soon.

5:06 PM

Old NY 10 and Goodman Mountain in the Adirondacks

Old highway alignments come in all shapes and sizes, as well as taking some different forms after their lifespan of serving cars and trucks has ended. In the case of an old alignment of what was NY 10 south of Tupper Lake, New York, part of the old road was turned into part of a hiking trail to go up Goodman Mountain. At one time, the road passed by Goodman Mountain to the east, or Litchfield Mountain as it was known at the time. As the years passed, sometime around 1960, the part of NY 10 north of Speculator became part of NY 30, and remains that way today from Speculator, past Indian Lake and Tupper Lake and up to the Canadian Border. At one time, the highway was realigned to pass the Goodman Mountain to the west, leaving this stretch of road to be mostly forgotten and to be reclaimed by nature. During the summer of 2014, a 1.6 mile long hiking trail was approved the Adirondack Park Agency to be constructed to the summit of the 2,176 foot high Goodman Mountain. For the first 0.9 mi

Oregon State Highway 58

Also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18, the route of Oregon State Highway 58 (OR 58) stretches some 86 miles between US 97 north of Chemult and I-5 just outside of Eugene, Oregon. A main route between the Willamette Valley region of Oregon with Central Oregon and Crater Lake National Park, the highway follows the Middle Fork Willamette River and Salt Creek for much of its route as it makes its way to and across the Cascades, cresting at 5,138 feet above sea level at Willamette Pass. That is a gain of over 4,500 in elevation from where the highway begins at I-5. The upper reaches of OR 58 are dominated by the principal pinnacle that can sometimes be seen from the highway, Diamond Peak, and three nearby lakes, Crescent, Odell and Waldo (Oregon's second largest lake). OR 58 is chock full of rivers, creeks, mountain views, hot springs and waterfalls within a short distance from the highway. OR 58 was numbered as such by the Oregon State Highway Department in 1940. OR 58 is a del

Siuslaw River Bridge - US 101 in Florence, Oregon

As the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101) was being completed across the State of Oregon during the 1930s, a number of bridges needed to be built to cross some of the state's finest rivers. In Florence, Oregon , the Siuslaw River Bridge was designed and constructed to help fill in the gaps between different coastal communities. Built in 1936, the Siuslaw River Bridge is a bascule bridge flanked by two reinforced concrete arches that spans across the Siuslaw River. The bridge and the river get their names from the Siuslaw tribal people who make their home along the river valleys of this part of the Oregon Coast. Today, the bridge provides a vital link connecting US 101 and the Central Oregon Coast to points north and south. The total length of the Siuslaw River Bridge is 1,568 feet, stretching across the river. But more specifically, the bridge is made up of a north approach with eight spans of reinforced concrete deck girder totaling 478 feet in length. There is a main span in three

Gribblenation

Search This Blog