Skip to main content

Lonoak Road

By
This past January I was traveling home from the King City area of Monterey County.  Looking for something a little different I took Lonoak Road across the Gabilan Range to Lonoak of Peach Tree Valley.


Lonoak Road is an approximately 14 mile roadway which connects County Route G15 on 1st Street (former US Route 101) of King City to the ghost town of Lonoak at CA 25.  Lonoak Road begins in Monterey County and dips into San Benito County before terminating in Monterey County near Lonoak.  Much of Lonoak follows the course of San Lorenzo Creek.  San Lorenzo Creek for reference is the Monterey/San Benito County Line until the confluence with Lewis Creek.



Part 1; the backstory of Lonoak Road

Peach Tree Valley lies on atop the San Andreas Fault at the confluence of San Lorenzo Creek and Lewis Creek.  The fortunate confluence of San Lorenzo Creek and Lewis Creek made it an ideal locale for ranching.  The prospects of profitable ranch lands led to the settlement of the small community known as Lonoak.  Lonoak was important enough that it warranted Post Office Service by 1885.  It was likely sometime around when Lonoak was settled that the namesake road to King City was constructed.  King City had been settled in 1884 as a large ranching community and by 1886 it had a stop on the Southern Pacific Railroad.  The outgrowth of the ranching of the King City Area no doubt played a contributing factor in the development of Lonoak and Lonoak Road.  Lonoak and Lonoak Road both appear on the 1917 California State Automobile Association Map.



Part 2; a drive on Lonoak Road

My approach to Lonoak Road was from northbound 1st Street/G15 in King City.  Lonoak Road begins with a right hand turn over the Union Pacific rails.




Lonoak Road begins as a conventional two-lane road within Monterey County.  Lonoak Road eastbound from 1st Street begins to rapidly approach the foothills of the Gabilan Range.  While mountain roads in Monterey County don't carry Post Miles like San Benito County they often have mileage markers (mile marker 3.0) like the one that can be seen in the last photo below.






Lonoak Road winds through the Gablian Range for several miles before crossing San Lorenzo Creek into San Benito County.

























Upon entering San Benito County Lonoak Road begins a single-lane roadway.  Lonoak Road is maintained as San Benito County Road 152.  Lonoak Road begins to traverse somewhat steep canyons alongside San Lorenzo Creek.



Lonoak Road eastbound follows San Lorenzo Creek for several miles before branching off towards Lewis Creek.















Lonoak Road eastbound approaches Lewis Creek, expands to two-lanes again, and reenters Monterey County.  Upon reentering Monterey County the route of Lonoak Road ends in what is left of Lonoak at CA 25/Peach Tree Road.  Of note; there is a pile of crashed antique cars in Lewis Creek which can be partially seen in the second photo below.  Also of interest; CA 25 was moved to Peach Tree Road in 1955 and previously followed Lewis Creek Road.  Interestingly Post Office Service in Lonoak ended in 1954 right before the community would end up on a State Highway. 





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more