Skip to main content

Millwood Road

By

Millwood Road can be found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern Fresno County.  Millwood Road is a single lane roadway which originates at California State Route 180 and terminates approximately 6.6 miles at Dunlap Road in Dunlap Valley.  Millroad Road is an old corridor which traces it's roots back to the Kings River Lumber Company.  


Part 1; the history of Millwood Road

The Kings River Lumber Company had been established in 1888 in the form of a 30,000 acre purchase of forest lands in Converse Basin.  This purchase lied immediately west of Grant Grove and came to be known as "Millwood."  The Kings River Lumber Company originally planned on constructing a railroad from Sanger to Converse Basin but the terrain of Kings Canyon proved too formidable of an engineering challenge.  This led to the Kings River Lumber Company beginning construction on the 62 mile Sanger Log Flume which was complete months prior to the establishment of General Grant National Park and Sequoia National Park in mid-year 1890.

Millwood Road was developed as a stage corridor connecting Dunlap Valley and Converse Basin by the Kings River Lumber Company.  Millwood Road in its original form can be seen on the 1911 Edward Denny & Company Map of Fresno County.  Millwood Road originally incorporated what is now Sequoia National Forest Road 13S97 towards Sequoia Lake.  Millwood Road connected with the Don Cecil Trail which continued eastward towards Cedar Grove at the bottom Kings Canyon.  Note; the Kings River Lumber Company became the Sanger Lumber Company in 1892 and then the Hume Bennett Lumber Company in 1905. 

The 1917 California State Automobile Association Map shows Millwood Road replaced by Dunlap Road as the primary access highway into Grant Grove and General Grant National Park.  Dunlap Road became part of Legislative Route Number 41 ("LRN 41") as part of the 1919 Third State Highway Bond Act and CA 180 by August of 1934. 

The May 1940 California Highways & Public Works notes that a new alignment north of Dunlap Road connecting directly from Squaw Valley to Kings Canyon National Park (still noted as General Grant National Park) was budgeted.  

 
 
The construction of  new alignment of CA 180/LRN 41 east of Squaw Valley is described in the June 1940 California Highways & Public Works.  The new alignment of CA 180 effectively would bisect Millwood Road near the modern Snowline Lodge. 



The November 1941 California Highways & Public Works details the opening of the new alignment of CA 180/LRN 41 to Grant Grove of Kings Canyon National Park.  The opening of the modern Kings Canyon Highway further relegated Millwood Road to an obscure out of the way local road. 




 

Part 2; a drive on Millwood Road

Westbound CA 180 intersects Millwood Road at Postmile FRE 104.07 in Sequoia National Forest.  Millwood Road is signed as 7 miles from Dunlap.  The beginning of Forest Road 13S97 can be seen climbing over the ridge in the distance.


Millwood Road begins with a steep southward descent to the Sequoia National Forest boundary. 















Millwood Road descends to an intersection with Todd Elymann Road.  Todd Elyman Road would have continued south to the what was the community of Noble (as seen on the 1911 map above).  Millwood Road begins a westward turn towards Dunlap which is signed as 6 miles away.  









The final 6 miles of Millwood Road continue westward on a descent above Dunlap Valley.  The stage route nature of Millwood Road is apparent as it descends through what was once Deer Park (seen on the 1911 map above).  Millwood Road levels out upon entering Dunlap Valley terminates at Dunlap Road.  



































Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more