Skip to main content

Madera County Road 210 to Hildreth

By

Madera County Road 210 is an approximately twelve-mile loop of Madera County Road 211 located in the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Millerton Lake.  Madera County Road 210 loops through townsite of Hildreth which was located on the Fresno Flats stage road during the 1870s.  Hildreth declined from the 1890s through the 1920s and is now a ghost town.  Pictured as the blog cover is the Fine Gold Gulch Bridge along Road 210 which was constructed in 1920.  




Part 1; the history of Hildreth and Madera County Road 210

Hildreth was founded in the 1870s by Tom Hildreth near Fine Gold Gulch in what was then northern Fresno County. Tom Hildreth constructed a store which was located the stage road from the San Joaquin River at Millerton to Fresno Flats. Hildreth had Post Office service between 1886-1896 and the community once had three hotels.

Hildreth (shown as Hildrethville) can be seen on the 1891 Thompson Atlas of Fresno County north of Millerton in Township 9S, Range 21E. Hildreth Road (now Madera County Road 210) can be seen looping east from O'Neals Road (now Madera County Road 211) twice over Fine Gold Gulch.



Madera County would be formed from what was Fresno County north of the San Joaquin River in 1893.  Following the closure of the Hildreth Post Office in 1896 the community would begin to decline.  Gold mining in the Fine Gold Gulch Mining District would see the community begin to revive by the end of World War I.  The Fine Gold Gulch Bridge was installed at the northern crossing of the namesake creek in 1920s.  

Hildreth and Hildreth Road can both been seen on the 1914 Smith Map of Madera County1914 Smith Map of Madera County.  


The mining boom in Hildreth did not last very long into the Great Depression and the community began a final decline.  Hildreth Road appears without the namesake community on the 1935 Division of Highways Map of Madera County.  The Minarets & Western Railway railing siding of Birch can be seen a short distance west of the Fine Gold Gulch Bridge.  


During the mid-twentieth century Madera County dropped road names in favor of numbers.  Hildreth Road was subsequently reassigned as Madera County Road 210.  The 1965 United States Geological Survey map of Millerton Lake displays Road 210.  





Part 2; a drive on Madera County Road 210 to Hildreth

The northern part of the Road 210 loops begins at Road 211 near O'Neals.  


As Road 210 begins traffic is warned about the weight capacity of the Fine Gold Gulch Bridge three miles ahead.  


Road 210 approaches the former grade of the Minarets & Western Railway and Birch siding as it approaches the Fine Gold Gulch Bridge.  

















The opposite view of the bridge and Fine Gold Gulch Creek.  





Road 210 continues from the Fine Gold Gulch Bridge to the town site of Hildreth.  Road 210 beyond Hildreth is a dirt surface to Road 216 and fords Fine Gold Gulch Creek.  









Several buildings remain in Hildreth along with a plaque detailing the history of the community.  




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

By
Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991.  Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73.  Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there.  But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio.  Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively.  Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards.  Currently, a $274 million widening project in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

By
As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit.  Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301.  This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history.  But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount.  When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

By
Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...
Post a Comment
Read more