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Madera County Road 210 to Hildreth

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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.  




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