Skip to main content

Madera County Road 201 (the former Millerton-Fresno Flats Road through O'Neals)

By


Madera County Road 201 is an approximately one third mile long roadway which passes the heart of the mountain community of O'Neals.  The corridor was part of the nineteenth century Millerton-Fresno Flats Road which served the mines and logging mills which now comprise the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County.  During the automotive era the highway would be designated as North Fork Road and later Road 200.  Road 200 was realigned onto a bypass of O'Neals during the early 1980s which led to original highway being renumbered as Road 201.  




Part 1; the history of the Millerton-Fresno Flats Road through O'Neals

O'Neals is located several miles south of the former mining town of Fine Gold along the Millerton-Fresno Flats Road.  Mining claims were staked at Fine Gold during the Mariposa War during 1850. The community was never very large but became a stopping point on the stage road between the original Fresno County seat at Millerton and Fresno Flats (now Oakhurst). The stage road eventually bypassed Millerton when the Fresno County seat was moved to Fresno in 1874.

The Fine Gold Post Office can be seen on the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road on the 1882 Bancroft's Map of California. Post Office Service would be relocated to nearby O'Neals in 1887. O'Neals was located at a more opportune location on the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road as it connected to two nearby spur roads to the Fresno-Yosemite Road. The southern spur connected to Bates Station whereas the north spur permitted access to nearby Coarsegold. The community had been founded by local merchant Charles O'Neals who also was the first Postmaster. Charles O'Neals established his store on land holding he had purchased in 1878. During 1893 Madera County would be formed from what was Fresno County north of the San Joaquin River.


O'Neals can be seen along the Fresno-Oakhurst Road (formerly Fresno Flats) on the 1912 United Geological Survey Map of Mariposa.  The highway north of O'Neals would come to be known as "North Fork Road" during the early automotive era and eventually would be renamed as "Road 200" when Madera County assumed the numeric grid convention.  


Road 200 can be seen passing through O'Neals for the last time on the 1980 United States Geological Survey Map of Shaver Lake.  Road 200 would appear realigned onto the current bypass whereas the original alignment was shown as Road 201 on the 1981 United States Geological Survey Map of O'Neals.  




Part 2; a drive on Madera County Road 201

Southbound Road 201 can be accessed from Road 200.  Signage indicating Road 201 passes through O'Neals is lacking from the modern bypass.


Road 201 southbound passes through the heart of O'Neals and loops back to Road 200.  The roadway is lined by numerous local businesses, the community Post Office as well as homes.  



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.   ...
3 comments
Read more

Hawaii Route 50

By
Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...
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