Skip to main content

Triangle Road (Mariposa County)

By

Triangle Road is an eleven-and-a-half-mile rural highway located in Sierra Nevada range of Mariposa County.  The corridor begins at California State Route 140 near the community of Midpines and serves as a cutoff of Mariposa which connects south to California State Route 49.  The corridor was north of Darrah was developed in 1912 in to serve as a fire road and was circa 1936-1937.  Pictured is the blog cover is the Snow Creek Bridge near the community of Darrah. 




Part 1; the history of Triangle Road

The development of early Triangle Road is tied to the history of rural community of Darrah near Snow Creek and Buckingham Mountain.  The community was based around the landholdings of Richard Darrah which began to see substantial growth in the 1870s.  The Snow Creek School (later Mount Buckingham School) would open in 1878, and the community would obtain Post Office Service in 1880. 

Triangle Road can be seen complete north from the Chowchilla School (where the road now meets California State Route 49) to Darrah on the 1897 United States Geological Survey of Yosemite.  Jerseydale Road can be seen branching north of Darrah towards said namesake community.  


The surveying and construction of Triangle Road north of Darrah was conducted during 1912 by a company out of Bootjack.  The purpose of the corridor was to serve as a fire road which would shield the densely developed areas of Mariposa County.  

The extension of Triangle Road northwest to California State Route 140 near Midpines was surveyed in January 1936.  Mariposa acquired the necessary right of way during February 1936 and construction would break ground during the following November.  The corridor was developed as a Civilian Conservation Corps project out of Camp Bootjack and included a new bridge over Snow Creek.  The extension was announced as having an anticipated completion by November 1937. 

Source livingnewdeal.org

The completed extension of Triangle Road north of Darrah appears on the 1947 United States Geological Survey map of El Portal.   The extension is shown to run south of Buckingham Mountain.




Part 2; a drive on Triangle Road

Southbound Triangle Road can be accessed from California State Route 140 near Midpines. 



Triangle Road ascends to a ridge which overlooks the Bootjack area.  







Triangle Road descends to the Snow Creek Bridge with Buckingham Mountain looming overhead.  The Arc Deco design of the Snow Creek Bridge easily places it to the era of Civilian Conservation Corps construction.  















Triangle Road passes through the community of Darrah and intersects the namesake Darrah Road.  


Triangle Road continues south from Darrah and terminates at California State Route 49.  















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