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

Cajon Pass; Cajon Pass Toll Road, National Old Trails Road, US Route 66/91/395 and Interstate 15

By
This past weekend I spent some time in Cajon Pass traversing the many historic road alignments. Cajon Pass is located in San Bernardino County, California along the San Andreas Fault.  Cajon Pass  serves the boundary line between the Mojave Desert, the San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains and San Bernardino Valley.  Cajon Pass is historically one of the most traveled transportation corridors in American California and presently is served by four rail lines, Interstate 15 and California State Route 138. While Cajon Pass is known mostly for carrying US Route 66 it has carried numerous other signed highways that have had a significant impact on regional and national road travel.  While this is my best attempt to compile everything from the best sources I could find into one single transportation history blog regarding road travel in Cajon Pass I suspect as time goes on this article will be frequently updated.  If you have any information that you ...
1 comment
Read more

Pardee Dam Road

By
Pardee Dam is a 358-foot-high concrete structure located near Campo Seco at the Calaveras County and Amador County Line.  Pardee Dam impounds the Mokelumne River which forms the namesake Pardee Reservoir.  Pardee Dam was completed during 1929 and is part of the East Bay Municipal Utility District.  Pardee Dam is accessed by the namesake Pardee Dam Road which crosses the structure via the one-lane road seen as the blog cover photo.   Part 1; the history of Pardee Dam Road The closest community to Pardee Dam is that of Campo Seco on the Calaveras County side of the Mokelumne River.  Campo Seco was founded in 1850 by Mexican Miners who worked placer claims in Oregon Gulch during the height of the California Gold Rush.  Campo Seco would reach a population of about three hundred by 1860 spurred by the numerous mining claims in the area.  Main Street of Campo Seco flowed directly into the Campo Seco Turnpike which had been authorized by the California L...
2 comments
Read more

California State Route 82/Old US Route 101 on the El Camino Real from San Francisco to Interstate 380

By
After completing Interstate 380 I made my way northward into the City Limits of San Francisco to drive the northernmost portion of California State Route 82. CA 82 is 52 mile State Route between I-280 in San Francisco southward to Interstate 880 in San Jose.  CA 82 is significant due to it being part of the historical surface alignment of US Route 101 and the El Camino Real. The "El Camino Real" was a Spanish Highway in Las Californias and Alta California which connected the 21 Catholic Missions along the coast.  Essentially the route of the El Camino Real was plotted out in the late 1700s from two Spanish survey expeditions.  The Missions were plotted approximately 30 miles apart along the 600 mile route so that they would be a single day journey by horse.  The El Camino Real name fell into disuse after the Mexican Revolution of 1821 but was revived by American highway promoters in the 1890s and 1900s.  Today the El Camino Real is mostly associated...
2 comments
Read more