Skip to main content

Panamint Valley Road

By

Panamint Valley Road is 13.9 mile long rural Inyo County highway spanning from California State Route 190 south to the intersection of Trona-Wildrose Road and Wildrose Road.  The corridor was originally part of a trail which connected the community of Darwin east to Wildrose Station.  Modern Panamint Valley Road was constructed during the late 1920s to facilitate travel between the Eichbalm Toll Road and Trona-Wildrose Road.  




Part 1; the history of Panamint Valley Road

The history of Panamint Valley Road is tied to that of the Eichbalm Toll Road.  Prior to the Eichbalm Toll Road traffic wishing to access Death Valley from the Darwin area had to use Emigrant Canyon.  A trail existed east of Darwin which crossed the Argus Mountains near the Modoc Mine through northern Panamint Valley.  Travelers would continue through Emigrant Canyon passing the Harrisburg Mine to reach Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley. 

The trail from Darwin through the Argus Mountains to Panamint Valley can be seen on the 1913 United States Geological Survey map of Ballarat.  The Modoc Mine had been staked near Lookout Mountain in 1875.  Nearby Darwin had been settled in 1874 around silver and lead claims.  


H.W. Eichbalm was granted one of the last Franchise Toll Road rights issued in California circa 1926 to construct a roadway from Darwin to Stovepipe Wells.  Eichbalm had begun construction of a hotel at Stovepipe Wells the year prior to take advantage of the anticipated increase of access to Death Valley.  The Eichbalm Toll Road passed through the Argus Mountains east of Darwin to Panamint Springs taking advantage of the already established trail.  The road continued east through northern Panamint Valley to the grades of what is now Towne Pass.

What is now Panamint Valley Road was constructed during the late 1920s to connect Trona-Wildrose Road to the Eichbalm Toll Road.  The roadway grade was essentially overlaid atop the trail in Panamint Valley which connected the Modoc Mine to Dawin.  In 1933 Death Valley would be declared a National Monument which saw the profile of the area rise for tourism interests.  

Panamint Valley Road can be seen spanning from the Eichbalm Toll Road south to Trona-Wildrose Road on the 1935 Division of Highways of Inyo County map.  The Division of Highways would purchase the Eichbalm Toll Road in 1935 and incorporate it as part of early California State Route 190 (Legislative Route Number 127).  


A new alignment of California State Route 190 was dedicated on October 31, 1937.  The new alignment (called the Lone Pine-Death Valley Highway) bypassed Darwin in favor of a grade through the Argus Mountains to the north that connected directly to Panamint Springs.  The realignment of California State Route 190 didn't affect Panamint Valley Road directly but enhanced the utility of the corridor as an easy way to turn south towards Trona and Searles Valley.  





Part 2; a drive on Panamint Valley Road

Southbound Panamint Valley Road begins at California State Route 190 in northern Panamint Valley.  Trona is signed as being 44 miles away whereas Ridgecrest is signed as 66 miles.  


Panamint Valley Road continues 13.9 miles south through the namesake valley to a terminus located at the intersection of Trona-Wildrose Road and Wildrose Road.  The roadway is partially within the boundary of Death Valley National Park and faces towards the Panamint Mountains.  Panamint Valley is a basin which was once part of the Pleistocene lake system which once dominated the Mojave Desert region and emptied into Death Valley. 

















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