Skip to main content

Tulare County Route J42

By


Tulare County Route J42 is a rural highway corridor mostly carried on Indian Reservation Drive in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Porterville. This highway provides a 14.62-mile connection from California State Route 190 near Porterville to the Tule River Indian Reservation. J42 was commissioned in 1972 and is one of the last two lettered County Routes in Tulare County still signed (the other being J37 on Balch Park Road).

County Route J42 can be seen below as mapped by cahighways.org. 




Part 1; the history of Tulare County Route J42

The lands which are now served by Tulare County Route J42 have traditionally been inhabited by numerous Native American tribes.  Following the emergence of California as an American state a major gold discovery would be found in the southern Sierra Nevada near the Kern River circa 1853.  The influx of American settlers into the southern Sierra Nevada during the Kern River Goldrush directly led to the conflict known as the 1856 Tule River Indian War.  

The Tule River Indian War was fought over a sixteen-week period between the Native Yokuts, a United States Army detachment from Fort Miller and the California State Militia.  Following the conflict the Tule River Farm would be declared in 1858 in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Porterville.  Tule River Farm was originally attached to the Tejon Agency and was even privately held at one point by Thomas Madden circa 1860.  

During 1864 Tule River Farm was reorganized as the Tule River Reservation by authorization of Congress.  The original reservation is thought to have had about 450 members of the Yokut tribe and approximately 350 Paiute who relocated after the 1863 Owens Valley Indian War.  The original reservation was not popular with locals in the community of Porterville which pushed for it be relocated.  

During 1873 the Tule River Reservation was relocated by Presidential Executive Order to the South Fork Tule River east of Porterville.  The current reservation can be seen in Township 22S, Range 29E-30E on the 1892 Thompson Atlas of Tulare County.  The map displays the roadway now comprising Tulare County Route J42 as having been already constructed. 



Indian Reservation Drive can be seen as a minor highway branching east of California State Route 190 near Porterville on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Tulare County.  


Tulare County Route J42 was designated during 1972 to serve the Tule River Indian Reservation.  The 14.62-mile corridor was assigned as following Road 284, Avenue 138 and Indian Reservation Drive (Tulare County Mountain Road 127).  The highway corridor designation terminates at 1012 Indian Reservation Drive near Painted Rock Campground.  




Part 2; a drive on Tulare County Route J42

California State Route 190 east of Porterville intersects County Route J42.  From California State Route 190 traffic is advised that the Tule River Indian Reservation is 12 miles away.  




County Route J42 follows two short jogs along Road 284 and Avenue 138 to reach Indian Reservation Drive.  






County Route J42 continues east into the Sierra Nevada foothills, crosses the South Fork Tule River and intersects Success Valley Road.  There are several remaining J42 highway shields along the highway.  County Routes J42 and J37 are the only remaining lettered county routes in Tulare County with actual field signage. 



























County Route J42 east of Success Valley Road effectively now terminates at the Tule River Indian Reservation boundary.  Signage indicates the roadway within the reservation is no longer maintained by Tulare County.  















County Route J42 continues into the Tule River Indian Reservation and crosses the South Fork Tule River again just east of South Reservation Road.  



County Route J42 continues east through the reservation where the designation ends at 1012 Indian Reservation Drive.  












Labels:

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.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
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