Skip to main content

Hogback Drive (Fresno County and Tulare County)

By

Hogback Drive is an approximately 4.6-mile rural highway located in the Sierra Nevada range of Fresno County and Tulare County.  This corridor begins at California State Route 245 near Pinehurst in Fresno County.  From the Pinehurst area the roadway heads south onto Hogback Ridge in Tulare County and terminates after approximately 4.6 miles at Whitaker Forest Road.  The Tulare County portion is maintained as Mountain Road 254.  Hogback Drive was constructed in the 1890s to facilitate travel between Camp Badger and the Hume-Bennett Logging Company town of Noble (now Pinehurst). 




Part 1; the history of Hogback Drive

Hogback Drive was constructed in the 1890s as one of two roads which connected Camp Badger in Tulare County to the Hume-Bennett Logging Company town of Noble (alternatively known as Neff Mills) in Fresno County.  The road to between Camp Badger and Noble was constructed mostly just outside the boundary of the Sierra Forest Reserve which was established during February 1893.  The portion of the reserve which Hogback Drive now traverses was spun off as part of Sequoia National Forest during July 1908. 

Hogback Drive is named after Hogback Ridge which is mostly located in Tulare County.  Hogback Drive can be seen branching northeast from Camp Badger towards the Fresno County line on the 1892 Thompson Atlas of Tulare County in Township 15S, Range 27E.  The road directly north of Badger eventually became known as Pinehurst Road.  Pinehurst Road would later become California State Routes 65, 69 and currently 245.   


Hogback Drive can be seen connecting Badger and Neff Mills (now Pinehurst) on the 1924 United States Geological Survey map of Dinuba.  The corridor is shown to be fully east of Badger Creek atop Hogback Ridge. 


Hogback Drive can be seen beginning at California State Route 180 near Pinehurst on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Fresno County.  The corridor is shown terminate on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Tulare County at Whitaker Forest Road near Badger and California State Route 65.  During summer 1941 California State Route 180 would be relocated north of Mill Creek which led to California State Route 65 being extended through the Pinehurst area.  





Part 2; traversing Hogback Drive

Southbound Hogback Drive begins in Sequoia National Forest at California State Route 245 near Pinehurst in Fresno County.  


Hogback Drive descends via a series of switchbacks from the Pinehurst area and enters Tulare County at Hogback Ridge.  Upon entering Tulare County, the roadway departs Sequoia National Forest.  Hogback Drive within Tulare County is assigned as Mountain Road 254 and has Postmile paddles.  
































Hogback Drive passes numerous residents and rural ranches.  The corridor terminates at Whitaker Forest Road near Badger.  








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