Skip to main content

Sample Road (Fresno County)

By

Sample Road is a short rural Fresno County highway which connects Tollhouse Road (California State Route 168) east to Pittman Hill Road.  This short highway corridor was originally constructed to service the Copper King Mine which was located on Pittman Hill.  The highway corridor appears under numerous early twentieth century maps as the "Copper King Road."  The mining operations at Pittman Hill shuttered during 1917 and the service highway was eventually retitled as Sample Road.  Modern Sample Road is often used by cyclists seeking a steep grade while traveling to Watts Valley or Tollhouse.  




Part 1; the history of Sample Road

Sample Road was constructed as a cutoff from Tollhouse Road to the Copper King Mine at Pittman Hill.    The Copper King Mine was located on Sales Creek and had several shafts which were a combined length of 2,500 feet.  The Copper King Mine was one of numerous copper mines located in Fresno County and was worked until 1917.  The mine can be seen below circa 1900 in a photo sourced from the Eastern Fresno County Historical Society.  


Modern Sample Road can be seen on the 1911 Denny map of Fresno County.  The corridor can be seen in Township 12 South, Range 23 East originating at Tollhouse Road and terminating to the east at Pittman Hill Road near the Copper King Mine.  


What is now Sample Road appears as "Copper King Road" on the 1923 United States Geological Survey map of Academy.


Sampe Road can be seen on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Fresno County spanning from Pittman Hill Road west to California State Route 168 at Tollhouse Road.  




Part 2; a drive on Sample Road

From southbound Pittman Hill Road traffic wishing to take Sample Road continues directly ahead westbound.  Pittman Hill Road takes a left hand turn at the intersection with Sample Road.  Traffic heading west onto Sample Road is advised Fresno is 27 miles away. 






Westbound Sample Road begins at an approximate elevation of 1,150 feet above sea level.  The roadway makes a rapid descent approaching Tollhouse Road following the course of Sales Creek and Dog Creek.  The grade along Sample Road sees it used regularly used by cyclists heading to Watts Valley or Tollhouse. 















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