Skip to main content

Snelling Road

By

Snelling Road is an approximately 9.4-mile rural highway located in Merced County.  Said highway as the name suggests serves as the most direct route between the city of Merced and community of Snelling.  Snelling Road was constructed during the early 1870s shortly after Southern Pacific Railroad plotted Merced.  The intended purpose of the corridor was to permit travel from the original Merced County seat in Snelling south to the railroad facilities in Merced.  




Part 1; the history of Snelling Road

When Merced County split from western Mariposa County in 1857 the community of Snelling was selected as the first County Seat.  At the time the location of Snelling was ideal given it was on the Stockton-Los Angeles Road and was near numerous stage roads into the western Sierra Nevada.  This changed when the Southern Pacific Railroad began building a line through San Joaquin Valley during the late 1860s.  In 1870 the railroad would plot Merced approximately fifteen miles south Snelling.  A roadway acting as a continuation of G Street in Merced was quickly constructed northward to Snelling. 

Merced being located on the Southern Pacific Railroad began to draw population away from Snelling.  During 1872 the Merced County seat would shift from Snelling southward to Merced.  Snelling Road can be seen clearly on the 1882 Bancroft's map of California as the "Road to Snelling." 


G Street can be seen as one of the few roads crossing north of the then Merced city limit at Bear Creek on the 1897 city of Merced map. 


Despite being part of the most direct route between Merced and Snelling, the corridor of Snelling Road would be passed over for inclusion in the State Highway System.  Legislative Route Number 123 was commissioned in 1933 between Legislative Route Number 32 (now California State Route 152) and Snelling.  North of Merced the State Highway corridor was located on Snelling Highway alongside the Yosemite Valley Railroad.  

Legislative Route Number 123 and Snelling Road (shown as Merced-Snelling Road) can be seen contrasted to each other on the 1935 Division of Highways map.  Merced-Snelling Road is shown beginning at G Street (Township 6 South, Range 14 East) near Youd-Hornitos Road (now La Paloma Road) and terminating at Legislative Route Number 123 north of the Merced River.  The Yosemite Valley Railroad would go defunct in 1945 and Legislative Route Number 123 would begin to be signed as California State Route 59 by 1961. 



In 1969 the modernization of Snelling Road was complete when the Merced River Bridge was completed.  As of 1990 the structure saw 1,500 vehicles cross daily.  



Part 2; a drive on Snelling Road

Snelling Road begins at 7499 G Street via a soft right-hand turn approximately a mile north of the Merced City limit. 



Snelling Road shortly after beginning intersects La Paloma Road.  This now-closed roadway was surveyed in 1873 by Mariposa County as director connector between Merced and Hornitos.  The dirt roadway became contentious when Merced County opted not to include it as part of the University of California Merced Campus Loop during the late 1990s. 







Snelling Road north of La Paloma Road enters hilly terrain flanking the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range.  The corridor intersects the now mostly closed Robinson Road approaching the Merced River.  












Snelling Road crosses the Merced River and terminates at California State Route 59 approximately a mile from Snelling.  





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