Brown Material Road

Crappy times got you down? Feel like the news is full of nothing but brown material? Tired of having a giant turd bomb of bad news dropping onto your social media feed? If so, why take a detour onto San Joaquin Valley's infamous Brown Material Road.

Brown Material Road is a small 5 mile rural road that connects California State Route 46 southwest to California State Route 33. If you're worried about a constant stream of fecal oriented puns through this blog fear not, they stop here. In fact I would imagine that D.B. Kitchen, W. Dick, and Sam Woodcock of Clallam County, Washington would be proud that crude jokes go no further.

So how did Brown Material Road get it's unfortunate name? The answer is surprisingly mundane and was elaborated up by Bakersfield.com (the city that brought us the intersection of Inyo/Butte ironically) back in 2015. The name "Brown Material" was taken from oilfield supply business known as Brown Material Supply Company which used to be located at the intersection of Brown Material Road and US Route 466 (currently CA 46). Brown Material Road has been around for a long time as it can be seen on the 1935 California Division of Highways Map of Kern County.

Brown Material Road is surprisingly well signed as it's full name can be observed from CA 46 eastbound.

Brown Material Road even has a guide sign on CA 33 northbound.

Interestingly Brown Material Road does have street blades but they tend to be abbreviated to "Brown Mat." Brown Mat sounds something like something you'd see in an early 1980s residential bathroom.

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