Skip to main content

Millwood Road

By

Millwood Road can be found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern Fresno County.  Millwood Road is a single lane roadway which originates at California State Route 180 and terminates approximately 6.6 miles at Dunlap Road in Dunlap Valley.  Millroad Road is an old corridor which traces it's roots back to the Kings River Lumber Company.  


Part 1; the history of Millwood Road

The Kings River Lumber Company had been established in 1888 in the form of a 30,000-acre purchase of forest lands in Converse Basin.  This purchase lied immediately west of Grant Grove and came to be known as "Millwood."  The Kings River Lumber Company originally planned on constructing a railroad from Sanger to Converse Basin, but the terrain of Kings Canyon proved too formidable of an engineering challenge.  This led to the Kings River Lumber Company beginning construction on the 54-mile Sanger Log Flume which was complete months prior to the establishment of General Grant National Park and Sequoia National Park in mid-year 1890.

Millwood Road was developed as a stage corridor connecting Dunlap Valley and Converse Basin by the Kings River Lumber Company.  Millwood Road in its original form can be seen on the 1911 Edward Denny & Company Map of Fresno County.  Millwood Road originally incorporated what is now Sequoia National Forest Road 13S97 towards Sequoia Lake.  Millwood Road connected with the Don Cecil Trail which continued eastward towards Cedar Grove at the bottom Kings Canyon.  Note: the Kings River Lumber Company became the Sanger Lumber Company in 1894 and then the Hume Bennett Lumber Company in 1905. 

The 1917 California State Automobile Association Map shows Millwood Road replaced by Dunlap Road as the primary access highway into Grant Grove and General Grant National Park.  Dunlap Road became part of Legislative Route Number 41 ("LRN 41") as part of the 1919 Third State Highway Bond Act and CA 180 by August of 1934. 

The May 1940 California Highways & Public Works notes that a new alignment north of Dunlap Road connecting directly from Squaw Valley to Kings Canyon National Park (still noted as General Grant National Park) was budgeted.  

 
 
The construction of  new alignment of CA 180/LRN 41 east of Squaw Valley is described in the June 1940 California Highways & Public Works.  The new alignment of CA 180 effectively would bisect Millwood Road near the modern Snowline Lodge. 



The November 1941 California Highways & Public Works details the opening of the new alignment of CA 180/LRN 41 to Grant Grove of Kings Canyon National Park.  The opening of the modern Kings Canyon Highway further relegated Millwood Road to an obscure out of the way local road. 




 

Part 2; a drive on Millwood Road

Westbound CA 180 intersects Millwood Road at Postmile FRE 104.07 in Sequoia National Forest.  Millwood Road is signed as 7 miles from Dunlap.  The beginning of Forest Road 13S97 can be seen climbing over the ridge in the distance.


Millwood Road begins with a steep southward descent to the Sequoia National Forest boundary. 















Millwood Road descends to an intersection with Todd Elymann Road.  Todd Elyman Road would have continued south to the what was the community of Noble (as seen on the 1911 map above).  Millwood Road begins a westward turn towards Dunlap which is signed as 6 miles away.  









The final 6 miles of Millwood Road continue westward on a descent above Dunlap Valley.  The stage route nature of Millwood Road is apparent as it descends through what was once Deer Park (seen on the 1911 map above).  Millwood Road levels out upon entering Dunlap Valley terminates at Dunlap Road.  



































Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hawaii Route 8930

By
Hawaii Route 8930 is a 2.5-mile State Highway on the Island of O'hau.  Hawaii Route 8930 is aligned over Kualakai Parkway over the course of its entire alignment south from Interstate H-1 to Kapolei Parkway.  Hawaii Route 8930 is one of the newest Hawaii Routes only having been completed during 2010.   This page is part of the Gribblenation O'ahu Highways page.  All Gribblenation and Roadwaywiz media related to the highway system of O'ahu can be found at the link below: https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-oahu-highways-page.html Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 8930 The history of Hawaii Route 8930 is brief given it is a modern facility.  Hawaii Route 8930 and what was known as "North-South Road" were built to facilitate the developing areas of Kapolei on western O'ahu.  According to hawaiihighways.com the first stage of Hawaii Route 8930 was completed from Kapolei Parkway north to Farrington Highway as a four-lane highway during November...
Post a Comment
Read more

Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road

By
Madera County Road 607 is an approximately seven-mile rural unsurfaced highway which spans from Road 600 near Raymond west to Road 29.   Road 607 west from Raymond Road Cemetery (established in 1905) is part of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road corridor surveyed in 1853. The corridor lies in the gap between Fresno Crossing at the Fresno River west to Newton's Crossing at the Chowchilla River. The Buchanan Copper Mine would be along what is now Road 607 in the namesake Buchanan Hollow during July 1863. The Buchanan Mine is thought to have once had a population of between 1,000-1,500 residents by the early 1870s. Copper prices would decline in the decade after the Civil War and much of the activity at Buchanan shifted towards cattle ranching. The last businesses in the community would shutter during World War II and it is now a true ghost town. Part 1; the history of Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road What is now Road 607 was a component of the larger Sto...
Post a Comment
Read more

Old US Route 60/70 through Hell (Chuckwall Valley Road and Ragsdale Road)

By
Back in 2016 I explored some of the derelict roadways of the Sonoran Desert of Riverside County which were part of US Route 60/70; Chuckwalla Valley Road and Ragsdale Road. US 60 and US 70 were not part of the original run of US Routes in California.  According to USends.com US 60 was extended into California by 1932.  US 60 doesn't appear on the California State Highway Map until the 1934 edition. USends.com on US 60 endpoints 1934 State Highway Map Conversely US 70 was extended into California by 1934, it first appears on the 1936 State Highway Map. USends.com on US 70 endpoints 1936 State Highway Map When US 60 and US 70 were extended into California they both utilized what was Legislative Route Number 64 from the Arizona State Line west to Coachella Valley.  LRN 64 was part of the 1919 Third State Highway Bond Act routes.  The original definition of LRN 64 routed between Mecca in Blythe and wasn't extended to the Arizona State Line until 1931 acc...
3 comments
Read more