Skip to main content

Drum Valley Road (Tulare County Diagonal Route 152)

By


Drum Valley Road (Tulare County Diagonal Route 152) is an approximately fifteen-mile one lane highway located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Drum Valley Road begins at California State Route 245 and ends at Road 152 near the Friant-Kern Canal. Drum Valley Road was originally constructed during the nineteenth century and can be found on numerous Tulare County Atlases in Township 15 Ranges 25-26. Drum Valley Road while sparse on traffic is very narrow and largely has a severely deteriorating asphalt surface.




Part 1; the history of Drum Valley Road

What is now Drum Valley Road appears on the 1876 Baker Map of Tulare County in Township 15, Range 25-26.  The exact year for the construction of Drum Valley Road is unclear but it appears to have been built to accommodate Gold Rush era property owners in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and to facilitate travel to the logging grounds of Camp Badger (now Badger).  


Drum Valley Road appears on the 1892 Tulare County Atlas by T.H. Thompson in Township 15, Range 25-26.  






Drum Valley Road appears on the 1917 California State Automobile Association Map.  


Drum Valley Road once was known as "Negro Creek Road" which refers to the namesake creek.  It is unclear when the road name switched to the modern nomenclature.  The road naming change likely came due to the original name of Negro Creek which can be seen west of the Drum Valley School on the 1922 United States Geological Survey Map of Trimmer, California. 


Drum Valley Road can be seen on the 1935 Division of Highways Map.  The eastern terminus of Drum Valley Road can be seen crossing Murray Creek at Slickrock Canyon to reach California State Route 65 (later California State Route 69 and now California State Route 245).  During 1938 the eastern terminus of Drum Valley Road was relocated to a new bridge over Cottonwood Creek.  




Part 2; a drive on Drum Valley Road

Westbound Drum Valley Road begins from California State Route 245 near Auckland and Badger.  


Drum Valley Road westbound descends to Cottonwood Creek and enters Slickrock Canyon.  Drum Valley Road is signed with Tulare County Diagonal Route 152 postmile paddles which descend westbound.  







Westbound Drum Valley Road through Slickrock Canyon and enters the namesake Drum Valley.  Goldstein Peak can be seen overhead from much of Drum Valley Road in Slickrock Canyon.   
























Drum Valley Road westbound passes through Drum Valley and enters Long Valley approaching Tucker Mountain.  




















From Long Valley the westbound course of Drum Valley Road begins to descend out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains via the course of Negro Creek.  As Drum Valley Road nears the floor of San Joaquin Valley it intersects Johnson Drive.  
















































Drum Valley Road and Tulare County Diagonal Route 152 end approaching the Friant-Kern Canal.  The road ahead continues south as Road 152 to Avenue 416 (former California State Route 63).  








Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l
3 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Interstate 210 the Foothill Freeway

By
The combined Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor of the Foothill Freeway is approximately 85.31-miles.  The Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor begins at Interstate 5 at the northern outskirts of Los Angeles and travels east to Interstate 10 in Redlands of San Bernardino County.  Interstate 210 is presently signed on the 44.9-mile segment of the Foothill Freeway between Interstate 5 and California State Route 57.  California State Route 210 makes up the remaining 40.41 miles of the Foothill Freeway east to Interstate 10.  Interstate 210 is still classified by the Federal Highway Administration as existing on what is now signed as California State Route 57 from San Dimas south to Interstate 10.  The focus of this blog will mostly be on the history of Interstate 210 segment of the Foothill Freeway.   Part 1; the history of Interstate 210 and California State Route 210 Interstate 210 (I-210) was approved as a chargeable Interstate during September of
Post a Comment
Read more