Skip to main content

Old California State Route 155 between Bakersfield and Woody

The fourth route of four I completed on Sunday was a former segment of California State Route 155 between Bakersfield and Woody.


CA 155 was a designation that was applied to Legislative Route Number 142 in 1964.  LRN 142 was an unsigned state highway arching from Bakerfield in a 180 degree north/south configuration to Isabella on the Kern River.  LRN 142 was apparently adopted in 1933 according to CAhighways.org.

CAhighways on LRN 142 

On the 1935 California Division of Highways map of Kern County the original alignment of LRN 142 and CA 155 can be seen north of Bakersfield to Woody on; Chester Avenue, Granite Road, and Woody Road.

1935 Kern County Highway Map  

On the 1964 State Highway Map the initial alignment of CA 155 from Bakersfield to Woody can be seen.  Interestingly CA 211 is listed directly east out of Delano and curving northeast to Ducor at the time.  The prior year CA 211 would have been LRN 136.

1964 State Highway Map 

By 1967 the alignment of CA 155 from Bakersfield to Woody was relinquished as a state highway.  Part of CA 211 east out of Delano on the Graces Highway was absorbed into the new CA 155 alignment.  The realigned CA 155 continued on the Graces Highway to Woody exactly as it does today.

1967 State Highway Map

CA 155 had a terminus on Chester Avenue in Bakersfield that met CA 204/Golden State Avenue.  I started my trip north on Chester Avenue in Bakersfield and crossed the Kern River into Bakersfield.



Interestingly US 99 used to run on Chester Avenue to Oildale until the 1930s.  US 99 northbound would take a left turn at Roberts Lane to exit Oildale.  US 99 was shifted on Golden State Avenue sometime between 1930 and 1934 which can be seen by observing the two state highway inserts from those two years.

1930 State Highway City Insert 

1934 State Highway City Insert 

US 99 was shifted west onto the modern freeway alignment in 1964 which can be seen by comparing the 1964 City Insert to the 1963 City insert. 

1963 State Highway City Insert 

1964 State Highway City Insert 

Interestingly US 466 is still present on the 1964 map despite the new LRN 204 designation.  US 466 disappeared from Golden State Avenue by 1965.

1965 State Highway City Insert 

CA 155 would have continued to Chester Avenue to Granite Road.  There might have been an alignment on the Chester Avenue Extension at one point but I'm uncertain of when it might have been utilized.




The way the Chester Avenue Extension meets Granite Road is too clean for me not to suspect it was once part of CA 155. 


Granite Road/Old CA 155 northward begins to ascend into the Sierra Foothills.  The area north of Oildale is filled with active oil fields. 




I noticed that the former alignment of CA 155 north to Woody seems to carry a county route designation of 363.  The lettering changed on Woody Road to the north but the number stayed true to what it was on Granite Road. 


Old CA 155/Granite Road crosses Poso Creek on this bridge which was dated with a 1937 stamp.


There are a couple small bridges/culverts on Granite Road.


 Old CA 155 splits north on Woody Road which is signed 11 miles away.



Woody Road/Old CA 155 begins to ascend higher into the Sierra Foothills.  There is a small historical marker for the Mountain House Butterfield Station which was located on Woody Road.






Old CA 155/Woody Road ascends to a summit at about 1,700 feet which snakes through granite cliffs overlooking San Joaquin Valley. 





Old CA 155/Wood Road descends to the community of Woody where it meets modern CA 155.  CA 155 crosses through Woody on the Graces Highway and Bakersfield-Glennville Road.







Woody is named after a homesteader from the early 1860s who moved to the vicinity of where the community now lies.  Woody had a school by the early 1870s and Post Office service by the 1880s.  There was a small gold boom in the 1890s which is likely why the community still exists today.  I took this picture on modern CA 155/Graces Highway looking back at Woody.  I took CA 155 to CA 99 and headed home from there. 


 
 

Comments

Paul Fuller said…
You have several references in the Bakersfield and Delano areas to Graces highway. I am pretty sure that these should be Garces highway, named for Father Garces who was the first white man to visit the area. There is a statue of him at the traffic circle on Chester avenue at Hwy 204 (Golden State) in Bakersfield.

Popular posts from this blog

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

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

Ghost Town Tuesday; Mannfield, FL and the stairway to Hell

Back in 2015 I went searching the Lecanto Sand Hills for the original Citrus County Seat known as Mannfield.  Unlike Centrailia in Hernando County and Fivay in Pasco County I did find something worth seeing. Mannfield is located in the Lecanto Sand Hill section of Withlacoochee State Forest somewhat east of the intersection of Citrus County Route 491 and Mansfield Road. Mannfield was named after Austin Mann and founded in Hernando County in 1884 before Citrus County Split away.  In 1887 Citrus County was split from northern Hernando County while Pasco County was spun off to the south.  Mannfield was selected as the new Citrus County seat due to it being near the county geographic center.  Reportedly Mannfield had as many as 250 people when it was the County Seat.  The town included various businesses one might include at the time, even a sawmill which was common for the area.  In 1891 Citrus County voted to move it's seat to Inverness which set the stage for the decline of M

The National Road - Pennsylvania - Great Crossings Bridge and Somerfield

West of Addison, US 40 crosses the Youghiogheny River at what once was the town of Somerfield.  When crossing the current modern two lane bridge, you many not realize that it is actually the third to cross the Yough at this site.  The first - a stone arch bridge - was known as the Great Crossings Bridge.  Built in 1818, this three arch bridge was part of the original National Road.  The name Great Crossings comes from the men who forded the Youghiogheny here - George Washington and George Braddock. (1)  If you cross the bridge at the right time, this historic bridge and what was once the town of Somerfield will appear out from underneath this massive man-made lake. Historical Postcard showing the 'Big Crossings' bridge and Somerfield.  Image submitted by Vince Ferrari. The Great Crossings Bridge was located in the town of Somerfield.  Somerfield, originally named Smythfield until 1827, would develop as a result of the National Road. (1)  Somerfield would go through va