old main road to Wrightwood

[raddog]

My dad was saying that Highway 2 was not the original road to Wrightwood, that Lone Pine Canyon was the original road and that highway 2 was built later can anybody agree or disagree with this, and if you disagree can you straighten it out?

[clint]

Highway 2 was built much later and Swarthout Canyon Road (Lone PIne Canyon) was in fact the original route into Wrightwood. There was even a plan to build a trolley route up the canyon at one time but it was never built. Stage coaches ran up the valley through the Wright property and then out past Big Pines and down Largo Vista into the desert.

[raddog]

Thanks Clint I've always wondered this ever since my dad said that when we first moved up here in 1990.  

[TableMtn]

It is my understanding that hwy 39 and hwy 2 were completed in the 50's as escape routes for the LA basin in case of a nuclear attack.  There may have been portions of these roads in existence for awhile, but the completion and paving were based on the escape route theory.  I was watching a show on PBS, History, or Discovery channel the other nite (can't remember) on the history of the nuclear program.  They had my old favorite "Duck and Cover" clips....  Hey, I remember a neighbor building a bomb shelter in my neighborhood during the Cuban Missle crisis!  

[Nolena]

Highway 39 was completed using inmate labor. This may say something about the quality of the construction.

[Wrightwood]

Hwy 2 and Lone Pine Canyon used to be known as Swarthout Canyon Road.
The old name can still be seen on current SB County tax maps.

Also Hwy 2 used to be known as State Highway No. 61.

[clint]

Since this diverted a little from Wrightwood access to other highways in the Angeles,
construction of Highway 2 was begun in 1929 and completed in 1956 all under the watch of Forest Supervisor William Mendenhall. Highway 39 was built in this same time window but primarily through the 30s and 40s, and was built not by inmates, but by the CCC.

[TableMtn]

Slightly off topic but are you saying that Mendenhall was Forest Supervisor for 27 years?    

[clint]

Well, no. 28 years actually. He retired in 1957. Longest term in the history of the forest. How times have changed. With all the political uh... stuff, you have to deal with today they would probabaly have to send Jodi off to a rubber room after that long. I think there is a Mendenhall Peak named after him. And I have always wondered about the Mendenhall Glacier.

[YosemiteSam]

Raddog, clint & others,

I have seen the construction plans for the first highway constructed into Wrightwood dated 1932.  This highway was not a STATE highway but actually a Depression Era public works project conducted under the Department of the Interior as a FORREST ACCESS ROAD.  This road ran from Valyermo up past Jackson Lake, through Wrightwood along the Lone Pine Cyn alignment down to Cajon close to the gas stations.  It most likely followed older dirt trails which were unmainteined.  About 3 years later the California Division of Highways (predacesor to Caltrans ) Built what later was renumbered Highway 2 from Hwy 138 (which was then being built) up through town using a portion of the previously built road up to Big Pines where it then kept going along the top of the mountains.  You can tell the difference in the alignment, East of Lone Pine the highway has a nice high-speed alignment however west of there you will notice the road has a lot of curves.

There is a web site run by 'hobiests' who have a fantastic historical background on all the state highways at    http://www.cahighways.org   Go to this site for a lot of the strsight poop on highways.  Our section of Rte 2 is call segment #3 in their website.  Origonally planned in 1919 as Legislative Route #61 it took many years to buld.  A 'Legislative Route #' is NOT the same number as those on the highway signs, so don't get confused.  The highway has always been signed as Rte 2.  The following is from their website:

<<<<The Angeles Crest Highway (the portion from Route 210 to Route 138) is 66 miles long from I-210 to Route 138. The highway was originally envisioned in 1912 as "the most scenic and picturesque mountain road in the state", but the need for a road for fire-fighting was at least equally important. Funds were allocated beginning in 1919, construction began in 1929, continuing piece by piece until 1956, except from 1941 to 1946 during WWII. The road is typically closed to car traffic and unplowed between Islip Saddle and Big Pines after the first snowfall (typically October through December) until May or June. >>>>




When the first road was built it was basically a glorified dirt road with oil sprayed on it.  It was very narrow with no shoulders.  The State highway project widened that road to 2-11' lanes with 2' shoulders, basically what we still have some 69 years later.

Yosemite Sam.......

[Nolena]

Thanks!   That's a very informative link!

[Desertdar]

Lone Pine Cnyn has so much history! Lost Lake, The Errps Family ranch, (Wyatt Errp) Earp? Anyways, it is still there, most of it, and as the tales go, they would ride from the ranch straight thru to Arizona, Mexico, and it would take them about 3 days! Faster than and shorter route than the train!Stright shot going SE! Hwy 2 from my understanding was built for L.A. easy access?