http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ca1673.sheet.00008a/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2014 01:19PM by eeek.

WOW! What a fabulous set of drawings! I especially love the first one...in spite of the amount of time I've spent hiking the old roads (albeit in relatively small segments), I've never seen anything that so concisely sums up the physical relationship of the old & new roads. They miss some detail (there are, for example, a couple of segments of the OWR which are south of the current alignment between Grouse Creek and Chinquapin and they fail to show the old GPR at all) but, even so, these are really wonderful drawings. Thanks so much for posting these, eeek!

Even better! I just clicked through to see larger versions of these and found almost 100 "neighboring documents" with tons of old photos of the Yosemite roads (old & new). Very cool indeed!

Some of the coolest old road stuff I've seen since chick-on posted all those old/new map overlays a while back!

I haven't had a chance to dig through the LC archives in detail but, at least with a cursory look around, I'm surprised not to see dates on these photos and drawings. Have I just not dug deep enough yet? With both the maps and the photos, I can frequently come up with a (probably) fairly accurate ballpark but, for my own education, I'd like to double-check how accurate my guesses are.

Quote
DavidK42

I haven't had a chance to dig through the LC archives in detail but, at least with a cursory look around, I'm surprised not to see dates on these photos and drawings. Have I just not dug deep enough yet?

Maybe you dug too deep.

The drawings are of fairly recent creation (they were created in 2001). The delineator (author) of the drawing and its creation date are listed near the lower-righthand corner of each drawing. As an example, the Arch Rock Entrance drawing shown above was delineated by Todd Delyea in 2001.

.

Quote
plawrence
Maybe you dug too deep.

DOH!

Quote
plawrence
The drawings are of fairly recent creation (they were created in 2001). The delineator (author) of the drawing and its creation date are listed near the lower-righthand corner of each drawing. As an example, the Arch Rock Entrance drawing shown above was delineated by Todd Delyea in 2001.

Very nicely done, stylistically...I'd have pegged these as much older.

Did I miss dates on the photos as well? (you have to go here to get the full gallery)

Quote
DavidK42

Did I miss dates on the photos as well? (you have to go here to get the full gallery)

I haven't looked at all the photos, but the photos I've looked at list a creation date in their information page like this one which was created in 2001:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ca1673.photos.190645p/

That photo (and a number of others) was taken by Brian Grogan: http://www.thedigitalark.com/html/bgrogan.html

.

OK...I'm really asleep at the wheel here! I think we need a "suitably embarassed" smiley for these occasions!

Great stuff...thanks!

And in the "what might have been" category...and fortunately did not come to pass, check out this map , which suggests additional roads for an "adequate system", including a road at the Pohono Trail, extending the road from Glacier Point over Illilouette and over to Merced Lake, with a connection from LYV up Sunrise Creek to Tenaya Lake, and a road at the rim of the valley on the north side.

Clearly a different notion of what protecting and preserving the place meant!

Quote
DavidK42

...these are really wonderful drawings. Thanks so much for posting these, eeek!

Yes, they're wonderful indeed.

Thank you Rick for posting them and for providing the links to the Library of Congress site with even more historical documents!

.

Interesting...I'd always thought that the path that leaves the NE corner of the parking area (the one you'd take if you were heading up to the trail back to Wawona) was an old carriage road...the first few switchbacks certainly make it feel like an old carriage road. Obviously, there were also other roads going through the California and Wawona Tunnel Trees but I'd thought that NE "path" was also an old road but it seems to be shown as a trail on this map.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca1673.sheet.00007a/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2014 02:43PM by eeek.

I've walked the whole stretch of the old road that's shown on the left half of the map (including the VERY overgrown 0.9 miles from BVCG east to the intersection with the current alignment. I haven't researched the OGPR as thoroughly as the "big 3" old roads (Wawona, BOF & Coulterville), however and I was unaware of that other divergence shown starting near Mono Meadow. I guess I'll just have to go back!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2014 08:07AM by DavidK42.

Section/Elevation - Cascade Creek Bridge, Spanning Cascade Creek on New Big Oak Flat Road, Yosemite Village, Mariposa County, CA

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca1632.sheet.00001a/

Old Happy Isles Bridge, Spanning Merced River on service road, Yosemite Village, Mariposa County, CA

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca1636.sheet.00001a/

Wawona Tunnel, Wawona Road through Turtleback Dome, Yosemite Village, Mariposa County, CA

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca1652.sheet.00002a/