Provost - Highway 99: the history of Californias Main Street

HIGHWAY

HIGHWAY

Stephen H. Provost

Fresno, California

Highway 99: The History of Californias Main Street

Copyright 2017 by Stephen H. Provost. All rights reserved.

All photos copyright Stephen H. Provost 20142015 unless otherwise noted.

Published by Craven Street Books

An imprint of Linden Publishing

2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721

(559) 233-6633 / (800) 345-4447

CravenStreetBooks.com

Craven Street Books and Colophon are trademarks of Linden Publishing, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-61035-296-3

135798642

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Provost, Stephen H., author.

Title: Highway 99 : the history of Californias Main Street / Stephen H. Provost.

Description: Fresno, Calif. : Craven Street Books, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017035955 | ISBN 9781610352963 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: United States Highway 99--History. | California--Description and travel. | California--History, Local. | Automobile travel--California--History.

Classification: LCC F866 .P85 2017 | DDC 979.4--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035955

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

S everal people were instrumental in helping me make this work possible through their contributions, guidance, and support. Among them:

Deborah Cismowski (now retired) of the Caltrans office in Sacramento graciously allowed me to comb through folder after folder of agency photographs for most of an afternoon, then scanned and emailed them to me for use in this volume. Bonnie Ketterl Kane did the same at the Ridge Route Communities Historical Museum in Frazier Park and pointed me toward a volume she authored titled A View from the Ridge Route: The Roadways as a helpful resource. Art Van Rhyn, editorial cartoonist for The Cambrian newspaper, where I served as managing editor starting in 2014, even allowed me to use some of his own photos and material he dug up while writing a paper on the Ridge Route several decades ago.

Louie Dewey of Cave Springs Motel in Dunsmuir, Neil Pollard of Pollardville in Stockton, and Ron Perry of the Tulare-based Perrys Coffee Shop chain provided invaluable insights about the roadside culture during the Golden Age of Highway 99.

Several highway experts and historians also provided expertise. Michael J. Semas, author of postcard series books on Fresno and Kings County, graciously supplied a number of photos from his personal collection. Joel Windmillers background as historian of highways in general and U.S. 99 in particular was greatly appreciated. Historian Michael Ballard also provided insightful information about the history of the highway between the San Fernando Valley and Bakersfield. John Kelley, president of the Ridge Route Preservation Organization, also provided helpful information along with tips on where to look for photos.

Id also like to thank Kent Sorsky, Jaguar Bennett, and the rest of the team at Linden Publishing/Craven Street Books for their faith in me and in this project, and for their support and professionalism throughout the process of bringing this dream to fruition. Im also grateful to William B. Secrest Jr. for his thoughtful foreword that perfectly captures the tone and substance of this work. I want to thank my parents, David and Lollie Provost, for driving me up and down the highway between Fresno and Los Angeles too many times to count. Then there was my grandmother, Frances Larsen, who put up with a young boy counting gas stationsand becoming very animated about it at timesas he rode in the backseat with her. Most of all, Id like to thank my wife and fellow writer, Samaire, who has been unwavering in her faith that I would succeed as an author. Her support and input have been invaluable through this and a series of other projects.

This undated panoramic shot shows the Grapevine area of the Ridge Route. From the collection of Art Van Rhyn.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY FATHER, DR. DAVID H. PROVOST, WHO INTRODUCED ME TO THE HIGHWAY, ENCOURAGED ME TO WRITE, AND ALWAYS SUPPORTED ME. THIS ONES FOR YOU, DAD.

FOREWORD

A s a pathway to advance society and civilization, Californias Highway 99 rightfully takes its place among historys foremost thoroughfares. Like the Appian Way and the Great Silk Road, it made commerce feasible and reliable over a vast region. Today, its an essential unit of the worlds sixth-largest economy, moving people and tonnage by the millions every year.

Perhaps the greatest testimony to this roads importance lies in the fact that much of it was created long before there was a California. The native populations, recognizing the value of trading foods and materials throughout the region, established lengthy northsouth trails that fairly parallel todays Highway 99. They couldnt imagine their world without itnor can we.

As the routes modern era began, horses, carts, and stages gave way to railroads, and railroads then yielded to todays paved lanes. Thus the Highway 99 we know is a relatively recent creation. Yet in that time, its become far more than a transportation artery, evolving a distinct culture replete with gateway arches, distinctive hotels, deluxe fruit stands, and vest-pocket amusement parks.

It should surprise everyone that this road has never found a proper biographeruntil now. Noticing this glaring gap in the Golden States story, Stephen Provost assumed the mantle of Highway 99s Boswell, chronicling the rise and fall of landmarks such as Js Coffee Shops, the Richfield beacons, Pollardville, the pretentiously named Emery Whilton Florafaunium, and so much more.

The temptation to dwell on such minutiae is great (in fact, irresistible). To his credit, Steve has seen fit to balance these delectable asides and anecdotes with a traditional narrative, depicting the political and engineering process that gave birth to the road we know, and how Californias ever-increasing population required innumerable improvements and adjustments to it. Some phases of this taleespecially the one relating the convoluted Ridge Routes multiyear unkinkingare remarkable additions to the record of major American public works.

Studies of this sort are few. We must salute Steve for understanding how to present this material in a way that will make those living around Highway 99 feel nostalgic, and those unfamiliar with the story, appreciative; and, also, for his exhaustive recourse to hundreds of books, articles, and ephemera necessary to assemble this account. The bibliography demonstrates that the research effort must have been overwhelming. That the author prevailed and crafted such a lucid account, lively on every page, is remarkable in itself.

For the first time, then, we have a full portrait of Highway 99, where its split personality is unveiled to all. Its partly commercial pipeline, partly collection of roadside diversions and relief stations. It conflates the practical, humdrum, and frivolous. While it serves the same purpose as many other roads, theres nothing else like it anywhere. And no matter what you think of the landscape its created, we must concede its been absolutely successful at its designated mission.