Oglesby [Oglilby] Grade Toll Road This is the Oglesby Grade Toll Road (1860-64) between Fry Creek and Silver Fork. It was also the Pearson McDonald Stage Road (1865) and it was finally, until the mid 1930s, Highway 50. In places there are the remains of the first 1 1/2" thick macadam paving on an oiled base done above Placerville about 1930. Part of this section gets some occasional use by the U. S. Forest Service and by the telephone company. The telephone lines still follow the 1858 telegraph line from Placerville to Genoa. Near here, on February 25, 1844, in the heart of the yellow pine belt, Frémont collected a specimen of Librocedrus decurrens (incense cedar) which made it back to Dr. Torry and survives in the collections of the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Most botanical specimins collected in this area were lost when a mule fell off the trail into the canyon near Rock Creek a few days later. These are similar views. The one above was taken about 1900, before it was paved. The lower one shows little change in appearance today. This Bridge, built in the early 1900s, is at the 29 mile Guard Station. Similar ones are at Whitehall, Fry Creek, and near the 39 Milestone. See the remains of the first paving on this road in the 1930s. more old roads ©1999, 2007 Bob Graham