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What road is this?
answer below
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 About
1947, I was with my father and mother in the old
Ford pickup going to the Blair Brothers Mill to get
some lumber for an addition that my father was
making to my grandfathers cabin at Whitehall. We
stopped along the way, and got out and walked onto
an old road. Below was the torrent of the American
River. My mother was very nervous that I was too
near the edge.
I remembered the day, but did not remember where it
was. Fifteen years ago, I walked out here, and
recognized the place after 40 years!
It is the lowest of a number of approaches to
the Brockliss Bridge site. Is it one of the many
alignment adjustments of the Johnson's (1853) and
Counties Roads (1858), or is it the road that
Oglesby started to build in 1864, after abandoning
the Oglesby Grade Toll Road on the South side of
the canyon?
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This photo (telephoto lens) is from Highway
50, looking across the canyon of the South Fork of
the American from near Bridal Veil Falls.
This view is looking up stream from the
Brockliss Bridge.
Here it is on an aerial photo.
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And, on April 11, 2002, came this emailed
response to my query:
Bob,
The road you describe is probably the Doan Road
or Cut-off, a short Toll Road built some time
after June 1860, when a notice appeared in the
paper announcing the formation of the toll road
company to build it.
It shows up on the 1870's GLO maps of the area
(Mtn Demo, 6-16-60, and GLO, 1873).
Rick Donaldson, Spokane, WA
P.S. I spent a lot of my past summers in the
Strawberry area on Hwy 50
Thanks Rick!
And, on May 16, 2003:
Bob,
The road you have identified on you webpage as
"What Road is this?" on the north side of the
river is the 1860s Doan Road (a cut-off segment
to the "New" County Road contracted by the
county to be built, along with the new Brockliss
Bridge (bonds issued in 1858 for the Bridge).
Brockliss Grade was the road going down from
Pacific House to the old Brockliss Bridge site,
but it zigzagged up the ridgeline, past White
Meadows, and on to the top of Telephone Ridge,
where it intersected the Johnson's Cutoff.
The road on the north side of the river
running southerly to the Brockliss / Blair
Bridge site (the one you can drive now is a road
constructed by the Blairs in 1927 to move lumber
from their mill just north of White Meadows
Road--this is when the Blair Bridge was built,
as well.
Krista Deal
Pacific District Archaeologist
Eldorado National Forest
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