National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form

NPS Form 10-900-b OMB No. 1024-0018

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

This form is used for documenting property groups relating to one or several historic contexts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation Form (formerly 16B). Complete each item by entering the requested information.

___X___ New Submission ______Amended Submission

A. Name of Multiple Property Listing

Lincoln Highway – Pioneer Branch, Carson City to Stateline, Nevada

B. Associated Historic Contexts (Name each associated historic context, identifying theme, geographical area, and chronological period for each.)

Early Trails and Overland Routes, 1840’s-1863 Early Road Development in Nevada, 1865-1920’s Establishment of the Lincoln Highway and the Pioneer Branch, 1910-1913 Evolution of the Lincoln Highway and the Pioneer Branch, 1914-1957

C. Form Prepared by: name/title Chad Moffett, Dianna Litvak, Liz Boyer, Timothy Smith organization Mead & Hunt, Inc. street & number 180 Promenade Circle, Suite 240 city or town Sacramento state CA zip code 95834 e-mail [email protected] telephone 916-971-3961 date January 2018

D. Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this documentation form meets the National Register documentation standards and sets forth requirements for the listing of related properties consistent with the National Register criteria. This submission meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR 60 and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation.

______Signature of certifying official Title Date

______State or Federal Agency or Tribal government

I hereby certify that this multiple property documentation form has been approved by the National Register as a basis for evaluating related properties for listing in the National Register.

______Signature of the Keeper Date of Action

NPS Form 10-900-b OMB No. 1024-0018

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

Lincoln Highway – Pioneer Branch, Carson City to Stateline, Nevada Nevada Name of Multiple Property Listing State

Table of Contents for Written Narrative Create a Table of Contents and list the page numbers for each of these sections in the space below. Provide narrative explanations for each of these sections on continuation sheets. In the header of each section, cite the letter, page number, and name of the multiple property listing. Refer to How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation Form for additional guidance.

Page Numbers E. Statement of Historic Contexts (If more than one historic context is documented, present them in sequential order.) E-1

F. Associated Property Types (Provide description, significance, and registration requirements.) F-1

G. Geographical Data G-1

H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods (Discuss the methods used in developing the multiple property listing.) H-1

I. Major Bibliographical References (List major written works and primary location of additional documentation: State Historic Preservation I-1 Office, other State agency, Federal agency, local government, university, or other, specifying repository.)

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.). Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 250 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, PO Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

United States Department of the Interior Lincoln HighwayPut – Pioneer Here Branch National Park Service Name of Property Carson City and Douglas County, NV County and State National Register of Historic Places Lincoln Highway – Pioneer Branch Continuation Sheet Name of multiple listing (if applicable)

Section number E Page 1

Statement of Historic Contexts

Introduction This MPDF addresses the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway between Carson City and Stateline. It provides the historic context statement of the overall development of the Lincoln Highway as a national planned route and discusses how segments of the road that carried the Lincoln Highway in Nevada fit within the development of early vehicular roadways in Nevada. The Lincoln Highway was just one of many transportation corridors that emerged across northern Nevada in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to carry wagons, trains, and automobiles, passing through small and large communities that catered to travelers and locals alike.

The Lincoln Highway is associated with important national and state trends in twentieth century transportation development in the area of Transportation under Criterion A and for exhibiting important roadway design and construction in the area of Engineering under Criterion C.1 It was one of the earliest cross-country automobile routes stretching across the nation to be widely promoted by private interests before the involvement of the government and the adoption of the U.S. Highway System. As such, the Lincoln Highway represents the most successful private campaign initiated during the Good Roads movement to develop transcontinental routes. The Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) and local boosters saw the economic potential and benefit of improved roads and established the main branch and a scenic branch of the route in 1913 on a system of unimproved wagon roads in Nevada. The LHA worked to improve and promote the Lincoln Highway in Nevada through at least 1928. However, the role of the Nevada Highway Department (NHD) and events in Utah during the late 1910s and early 1920s played an important role in the history of the Lincoln Highway and the establishment and subsequent improvement of other important road corridors also providing interstate connections within northern Nevada. Over time, the maintenance responsibility of the Lincoln Highway fell upon the NHD and the localities it passed through, and several alignments of the Lincoln Highway with distinct periods of use emerged.

The history of the Lincoln Highway in Nevada differs from trends in other states; while early establishment and promotion by the LHA mirrors the experience of other local booster groups that established roads across their states, efforts to connect Nevada’s main branch of the Lincoln Highway faltered when Utah failed to connect its portion of the Lincoln Highway to the main branch in Nevada and instead promoted another route to the north. Despite the early decline and diminished

1 National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2004). NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 2

importance of this portion of the Lincoln Highway through Nevada, the highway remained popular, especially east of Reno on a portion co-designated with the Victory Highway and what would become U.S. Highway (US) 40. Despite these events, the route is still considered to represent an important chapter of vehicular transportation development in northern Nevada.

Transportation development in this part of Nevada began when Carson City was established as a community in 1858. After the discovery of gold and silver in the Comstock Lode in 1859, it grew into a major regional center for trade and commerce. The Nevada Territory formed in 1861 and became known for its silver and gold deposits. Recognizing the importance of the territory’s mineral wealth to the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the congressional proclamation for the creation of the State of Nevada in 1864. Carson City served as both the territorial and state capitol and as the county seat of Ormsby County. The city developed into an important commercial center due to nearby mining activities, freight operations, and its role in shipping timber harvested from the Lake Tahoe Basin. Although not located along the transcontinental railroad, which reached Reno in 1868, Carson City was well-connected by rail to Virginia City and Reno by the mid-1870s.2 For the next few decades connections between Carson City and the developing tourist attraction of Lake Tahoe remained limited to wagon roads and early toll roads.

In 1913 the LHA selected existing roads between Reno, Carson City, and Sacramento, California, to carry the Lincoln Highway. The main branch of the Lincoln Highway was designated between Reno and Sacramento via Donner Pass, while the second corridor, termed a scenic branch, connected Carson City and Stateline through Lake Tahoe, and became known as the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway.3 Historically, the alignment of the Pioneer Branch was marked and promoted by the LHA shifted. It first extended from Reno south to Carson City, then west to Lake Tahoe, and on to Sacramento, California. In 1921 the segment of the Pioneer Branch north of Carson City was realigned to an existing road east of Carson City to form what was known as the Fallon Cutoff (see Map 1).

2 John W. Snyder, “Central Pacific Transcontinental Railroad, HAER No. CA-196,” n.d., 6, Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress, https://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca2300/ca2394/data/ca2394data.pdf; Municipality of Carson City, “History,” Carson City, Capital of Nevada, 2017, http://www.carson.org/residents/history. 3 A portion of the route once passed through Ormsby County. In 1969 Ormsby County was subsumed by the municipality of Carson City. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 3

Within the study area, the Pioneer Branch followed two different alignments: the Kings Canyon Grade (in use as the Lincoln Highway from 1913 to 1927) and the Clear Creek Grade (in use as the Lincoln Highway and then US 50 between 1928 and 1956), which are illustrated on Map 2. These alignments began at the state capitol and extended out of town to Spooner Summit, where the route descended for approximately 3 miles into Glenbrook on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. The road then turned south and followed the shoreline of Lake Tahoe for approximately 10 miles to Stateline.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 4

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 5

While this MPDF focuses on the segments of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway between Carson City and Stateline, historically, the Pioneer Branch also included roadway segments between Reno and Carson City (1913-1921), between Fallon (cutoff point located approximately 10 miles west of Fallon) and Carson City (1921-1956), and from Stateline to Sacramento, California (1913-1956) as illustrated on Map 1.4 The historic context that follows provides an overview of the development of roads in northern Nevada, the establishment and evolution of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway, and how the Lincoln Highway relates to the development of the early roadway network in northern Nevada.

Early Trails and Overland Routes, 1840s -1863 The Nevada landscape is represented by sandy deserts, grassy valleys, forested mountain slopes, and rugged mountains. Situated almost entirely within the Great Basin, a desert area that reaches into six states, Nevada can be divided into three main land regions: the vast central Basin and Range regions, flanked by the Columbia Plateau and Wasatch Mountains to the east and the Sierra Nevada to the west near the California border.5 The Great Basin includes the east-west Humboldt River, historically an important water source for those living and travelling through northern Nevada that is paralleled by present-day Interstate Highway (I-) 80. Numerous north-south mountain ranges separated by broad valleys with streams also extend through the Great Basin, and the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada define its western edge. These land features posed challenges to early travel across northern Nevada. As more and more people traveled through the Great Basin by horseback and wagon, they attempted to find the most direct path across its desert landscape. As a result, several well-worn trails and routes emerged.6

California Trail In the mid-nineteenth century travel corridors across the country consisted of Native American trails as well as wagon roads and paths forged by emigrant settlers and traders. Overland emigrants first traveled through northern Nevada in the 1840s on their way to California. Other pioneers followed, and by 1844 the various paths coalesced into a continuous wagon road between Missouri and California known as the California Trail. The main California Trail (see Map 1) entered the

4 Only this portion of the Lincoln Highway was completed because this MPDF was completed by the Nevada Department of Transportation as mitigation of adverse effect to historic properties under the Memorandum of Agreement Between the Federal Highways Administration, the Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer, and the Nevada Department of Transportation, Regarding the Cave Rock Tunnel Extension Project, Douglas County executed on May 16, 2016. 5 “The Geography of Nevada,” Nevada, February 25, 2016, http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/nv_geography.htm. 6 National Park Service, National Trails Intermountain Region, National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide - Across Nevada (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2012), 4. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 6

northeastern corner of Nevada from Fort Hall, Idaho, and continued southwest to Humboldt Wells (present-day town of Wells), located at the headwaters of the Humboldt River and a popular stopping point. From there it continued west along the north side of the Humboldt River to Carlin Canyon, just past Elko, where it crossed over to the south side of the river and continued west to the Sierra Nevada. For a brief time between approximately 1846 and 1850 an alternate route, known as Hasting’s Cutoff, provided a shortcut along the south side of the Great Salt Lake and joined the northern route of the California Trail just west of Elko. Hasting’s Cutoff did not end up saving any time and was eventually abandoned.7

The discovery of gold at Coloma, California, in 1848 sparked a westward rush to California. In 1849 approximately 21,000 people traveled along the California Trail across Nevada toward the Sierra Nevada and California gold country. In July 1859 placer gold was discovered near present-day Dayton, located east of Carson City, at the mouth of Gold Canyon. The discovery attracted people to the area resulting in the establishment of the small mining camp of Johnstown.8 In late 1859 a rich silver ore deposit was discovered near Virginia City, Nevada, that created additional traffic along the California Trail as prospectors rushed to find their fortunes in the Comstock area of western Nevada. Mining was on the decline in California by this time and the discovery of this silver fueled a rush of people back from California to Western Nevada, resulting in a demand for commercial goods, construction materials, and a means for transporting freight across the Sierra Nevada.9

Central Overland Route In 1859 the U.S. Army’s Corp of Topographic Engineers sent Captain James H. Simpson on an expedition across Central Utah and Nevada to find a more direct wagon route for crossing the Great Basin between Salt Lake City and California. The California Trail skirted the north end of the Great Salt Lake, and finding a route around the southern end would save travelers time and approximately 200 miles.10

7 National Park Service, National Trails Intermountain Region, National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide - Across Nevada, 11–14. 8 Joseph V. Tingley, Robert C. Horton, and Francis C. Lincoln, Outline of Nevada Mining History, Special Publication 15 (Reno, Nev.: Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada, 1993), 12. 9 J.F. Bogardus, “The Great Basin,” Economic Geography 6, no. 4 (October 1930): 328; National Park Service, National Trails Intermountain Region, National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide - Across Nevada, 20; Charles Zeier, Ron Reno, and Mary Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada (prepared for Carson City Planning Division and Parks and Open Space, February 2014), 26–27. 10 Jesse G. Petersen, A Route for the Overland Stage: James H. Simpson’s 1859 Trail Across the Great Basin (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2008), 1. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 7

Simpson kept a daily journal and detailed account of the route and environs, and prepared a report within a few years of completing the expedition. This expedition is credited with opening up a travel corridor through central Nevada known as the Central Overland Route (see Map 1), which provided a more direct route than the California Trail. The Central Overland Route extended south from Salt Lake City to U.S. Army Camp Floyd, near Fairfield Utah. From there the route continued generally west, through Stillwater and the Forty Mile Desert, along the Carson River into Eagle Valley, and on to Carson City, Nevada, where it joined the California Trail into California. The Pony Express, a short-lived horseback mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco, California, operated between April 1860 and October 1861 and followed the Central Overland Route, as did other mail and stagecoach lines.

Nearly a half-century later the earliest iterations of the Lincoln Highway in Nevada generally consisted of wagon roads that had already been in use and cleared along the Overland Route. The Lincoln Highway and subsequent US 50 followed the same general corridor of Simpson’s Central Overland Route.11

Early Sierra Nevada Routes By the 1860s several routes had been forged between Carson City and Lake Tahoe. Johnson’s Cutoff, a route established in 1852, extended east from Placerville along the southern shore of Lake Tahoe and over Spooner Summit to Carson City. The route likely followed either Clear Creek Canyon or Kings Canyon. Most routes during this time were 12 to 14 feet wide and were minimally graded at best.12 By 1863 a system of toll roads known as the Bonanza Road System was established in the Lake Tahoe Basin and consisted of three major routes in and out of the Lake Tahoe Basin: Luther Pass, the Dagget-Kingsbury Grade, and the Kings Canyon Grade over Spooner Summit, which followed Johnson’s Cutoff and was the last toll road established within the system. The Bonanza Road System served as the primary means by which people from California accessed the mining region of the Comstock area along the eastern Sierra Nevada, and for a time was the main route used for transporting silver ore to California’s banking cities. Kings Canyon Grade is of special interest to the later development of the Lincoln Highway since the only scenic branch of the

11 Petersen, A Route for the Overland Stage: James H. Simpson’s 1859 Trail Across the Great Basin, 2–6; National Park Service, National Trails Intermountain Region, National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide - Across Nevada, 44–45; “Pony Express Territory,” Pony Express Territory, Nevada, 2016, http://ponyexpressnevada.com/; Brian Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2005), 228; Jennifer E. Riddle and Elizabeth Dickey, Building Nevada’s Highways, Images of America (Arcadia Publishing, 2015), 66–73. 12 Zeier, Reno, and Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada, 28, 39. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 8

transcontinental route followed the general path of this early wagon road between Carson City and Lake Tahoe.

In 1861 a loose confederation of Carson City politicians and businessmen staked a timber claim near Lake Tahoe and set about establishing a toll road, known as the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road (and later as Kings Canyon Grade), in order to transport timber between their timber claim and markets in Carson City. The road would extend west from Carson City up through Kings Canyon, over Spooner Summit, and end at Glenbrook, providing a more direct route than was previously available.13 Construction included small cuts and small fills of granite rubble to enable the road to follow the contours of the natural topography. Dry laid masonry retaining walls with a maximum height of 13 feet and maximum length of 375 feet, masonry culverts, and masonry embankments were also constructed along the road. Many of these structures are still extant along the road. Freight traffic between California and Carson City utilized both the direct route of the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road and the Clear Creek Road located to the south.14

Nevada was granted statehood in 1864 and Lake Tahoe Wagon Road served as an important connection between the capital city and the Lake Tahoe Basin, and also enabled travel from California to the booming mining region of the eastern Sierra Nevada throughout the late nineteenth century. Way stations in Nevada along the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road provided services to travelers, including (from east to west): Swift’s Station between Carson City and Spooner Summit; Spooner’s Station at the summit; Glenbrook House; Lakeshore House, Logan House, and Zephyr Cove House along the Lake Tahoe Shoreline; and Friday’s Station near present-day Stateline. By 1867 a new railroad advanced by the Central Pacific Railroad over Donner Pass had replaced the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road as the preferred passenger and freight route over the Sierra Nevada.15

Early Road Development in Nevada, 1865-1920s Between 1850 and 1900 well over 1.5 million miles of rural roads were built in the United States, yet with only a few exceptions the roads were largely unimproved, remaining unpaved. Although taxes and right-of-way donations amounted to a large investment, the funds were spread so thinly in rural

13 Zeier, Reno, and Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada, 35–39. 14 Greg Haynes, Terry Birk, and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Kings Canyon Road: Maintaining Cultural Connectivity in Peripheral Western Nevada, n.d., 1–4, https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm9_026087.pdf; Rebecca Lynn Palmer, “Kings Canyon Road, HAER No. NV-11,” March 1994, 2–12, Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress. 15 Haynes, Birk, and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Kings Canyon Road: Maintaining Cultural Connectivity in Peripheral Western Nevada, 1–4; Zeier, Reno, and Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada, 39–40; Palmer, “Kings Canyon Road, HAER No. NV-11,” 2–12. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 9

areas that few residents enjoyed adequate road service.16 Transporting goods to market was difficult, if not impossible, over bad roads, which placed financial strain on farmers. As the disparity between urban and rural roads grew, residents and civic leaders who recognized the economic impacts of bad roads were among the first to advocate for improvements.

Early roads in Nevada developed slowly. Even with the mining industry the state was the least populated in the nation in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, evidenced by its 1870 population of just 42,941.17 During this era Nevada public roads were supervised by County Commissioners charged with the care and maintenance of all the trails and roads within a county, including the construction of new roads and bridges. Roads were financed through taxes levied on residents, and the sparse populations of Nevada’s counties were often unable to adequately support these initiatives. Nevada’s early road system also included privately owned toll roads operated under franchises issued by the county. As franchises lapsed, the roads reverted to county ownership.18

In the 1870s the Central Pacific Railroad spurred establishment of new road networks in Nevada to deliver goods and people to new settlements. The 1880s saw the Comstock and logging industries in decline, and the forests surrounding Lake Tahoe were largely logged bare, especially on the Nevada side. The American Conservation Movement had roots in the Tahoe Basin as former mountaineer John Muir was profoundly impacted by the devastated landscape he witnessed there. Muir founded the Sierra Club and spearheaded efforts to create new National Parks, including nominating Lake Tahoe several times.19 Although these efforts failed, 136,335 acres southwest of the lake, including 55 miles of shoreline, was made the Tahoe National Forrest Reserve in 1899.20 As the forests gradually recovered, tourism in the Lake Tahoe area flourished and led to new development as it became a recreational mecca for California urbanites in the early 1900s. During this era, the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road became the primary route funneling visitors into the Lake Tahoe Basin, initially

16 Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, America’s Highways, 1776-1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program (Federal Highway Administration, 1976), 37. 17 Compiled and edited by Richard Forstall, Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990 (Department of Commerce, U.S. Bureau of Census, n.d.), 105. 18 Summit Envirosolutions, Inc., A Transect Across the Great Basin: Reno, Nevada to Spanish Fork, Utah, A Class III Cultural Resources Inventory (prepared for ENSR, February 2001), 4–5. 19 Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, “History,” A Voice for Lake Tahoe, n.d., http://www.trpa.org/tahoe-facts/history/. 20 W. Turrentine, Jackson Rand Herbert, and Stephen Wee, History of Tahoe National Forest: 1840-1940, A Cultural Resources Overview History (Davis, California: U.S. Forest Service, 1982), 149, https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/HISTORY- OF-TAHOE-NATIONAL-FOREST.pdf. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 10

by wagon and later by automobile.21 Automobile enthusiasts formed clubs, who formed auto touring roads out of a patchwork of existing trails and primitive roads. With the rise in popularity of automobiles, pressure to build a modern road system increased.

Good Roads Movement The "Good Roads Movement" emerged in the late nineteenth century in response to the poor condition of the nation’s road system. In an era when long distance travel and shipping was accomplished by railroad or canal, paved or improved roads existed primarily in and around urban areas. Rural networks of farm-to-market roads were largely unimproved.22 Until the early 1900s funding for local roads came from right-of-way donations, taxes, and statute labor. In states that retained the statute labor system, able-bodied male citizens living along a road were required to work on its upkeep and repair a certain number of days per year, or pay the equivalent in cash.23 Dense population, trade, and industry, in cities provided a strong base to fund thousands of miles of improved streets, and other improvements such as sewers and street lights that were far beyond the reach of rural dwellers.

While some states enacted “good road laws” in the 1880s to support road development, the Good Roads Movement really gained momentum when organized cyclists joined the cause. Bicycles offered a practical form of transportation, and with the invention of the safety bicycle in 1884 and the pneumatic tire in 1888, a national cycling craze ensued.24 Cycling enthusiasts who ventured from paved urban areas and experienced the poor conditions of rural roads soon raised a cry for road improvements. The League of American Wheelman was first organized in 1880 as a group of cycling clubs, and the organization became a powerful political lobby for good roads.25

The introduction of the automobile in the 1890s bolstered public awareness of the need for adequate road networks as part of the Good Roads Movement. During this era interest groups began

21 Erich Obermayr, Foot Path to Four-Lane, A Historical Guidebook to Transportation on Lake Tahoe’s Southeast Shore ([Nevada]: prepared on behalf of the Nevada Department of Transportation, in association with Washington Group International and Mactec Enginering and Consulting, Inc., 2005), 35–44. 22 Paul Daniel Marriott, “The Preservation Office Guide to Historic Roads,” June 2010, 36, http://www.historicroads.org/documents/GUIDE.pdf. 23 Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, America’s Highways, 1776-1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program, 43. 24 Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, America’s Highways, 1776-1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program, 42. 25 Melissa Keane and Simon Bruder, Good Roads Everywhere: A History of Road Building in Arizona (Phoenix, Ariz.: Arizona Department of Transportation, March 2004), 25. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 11

pressuring the federal government to reevaluate its role in the development of roads. With the motto, "lifting our people out of the mud," they appealed to federal and state governments for better roads. Advocates of the Good Roads Movement lobbied for federal, state, and local involvement and financial resources in road building and maintenance activities.26

Mass production of automobiles began in 1901 and made them more affordable to a large portion of the population. By 1904 more than 55,000 vehicles were in use across the U.S., and by 1910 this had skyrocketed to approximately a half-million.27 From 1910 to 1916 the country continued to experience a rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles, yet the overall mileage of improved roads increased slowly.28 As the number of motorists grew, so did citizen support of the Good Roads Movement. For example, the American Automobile Association (AAA) was founded by motorists in 1902, and in 1908 AAA launched the American Motorist, a periodical that frequently featured articles in support of good roads. Between 1910 and 1915 the movement received regular coverage by the League of American Wheelman magazine Good Roads, and other national publications such as the Saturday Evening Post and Harper’s Magazine.29 Local chapters of the Good Roads Association organized in Nevada, and by 1914 a statewide Nevada Automobile Association had been established, and local chapters such as the Carson Good Roads Association formed to accomplish road improvements at a regional level.30

Early Federal and State Involvement Federal involvement in road development began in the late nineteenth century and laid the groundwork for the development of road networks and ultimately transcontinental routes like the Lincoln Highway. In 1893 the U.S. Department of Agriculture formed the Office of Road Inquiry, which was charged with examining the system of road management throughout the nation, investigating the best road building practices, and assisting with dissemination of the information.31

26 National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Form, “Historic and Architectural Resources of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska,” Statewide, Nebraska, Section E, Page 2. 27 National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Form, “Historic and Architectural Resources of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska,” Section E, Page 2. 28 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Third Biennial Report of the Department of Highways, 1921-1922 (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1923), 18. 29 Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, America’s Highways, 1776-1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program, 76. 30 “Modern Highways Are 100 Years Old,” Cruise-In, Celebrating Indiana Car Culture, November 4, 2015, http://cruise-in.com/tag/good- roads-movement/; “Wyoming History, The Politics of Road Construction,” Western Wyoming Community College, 2008, http://www.wwcc.wy.edu/wyo_hist/lincolnhighway3.htm. 31 Marriott, “The Preservation Office Guide to Historic Roads,” 37. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 12

The entity evolved into a resource of technical information regarding roads, and regularly released bulletins and circulars addressing road construction and administration issues.32 Established in 1896, the Rural Free Delivery Service (postal delivery) led to increased interest in an adequate road system. In rural areas, local applications for Rural Free Delivery Service could be denied because of poor road conditions, which broadened the support for good roads.33 The Office of Public Roads replaced the Office of Road Inquiry in 1905 with the passage of the Agriculture Appropriations Act. The new permanent federal road agency continued testing, issued typical material specifications and testing procedures, and provided construction guidelines in 1911, and bridge specifications shortly thereafter.34 Highway standards were also developed by professional trade organizations and a few individual states.

The State of Nevada did not participate in road improvements until 1911, when the legislative session gave the State Engineer general supervision of road work carried out by convict labor.35 With an appropriation of $20,000, some work was completed in Ormsby County; however, once the funds were exhausted work ceased and state participation in road improvements was suspended until the legislative session of 1917, when the Nevada Department of Highways was established.36 Because federal and state support of good roads and highway development lagged far behind the public demand, private groups took the initiative.

Named Highways At the turn of the century, road development was largely initiated by private groups, composed of local, state, or regional associations that cooperated in the designation, promotion, and improvements of cross-country routes. Road promoters and boosters determined a route, often over existing roads; gave it a colorful name; and formed an association, such as the Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) and the Victory Road Association, to promote the route.37 These groups also lobbied state, federal, and local governments to cooperatively plan and construct roads. Local commercial clubs, business

32 National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Form, “Historic and Architectural Resources of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska,” Section E, Page 1. 33 Keane and Bruder, Good Roads Everywhere: A History of Road Building in Arizona, 25–26. 34 Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, America’s Highways, 1776-1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program (Federal Highway Administration, 1976), 46–47, 52. 35 Nevada Department of Transportation, “1.2 Nevada Department of Transportation,” Nevada Department of Transportation, 2017, ftp://ftp.nevadadot.com/DesignManual/2005_3_1/PDDM/Body/1_2.htm. 36 First Report of the Board of Directors Department of Highways, 1917-1918, State of Nevada (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1918), 9. 37 Richard Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System,” Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, November 18, 2015, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/numbers.cfm. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 13

associations, automobile clubs, and merchants often contributed labor and funds to bring major roads through their towns and improve local roads. By 1902 numerous groups were involved in road promotion nationally, including the National Good Roads Association, 32 affiliates of the Automobile Club of America, and 18 state road associations. These interest groups were instrumental in the development of the national road network.38

By 1910 the number of vehicles on the nation’s roads was 500,000 and by 1920 the number had risen considerably to 10 million.39 Interest in roads continued and by 1925 road associations had named over 250 routes, including regional and transcontinental routes. Each route was marked with its own symbol, which may have been painted along the roadside on telephone poles or other available surfaces.40 As the automobile gained popularity and travelers made their way across the state and country, these routes became well-traveled thoroughfares promoted through guidebooks. Guidebooks advertised the group's highway by offering route directions and identifying locations of tourist services and sites of interest. Two national guidebook series identifying routes throughout the country, including those in Nevada, were the Tourist Information Bureau and the Automobile Blue Book. In addition to the published road and route guides, gasoline, oil, and tire companies often published state maps identifying early named highways. These state maps provided information on a variety of highways, but also served as a marketing piece and included the location of the sponsoring company’s service stations.41 Even with these navigational aids to motorists, the abundance of named highways and lack of regulations on signage often made navigating the state’s roads challenging, especially when the routes intersected.

The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 allocated government funding for road building, which diminished the need for private organizations to promote and maintain the nation’s named highways. As a result, in 1926 the Association of American of State Highway Officials (AASHO), along with a joint board of federal and state highway officials (Joint Board), developed a national highway numbering system for interstate roads (U.S. Highways) to provide uniform routing and signage across the nation.42

38 National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Form, “Historic and Architectural Resources of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska,” Section E, Page 4. 39 Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System.” 40 Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System.” 41 National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Form, “Historic and Architectural Resources of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska,” Section E, Page 4. 42 Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System.” NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 14

Establishment of the Lincoln Highway and the Pioneer Branch, 1910-1913 The Lincoln Highway was not the only named highway established during the early twentieth century, but it was the most well-known and the first to span the continent from coast to coast. Its development represented a unique partnership between the auto products industry and roads associations using innovative marketing campaigns spearheaded by the LHA that was unmatched by any other named highway at the time.

Establishing the Lincoln Highway Association In 1911 entrepreneur Carl Graham Fisher, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and founder of the Prest-O-Lite Company, maker of car batteries and practical headlights lit by compressed gas, received national attention when he paved the speedway with brick and inaugurated the Indianapolis 500 automobile race. In the fall of 1912 Fisher shared his vision for a transcontinental highway that was toll-free and paved. To realize his vision, Fisher proposed that automobile manufacturers, dealers, and parts-makers pledge one-third of one percent of their company’s gross receipts for three years, which he projected would raise at least $10 million for purchasing road materials and to contract with states and counties to build the highway.43 Auto-related industries provided funding for the development of the Lincoln Highway, particularly in sparsely populated Nevada, Utah and Wyoming; however, it is unknown whether the projected $10 million ever materialized.

Leaders in business and most automobile manufacturing sectors praised the plan and began offering assistance at the request of Fisher. One exception was the Ford Motor Company, which chose to focus on selling more cars at low prices in hopes that increased traffic would lead to demands on the government to build better roads rather than private investors taking up the cause. However, other companies embraced the idea with enthusiasm. The Hudson Motor Company pledged $100,000; the Lehigh Portland Cement Company offered 1.5 million barrels or more of cement; and Henry Joy, president of the Packard Motor Company, pledged $150,000 for the proposed transcontinental highway. Joy is also credited with suggesting the highway be named after Abraham Lincoln to appeal to Americans’ patriotic sensibilities. Fisher, along with other highway supporters, businessmen, and industry leaders, officially organized the LHA on July 1, 1913. The LHA was headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, and led by Joy, the organization’s president. Initial tasks of the LHA included promotion of the highway and finding a suitable route. Towns across the country wrote to the LHA and lobbied to

43 Lincoln Highway Association, The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway (Detroit: The Lincoln Highway Association, 1916), 18; Kristina Crawford, “Evolution of Automobile Roads in Nevada,” In-Situ: Newsletter of the Nevada Archaeological Association 20, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 2; National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2004), 3. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 15

be included along the new transcontinental route. The route for the Lincoln Highway was announced on August 26, 1913, after much deliberation by a team of researchers appointed by Joy.44

Determining the National Route At the national planning level, the LHA stated several factors were to be used in determining the overall route. Factors included utilizing easy to traverse terrain; following existing roads, trail or natural pathways; passing through scenic areas; and avoiding the congestion of large urban centers. The most important factor espoused by the LHA, however, was establishing the most direct path across the country. The proposed route started in New York’s Times Square and traveled west through 14 states across 3,389 miles to its endpoint in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park.45 On September 13, 1913, an official Lincoln Highway Proclamation was released in Detroit that outlined the goals and route of the Lincoln Highway and solicited support from states, counties, cities, and private citizens through membership in the LHA. On October 8, 1913, Central City, Nebraska, became the first city in the country to ratify the Lincoln Highway Proclamation and the first guide to the Lincoln Highway entitled Lincoln Highway Route Road Conditions and Directions was released that same month. A few weeks later the LHA called on state and local leaders to declare October 31 a day of celebration for the Lincoln Highway. Fireworks, factory whistles, bonfires, sirens, dances, and parades in cities across the nation marked the occasion with fanfare, and governors in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Nevada proclaimed it Lincoln Highway Day.46

Promoting the Lincoln Highway By 1914 the funding necessary to complete the transcontinental route had not been fully realized, and Joy began promoting the construction of “seedling miles” to stimulate interest in the Lincoln Highway in areas where roads were nonexistent or in especially poor condition.47 The LHA offered to provide cement for a mile-long, 16-foot-wide road if local communities agreed to pay for the labor and materials for the subgrade and drainage and maintain the road for a reasonable period. The LHA’s hope was these small segments of improved roadways would inspire communities to advocate for good roads and ultimately improve their local roads, including the route of the Lincoln Highway. The first seedling mile was constructed near DeKalb, Illinois, in late 1914. The LHA promoted and

44 Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, 17–19. 45 Mead & Hunt, Inc. and Heritage Research, Ltd., Nebraska Historic Highway Survey (prepared for the Nebraska State Historical Society and Nebraska Department of Roads, August 2002), 49. 46 Mead & Hunt, Inc. and Heritage Research, Ltd, Nebraska Historic Highway Survey (Prepared for the Nebraska State Historical Society and Nebraska Department of Roads, August 2002), 50; Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to- Coast Road, 19. 47 Neither research nor the Nevada Chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association indicated that any seedling miles were constructed in Nevada. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 16

publicized use of the highway in other ways, including the installation of wayfinding signs and painted route markers on trees and poles, published guidebooks and tourist information pamphlets, painted adds on gas pumps, and a number of consumer products, including Lincoln Highway pins, cigars, board games, and children’s toys.48

The Lincoln Highway in Nevada The Lincoln Highway served as the first named transcontinental automobile route across northern Nevada and its route of providing a continuous connection between Salt Lake City and Reno was unrivaled between 1913 and 1919 (see Map 1). The earliest segments of road incorporated into the Lincoln Highway route were wagon roads between isolated ranches and primitive roads connecting central Nevada mining boom towns established in the nineteenth century, including Ely, Eureka, Austin, to Carson City, which served as a commercial center. The 1916 Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway listed Anderson’s Ranch, Magnuson’s Ranch, Mooreman’s Ranch, Alpine Ranch, Grimes Ranch, and others in Nevada between Utah and Fallon as places for travelers to find meals, lodging, gas, and radiator water.49 The Lincoln Highway entered Nevada from the east, 4 miles west of Ibapah, Utah. Tippett was the first settlement with meals, lodging, a general store, and a camp site. The route was marked through the county and continued south to McGill and Ely. The highway then turned and extended west to Eureka through the mining town of Lane, near a large copper mine (noted as a site for tourists), and over several mountains, including White Pine Summit and Pancake Summit. From Eureka the road continued west through Austin to Fallon. The 1916 guide notes “many miles of hard road, some good and some fair gravel; a number of washes and two alkali flats…use caution at Salt Wells, east of Fallon, if you approach in bad weather.”50 The Lincoln Highway’s route through Nevada crossed five mountain ranges, some over 7,000 feet, and included grades as steep as 18 percent. From Fallon the Lincoln Highway continued west to Reno where it split into two branches: one continued west from Reno to Truckee, to the north of Lake Tahoe, before continuing on to Sacramento, California; the other, known as the Pioneer Branch, was designated and promoted as a scenic alignment of the highway and turned south at Reno and continued south to Carson City and then west to Lake Tahoe and around its southern shore before extending west to Placerville and Sacramento, California.51

48 Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, 18, 20–21. 49 Lincoln Highway Association, The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, 136–138. 50 Lincoln Highway Association, The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, 140. 51 Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, 228–233; Zeier & Associates, LLC and Susan Lindstrom Consulting Archaeologist, Archaeological Inventory Report, State Route 207, Kingsbury Grade, Erosion Control-Storm Water Management Master Plan, Douglas County, Nevada (prepared for Nevada Department of Transportation, September 2006), 19; National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment, 21. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 17

Making improvements to roads in Nevada and other western states in which the Lincoln Highway extended was a challenge and it was not uncommon from the alignment to change over time. In Nevada, the Lincoln Highway extended through long stretches of very isolated areas of the Great Basin and mountainous passes. Compounding the challenges of the terrain was the relatively low population of Nevada and a handful of other western states in which the Lincoln Highway passed. By 1914 Nevada had 12,182 miles of roads but only 262 miles were “surfaced” with oil or gravel. In 1919 Nevada still had no paved roads.52 The population of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming remained small compared to California and states further to the east through which the Lincoln Highway passed. Nevada had only 80,000 residents in 1920. Most rural counties were almost entirely federal, and thus exempt from property tax. As a result, raising the needed taxes to improve roads in sparsely populated areas proved difficult. Thus, funding for early improvements to the Lincoln Highway in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming came from outside sources and distributed by the LHA. Wyoming received $20,000 and Utah received $125,000 from the LHA. In Nevada the LHA distributed $115,000 from the General Motors Corporation and Willys-Overland Company for the grading and gravelling of 120 miles of the Lincoln Highway between Ely and Reno.53 The NHD praised the LHA for the $107,500 in donations made available for the completion of four segments of the Lincoln Highway in Churchill and Eureka Counties in its 1921-1922 biennial report.54 Not all of the funds were utilized though, and unused donations were refunded to the LHA.55 The fact that funds were returned to LHA in the early 1920s by the NHD indicates that making road improvements on the Lincoln Highway was either not needed, not possible, or not a priority for the NHD.

In 1919 the State of Utah refused to fulfill its contract to complete a 20-mile segment of the Lincoln Highway along the southern edge of the Great Salt Lake, known as the Goodyear Cutoff, which would connect to Nevada’s portion of the Lincoln Highway. Instead, Utah opted to construct the 40-mile- long Wendover Road to the north, which extended around the north side of the Great Salt Lake and did not provide a direct connection to the Lincoln Highway in eastern Nevada. This northern route was eventually designated as part of the lesser-known Victory Highway, which was also a transcontinental highway established in the early 1920s. As a result, the LHA lobbied the State of Nevada to construct an 80-mile north-south connector road between Wendover and Ely that was

52 Riddle and Dickey, Building Nevada’s Highways, 66–73. 53 National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment, 22; Riddle and Dickey, Building Nevada’s Highways, 66. 54 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Third Biennial Report of the Department of Highways, 1921-1922, 38–39. 55 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Tenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period July 1, 1934, to June 30, 1936, Inclusive (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1936), 112. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 18

completed later in 1930. However, Victory Highway’s more direct route along the Humboldt River (present-day US 40) became solidified as the primary transportation route between Salt Lake City and Reno (via Fernley where the Victory Highway and the Lincoln Highway merged and traveled as a single road into Reno and on to San Francisco). By 1922 the route of the Victory Highway was designated a primary route by both Nevada and Utah. As a primary route, the route was to serve as an interstate connector and became eligible for 60 percent of the state’s federal aid funding, totaling over $2,000,000 in Nevada. After 1922, with the designation of the Victory Highway via Wendover and the improvement of over 440 miles of highway from Utah and Nevada into northern California, the Victory Highway served as the state’s primary route between Salt Lake City and Reno. That the entire route of the Lincoln Highway was designated a secondary route “came as no surprise” after Utah selected the Wendover Road into Nevada and not to connect with the Lincoln Highway.56

As a result of the greater funding and NHD focus on the northern route, the stretch of the Lincoln Highway in the eastern part of the state, was later dubbed as the “Loneliest Road in America.”57 Changes to this portion of the route have occurred over the years, such as the realignment of a large portion of the road between Ely and Eureka to the current alignment (near the current US 50 alignment) in the 1920s. The original route ran between 5 and 10 miles south of the new alignment, and included a loop through Hamilton.58 The LHA was also influential in realignments through their funding of road improvements.59 Fifty miles of realigned road was constructed between Austin and Eastgate in 1924-1925 (near the current State Highway 2 alignment) and this segment of road was relocated again in the 1930s (near the current US 50 alignment).60 The improvements that occurred likely worked to transform simple early wagon roads into a roadbed that may have been straightened and resurfaced according to secondary roads standards of the day.

Pioneer Branch The Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway was unique in that across the country, the LHA typically promoted the most direct route without diversions, but strayed from that approach near Reno, where the Lincoln Highway branched off into two routes. Both of these alignments passed through mountainous areas of high elevation passes along pre-existing roads, thus requiring no investment in new road construction; however, passes were not open all year because of limited equipment to keep

56 “Victory Highway, Designated Primary Route, to See Early Construction Work in Nevada,” Sacramento Union, January 22, 1922. 57 National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment, 21–22. 58 Lincoln Highway National Mapping Committee, “Official Map of the Lincoln Highway” (United States: Lincoln Highway Association.org, 2012), https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map/. 59 Riddle and Dickey, Building Nevada’s Highways, 78. 60 National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment, 22. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 19

passes clear of snow during the winter. The southern branch was called the Pioneer Branch and was included in the original 1913 Lincoln Highway Proclamation route. The proclamation mentions Carson City and Placerville, California, both cities along the Pioneer Branch.61 This route is sometimes called the Pioneer Route or the Pioneer Trail.

While the exact reason for creating an alternative route is unknown, the breathtaking scenic beauty and burgeoning tourist industry at Lake Tahoe appears to be a factor. Tourism grew slowly as the Tahoe Basin recovered from deforestation, yet the industry gained momentum after the turn of the century with improvements in transportation. The establishment and promotion of winter recreation in Lake Tahoe and nearby Truckee resulted in the area developing into a resort, drawing large numbers of outdoor tourists from urban areas, including San Francisco and Sacramento. Due to its year-round scenic beauty and attractions, it served as an important tourism destination. The area was “discovered” by filmmakers in California who used the Tahoe Basin landscape as a backdrop in silent films. By the 1910s the lake had become a major destination that drew California urbanites to its shores by the thousands each year. Lake Tahoe was considered one of the most scenic areas within the Sierra Nevada’s and the lake soon boasted several resort communities along its shores to accommodate visitors.62 In 1912 the LHA field secretary and member of the route planning committee, Henry Ostermann, travelled the length of the route during a cross-country reconnoiter trip. Ostermann was particularly taken with the scenic beauty of the Pioneer Branch during this trip, which may have influenced its inclusion in the Proclamation Route.63 Once established, boosters touted the aesthetic qualities of the Pioneer Branch in its promotion over other routes (see Figure 1).

61 Lincoln Highway Association, The Lincoln Highway: The Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1935), 64. 62 Michael J. Makley, A Short History of Lake Tahoe (Reno, Nev.: University of Nevada Press, 2011), 45–46, 54. 63 Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, 17–19. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 20

Figure 1. Advertisement illustrating the correlation between the route of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway and Lake Tahoe, 1920.64

From Reno the Pioneer Branch turned south and extended through the Washoe Valley to downtown Carson City. The route through town and the outer edges of town were marked, and at the state capitol building the route turned west and extended along present-day W. King Street for approximately 3 miles out of town and into the foothills (see Figure 2).

64 “Lincoln Highway 1920 & Now Carson City - Fallon, NV,” American Road, May 5, 2007, https://www.americanroadmagazine.com/forum/topic/386-lincoln-highway-1920-now-carson-city-fallon-nv/. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 21

Figure 2. Wayfinding sign for the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway located near the state capitol building in Carson City, 1923 (photo courtesy of University of Michigan Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection).

West of Carson City the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway followed the original Kings Canyon Grade for approximately 11 miles along the narrow and winding route to Spooner Summit (see Figures 3 and 4).65

65 Zeier, Reno, and Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada, 37–38; Haynes, Birk, and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Kings Canyon Road: Maintaining Cultural Connectivity in Peripheral Western Nevada, 1–4; Palmer, “Kings Canyon Road, HAER No. NV-11,” 2–12. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 22

Figure 3. View of Kings Canyon Grade located approximately 4 miles west of Carson City, 1927 (photo courtesy of the University of Michigan Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection).

Figure 4. Panoramic view of the Kings Canyon Grade, 1927 (photo courtesy of the University of Michigan Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection).

At Spooner Summit, the Pioneer Branch met up with the Clear Creek Toll Road and descended into the community of Glenbrook, located along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. Based on guidebooks, Glenbrook was the first place along the Pioneer Branch between Carson City and Lake Tahoe that NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 23

provided amenities such as a hotel, meals, lodging, gas, oil, telephone, and a camp site.66 From Glenbrook the road then turned south and generally followed the eastern shoreline of Lake Tahoe. One of the landmarks along the route to the Nevada-California state line was Cave Rock, a massive volcanic plug that rises 330 feet above the lake surface. Early travel near Cave Rock initially followed an old Washoe trail and then a wagon trail that went around the east side of the feature. In the 1860s a single-lane stone and timber trestle was constructed around Cave Rock to enable easier passage at this location, and the Pioneer Branch crossed over this trestle. From Cave Rock, the route continued south towards the Nevada-California state line. After entering California, the Pioneer Branch continued west through Placerville toward Sacramento, where it rejoined the main alignment of the Lincoln Highway.67 Maps 1 and 2 illustrate the 1913 route of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway.

Early Promotion of the Pioneer Branch Local road boosters undertook promotion of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway. Following its incorporation as part of the Lincoln Highway in 1913, Carson City’s Good Roads Association promoted and made improvements to the Kings Canyon segment of the Pioneer Branch. Based on a 1914 Carson City News article, these improvement activities consisted of installing redwood posts bearing the official Lincoln Highway logo; installing a series of signs indicating distance between Carson City, Glenbrook, and San Francisco; and the placing of directional, caution, and danger signs.68 None of these features are known to be extant along the route between Carson City and Stateline. Guidebooks of the LHA and its proclamation establishing the Lincoln Highway, denote the Pioneer Branch was selected for scenic qualities and its more direct route Lake Tahoe; however, the fact that this was one of few pre-existing roads crossing the Sierra Nevada also aided in its selection. A 1915 LHA guidebook listed the Pioneer Branch as a more scenic alternative to the “main” route of the Lincoln Highway over Donner Pass. The Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway over Kings Canyon Grade remained in use for nearly 15 years.

66 Lincoln Highway Association, The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, 156. 67 Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, 228–233; Zeier & Associates, LLC and Susan Lindstrom Consulting Archaeologist, Archaeological Inventory Report, State Route 207, Kingsbury Grade, Erosion Control-Storm Water Management Master Plan, Douglas County, Nevada, 19; Zeier, Reno, and Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada, 37; National Register of Historic Places, De ’Ek Wadapush (Cave Rock) Traditional Cultural Property, 26Do08 (Nevada State Museum); Do-1 (University of California-Berkeley; 05-19-871 (USFS); CrNV-03-445 (BLM); 49 (TRPA), n.d., 4. 68 Palmer, “Kings Canyon Road, HAER No. NV-11,” 2–13. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 24

Evolution of the Lincoln Highway and the Pioneer Branch, 1914-1957 As interest in improved roads and established routes like the Lincoln Highway continued throughout the country, so did the demand for government investment in roads. In 1916 Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, allocating $5 million in federal aid for 1917 and an additional $5 million per year to a maximum of $25 million in 1921. To meet a stipulation included in the act, in 1917 the Nevada state government passed the State Highway Law and established the NHD. State-led efforts in road improvement or maintenance were limited prior to this time, and this legislation commenced an extensive highway building program in Nevada and establishment of the State Highway System.69 Across the state, segments of the Lincoln Highway were designated as part of the new highway system; between Ely and Reno the route was designated Route 2, and between Reno and Stateline part of Route 3.70

The military buildup associated with World War I put the country’s developing road network to the test as food, clothing, and military goods were transferred around the country. During the war the use of heavy trucks on many already subpar roads made matters even worse, and the nation’s highways were in very poor shape by the end of the war in 1918. Deposits of gold, silver, and copper in Nevada were vital to the war effort and economic stability of the country during World War I. Additionally, Nevada farms and ranches including those in Carson and Eagle Valleys provided food to U.S. “doughboys” and European troops.71 As such, the federal government provided funding for road construction through the NHD. Nevada’s highway network expanded greatly during this time, with newly designated routes chosen to link local towns to regional and national markets via major road corridors.72

On June 4, 1919, the Pioneer Trail Association was formed after local advocates met in Carson City to discuss road improvements for the area, especially those along the Pioneer Branch, and their desire to attract traffic, including a planned cross-country U.S. military convoy (discussed in more detail below), away from Reno’s segment of the Lincoln Highway.73 The group elected a president

69 Paul Robert Bruno, “Governor James G. Scrugham and the Search for Economic Prosperity for Nevada, 1923-1927” (Master’s Thesis, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, University of Nevada, 2009), 81; Nevada Department of Transportation, “About NDOT,” Nevada Department of Transportation, 2017, https://www.nevadadot.com/doing-business/about-ndot. 70 Zeier & Associates, LLC and Susan Lindstrom Consulting Archaeologist, Archaeological Inventory Report, State Route 207, Kingsbury Grade, Erosion Control-Storm Water Management Master Plan, Douglas County, Nevada, 19. 71 Michael Green, read by Senator Richard Bryan, “World War I, Parts 1-2” (Nevada Public Radio, an NPR member station, April 17, 2017), https://knpr.org/knpr/2017-04/world-war-i-part-i. 72 Bruno, “Governor James G. Scrugham and the Search for Economic Prosperity for Nevada, 1923-1927,” 82. 73 Pete Davies, American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002), 193. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 25

and executive committee and decided that the Pioneer Trail should extend between Fallon and Sacramento through Carson City. The group also adopted a resolution to organize a “See Lake Tahoe” campaign and laid the groundwork to promote tourism and attract visitors to the area. Conservation efforts continued in the Tahoe Basin throughout the 1910s as the National Parks Movement gained momentum, resulting in the establishment of the National Parks Service in 1916.74 Proposals to form a National Park in Tahoe Basin were considered in 1912, 1913, and 1918. Although none of the proposals were successful, these efforts brought attention to alternative preservation measures such as the establishment of National Forest Lands and Wilderness Areas and helped them gain acceptance to lawmakers.75

Beginning in 1919 the Pioneer Trail Association petitioned the LHA to add the road segment between Fallon and Carson City to the Lincoln Highway, which occurred just two years later and was known as the “Fallon Cutoff,” making this segment part of the Pioneer Branch after 1921 (see Map 1). Local advocacy efforts such as this were often spearheaded by local business interests; for example, Gael Hoag, the Lincoln Highway’s state representative and later the field secretary of the LHA, was a businessman in Ely with mining interests and strongly advocated and promoted for the route to pass through Ely.76 The event received coverage in local newspapers that urged all commercial organizations and citizens of western Nevada to support the campaign. Lake Tahoe was lauded as a “great asset” to Reno, Carson City, and other towns hugging the Sierra Nevada, and was promoted as belonging to both California and Nevada.77 The Greater Carson Club, composed of local merchants, printed thousands of books and maps describing routes in and out of the city. In 1919 local papers noted the impact that promotional efforts by the club had on tourism and popularity of the Lincoln Highway: “The work of the Club in posting signs along the routes, and the meeting of the Pioneer Trail Association and the Lake Tahoe meeting have all tended to give the Lincoln Highway and Pioneer Trail advertising that it would have been impossible to secure thoroughly through other agency.”78 As indicated in a July 26, 1919, article, news of a planned trip to Lake Tahoe by President Woodrow Wilson led boosters and leaders to lobby for his route to follow the Pioneer Branch: “…if the

74 Library of Congress, “Brief History of the National Parks,” Mapping the National Parks: Articles and Essays, n.d., https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-parks-maps/articles-and-essays/brief-history-of-the-national-parks/. 75 Abby Stevens, “Why Lake Tahoe Never Became a National Park,” Moonshine Ink., August 12, 2016, Web edition, http://www.moonshineink.com/news/why-lake-tahoe-never-became-national-park. 76 Davies, American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age, 163–168, 217. 77 “Carson Convention Lays Plans for Pioneer Trail,” Reno Evening Gazette, June 6, 1919, 7; “‘See Tahoe’ Movement,” Nevada State Journal, July 9, 1919, 4. 78 “Carson City Bids for Tourist Travel,” Reno Evening Gazette, July 26, 1919, 8. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 26

President on his western trip if he is to see Lake Tahoe at its best and over the most direct route will be sent over the Pioneer Trail through this city and up Kings Canyon…”79

In 1919 a military convoy traveled the Lincoln Highway between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco with several objectives in mind: field test the motorized equipment used for transporting troops around the country; demonstrate the practicality of long-distance commercial transportation by truck; display for the public the development of military-related vehicles; and, as a Reno Evening Gazette article from June 26, 1919 put it, demonstrate the U.S. War Department’s contribution to the Good Roads Movement. The convoy also aimed to test the stability of roads along the Lincoln Highway. Reno and Carson City lobbied hard for the convoy to travel along their respective routes of the Lincoln Highway. Ultimately, Carson City won and the convoy traveled along the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway. Leaving Carson City, the convoy ascended the Kings Canyon Grade on August 30, 1919. Although part of the Lincoln Highway, the Kings Canyon Grade remained a winding road of sand and broken stone cut into the mountainside with sheer drops of 2,000 feet in some places. The convoy of 70 trucks and 300 men ascended the Kings Canyon Grade, struggling in places to pass the primitive but scenic route (see Figures 5 and 6). The NHD halted all eastbound traffic over Kings Canyon Grade to allow passage of the convoy, and it eventually reached the shores of Lake Tahoe later that evening. One important outcome of this event was that federal funding for roads in the 1920s stemmed from the success of this convoy and the manner in which it highlighted the importance of roads.80 The convoy’s chosen route along the Pioneer Branch also legitimized this segment of the Lincoln Highway. Fallon’s Churchill County Eagle newspaper noted that “The Lincoln Highway people are delighted with the successful trip made through this section.”81

79 “Carson City Bids for Tourist Travel,” 8. 80 “Army Truck Convoy to Pass Through Nevada Soon,” Reno Gazette-Journal, June 26, 1919; Zeier, Reno, and Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada, 47; Davies, American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age, 194–196. 81 Davies, American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age, 190–191. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 27

Figure 5. The U.S. Army convoy travelling along the Kings Canyon Grade, 1919 (courtesy of the Nevada State Historical Society, Reno).82

82 Still frame taken from Unknown, Grand Army of the Republic, Kings Canyon Road to Cave Rock, Nevada, 1919 (Carson City and Douglas County, Nevada, 1919). NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 28

Figure 6. Vehicles with the 1919 U.S. Army convoy travelling along a forested portion of the Kings Canyon Grade, 1919 (courtesy of the Nevada State Historical Society, Reno).83

The Federal-Aid Act of 1921 galvanized the country’s commitment to better roads, improvements to existing roads, and state-sponsored highway building programs across the country, including Nevada.84 By the early 1920s the approximate 30-mile Pioneer Branch segment between Reno and Carson City was surfaced with concrete. In 1921 the Fallon Cutoff, the formerly gravel road opened for regular travel. As a result, the route of the Pioneer Branch between Reno and Carson City was relocated to follow the Fallon Cutoff from near Fallon to Carson City, removing the Reno-Carson City section of the Pioneer Branch (see Map 1). The Fallon Cutoff made the Pioneer Branch approximately 15 miles shorter than the main Lincoln Highway route through Reno and the shortest westbound route to Sacramento from Fallon.85 The relocation of the Pioneer Branch to follow the Fallon Cutoff resulted in part from efforts by local boosters like the Pioneer Trail Association and the

83 Still frame taken from Unknown, Grand Army of the Republic, Kings Canyon Road to Cave Rock, Nevada, 1919 (Carson City and Douglas County, Nevada, 1919).

84 Bruno, “Governor James G. Scrugham and the Search for Economic Prosperity for Nevada, 1923-1927,” 81. 85 Kevin J. Patrick and Robert E. Wilson, The Lincoln Highway Resource Guide (prepared for the National Park Service, August 2002), 215; Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, 249–251. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 29

Greater Carson Club although the LHA may have also been interested in finding an even more direct route through the western part of Nevada. In 1921 the Kings Canyon Grade was renamed Ostermann Grade in honor of Henry Ostermann, prominent field secretary for the LHA in Sacramento, Reno, Oakland, and San Francisco, who had been impressed by the natural beauty of the Pioneer Branch. The LHA recognized the Pioneer Branch as part of the most direct route between Salt Lake City and Sacramento in a 1923 report to the Secretary of Agriculture.86

Into the 1920s the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway, including that portion between Carson City and Stateline, was regarded for its scenic qualities. In 1923 a section of the Pioneer Branch (also designated State Highway Route 3) along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe was incorporated into the State of Nevada Forest Highway System, which made additional funding available for road construction. By 1924 the LHA was promoting the Pioneer Branch as one of the most scenic drives in the country, noting many hairpin turns.87 Amenities were developed along the Pioneer Branch to attract visitors to the area, including facilities to accommodate the increasing number who enjoyed car-camping or “gypsying.” The November 1925 Lincoln Highway Forum Journal promoted five National Forest Camp facilities, including Tahoe Camp, Emerald Bay Camp, Eagles Nest Camp, Bay View Camp, and El Dorado Public Camp, which were available along the western and southern shores of Lake Tahoe for “Lincoln Highway tourists who wish to camp out at beautiful Lake Tahoe on the Nevada-California line.”88

In 1926 segments of the Lincoln Highway across the country were incorporated into the new numbered U.S. Highway System, including US 1 between New York and Philadelphia; US 30 between Philadelphia and Evanston, Wyoming; US 530 from Evanston to Salt Lake City, Utah; and US 50 and US 40 from Salt Lake City through Nevada and California.89 Many named highway associations were unhappy with the new numbered highways including the LHA. The Joint Board (of AASHO and other federal and state highway officials) wanted to eliminate the named highway associations; no named highways were given a single U.S. Highway number to break up the routes. However, the Joint Board had no authority to outlaw or eliminate the routes and agreed, if only

86 The Lincoln Highway Association, “Map of Strategic Routes Between Salt Lake City, Utah and California” (Detroit: The Lincoln Highway Association, 1923); Lincoln Highway Association, The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, Fifth Edition (Detroit, Mich.: Lincoln Highway Association, 1924), fig. 16. 87 Palmer, “Kings Canyon Road, HAER No. NV-11,” 12; Butko, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, 252; Zeier & Associates, LLC and Susan Lindstrom Consulting Archaeologist, Archaeological Inventory Report, State Route 207, Kingsbury Grade, Erosion Control-Storm Water Management Master Plan, Douglas County, Nevada, 19; “Lincoln Road Official Dies,” The Sacramento Union, June 20, 1920, 6. 88 “Forest Camps at Lake Tahoe,” The Lincoln Highway Forum VII, no. 5 (November 1925). 89 Patrick and Wilson, The Lincoln Highway Resource Guide, 253–254. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 30

informally, that states could carry the names of the highways on the same standards as the numbers adopted as part of the new numbered system. The LHA accepted the U.S. Highway numbering system and stated in a February 1926 editorial in the Lincoln Highway Forum stated, “this is unimportant as the routes selected to be U.S. Highways gain no advantage whatsoever from such selection” and the Lincoln Highway “is too firmly established upon the map of the United States and in the minds and hearts of the people.”90

Construction of the Clear Creek Grade The Pioneer Branch over Kings Canyon Grade was designated as part of US 50 in 1926 but was still known as the scenic branch of the Lincoln Highway.91 However, the Kings Canyon Grade remained in its pre-existing condition, a primitive road in need of repairs, as its use diminished over time and it fell into disrepair. Weary of the challenge of maintaining the road and meeting capacity needs, the NHD began considering whether to rehabilitate the Kings Canyon Grade or relocate this portion of the route between Carson City and Glenbrook to the Clear Creek Grade located to the south, but had a grade at a lower elevation with fewer hairpin curves. Clear Creek Road was a private toll road built in the mid-nineteenth century. In the early 1860s several sawmills were constructed in Clear Creek Canyon and the toll road was utilized for transporting lumber from the shores of Lake Tahoe over Spooner Summit and eventually to markets in Carson City. In the late 1860s and 1870s several flumes for transporting timber were constructed through Clear Creek Canyon and the toll road continued in heavy use for the timber industry.92

Discussions and public opposition to the relocation of the route from Kings Canyon to Clear Creek Canyon continued into 1927. An article published in the Reno Evening Gazette on March 26, 1927, stated, “Advocates of the present route state that it is now in good condition that the cost of improving it would be much less than to build the new Clear Creek Road and further that it is one of the most beautiful drives in the country.”93 Nevertheless, NHD moved forward with plans for improvements along the Clear Creek Road as Federal Aid Project No. 102, which was approved by State Highway Engineer S.C. Durkee in July 1927.94 Plans by the NHD for the improvements to a 10.35-mile segment which would become US 50 and served to carry the Pioneer Branch through Clear Creek

90 Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System.” 91 Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System”; S.C. Durkee, “Highway Map of the State of Nevada,” 1 Inch: 25 Miles (Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, 1927). 92 Zeier, Reno, and Parrish, An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada, 42–43. 93 “Lake Tahoe Route Location Is Disputed,” Reno Evening Gazette, March 26, 1927; “New Tahoe Route Will Follow Old Trail,” Reno Evening Gazette, June 19, 1926. 94 S.C. Durkee, “Plan and Profile of Proposed State Highway, Federal Aid Project No. 102A, Tools to County Hospital, Douglas and Ormsby Counties,” 1 Inch: 100 Feet (Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, July 6, 1927). NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 31

Canyon were revised in 1928 and called for substantial cut and fill activities, as well as clearing of trees and brush. Approximately 276,000 cubic yards of material was removed to construct the new road.95 The new two-lane roadway consisted of a 4-inch, oil-gravel mixed driving surface with two 9- foot driving lanes and 3-foot shoulder and ditches on each side. Other road-related features included 18- to 36-inch corrugated metal pipe culverts and cement rubble masonry walls.96 The IsBell Construction Company of Reno constructed the road at a cost of approximately $250,000.97

The new Clear Creek Grade was opened to motorists in August 1928 (see Map 2). A Reno Evening Gazette August 1928 article proclaimed, “The road now is said to be in fine condition, with a uniformly hard surface for the entire distance.”98 Just one month later the road was reported to be getting rough but was noted as being “excellent compared with the old Kings Canyon grade.”99 By July 1929 it was clear that completion of the alignment had stimulated increased travel between Carson City and Lake Tahoe. The Nevada State Journal reported a 74-percent increase in automobile traffic between Carson City and Lake Tahoe via the realigned US 50 (Clear Creek Grade) in just one year along the route.100 Figures 7 through 9 illustrate the Clear Creek Grade.

95 “Largest Highway Contract Awarded,” Reno Evening Gazette, September 28, 1956. 96 Durkee, “Plan and Profile of Proposed State Highway, Federal Aid Project No. 102A, Spooners to County Hospital, Douglas and Ormsby Counties.” 97 “New Clear Creek Highway Scenic, Easy to Travel,” Reno Gazette-Journal, August 16, 1957. 98 “New Tahoe Road to Be Opened Sunday,” Reno Evening Gazette, August 13, 1928, 8. 99 “Traffic Is Heavy All Summer but Roads Stand Up Well,” Reno Evening Gazette, September 22, 1928, 1. 100 “Travel Aided by New Route to Lake Tahoe,” Nevada State Journal, July 27, 1929, 6. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 32

Figure 7. Early view of the Clear Creek Grade as it ascends from the Carson Valley west toward Spooner Summit, undated (photo courtesy of the Nevada Department of Transportation).

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 33

Figure 8. Early view of the Clear Creek Grade as it enters Clear Creek Canyon, undated (photo courtesy of the Nevada Department of Transportation).

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 34

Figure 9. Early view of the Clear Creek Grade near Spooner Summit, undated (photo courtesy of the Nevada Department of Transportation).

The LHA’s Role Changes but its Legacy Continues In December 1927 LHA directors decided that, in light of having met their objective of “fully educating the American people on the value of Good Roads,” and trusting the Lincoln Highway would be completed by its supporters, the role of the organization should change. The need for constant national LHA support and heavy funding no longer existed. Accordingly, the national headquarters in Detroit closed and its promotional work on the national level ceased; however, the LHA officers continued to meet when necessary to support regional efforts.101

101 Gary Kinst, Editor, “Question Answered,” The Traveler, Lincoln Highway Association - California Chapter 15 no. 4 (October 2014): 6. The organization remained intact through 1935. LHA records show that the Executive Committee met in 1928, 1929, 1936, and 1941. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 35

In 1928 the last official promotional activity of the LHA was carried out by field secretary Gael Hoag, who made a final coast-to-coast trip along the Lincoln Highway.102 He arranged for the construction of approximately 3,000 concrete markers along the route and kept a detailed log of the type and location of each marker. In the section marking the route from Carson City to Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Hoag’s log book notes two markers that direct traffic on the “new road connection”—the new alignment of US 50 along Clear Creek, which was opened to traffic in August 1928.103 Lincoln Highway markers indicate the LHA’s intention to include the new alignment of US 50 as part of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway.104 Boy Scouts across the nation had erected the markers in September 1928.105

Although the LHA discontinued national promotion of the route in 1927, the Lincoln Highway remained a fixture in the public consciousness. A number of sources promoted and recognized the Clear Creek Grade as the Lincoln Highway after its opening in 1928. State Highway maps produced by the NHD from 1927 through 1932 refer to the Clear Creek Grade as the “Pioneer Trail Unit of the Lincoln Highway.”106 The NHD’s 1932-1934 biennial report also mentions the Lincoln Highway along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe, which carried the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway.107 Its iconic status was sustained through nostalgia, patronage of local businesses established during its heyday, and various media that served to promote the route. A 1935 publication entitled The Lincoln Highway: The Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History, which was based on data taken from the day-to-day transactions of the LHA and published by Dodd, Mead & Company (New York), told the story of the Lincoln Highway. “The Lincoln Highway Radio Show” premiered in 1940 and was broadcast coast-to-coast on over 48 stations. The show featured a Lincoln Highway-themed song

102 The LHA reformed in the 1990s with the mission to identify, preserve, interpret, promote, and improve access to the Lincoln Highway. The organization consists of a national organization along with state chapters that actively host events and provide information to researchers and those interested in the history of the highway. 103 “New Tahoe Road to Be Opened Sunday.” 104 Gael Hoag, Field Secretary, “Original Log of 1928 Markers” (Unpublished, 1928), Nevada – 9, Lincoln Highway Association Records, University of Michigan. No evidence of the original 1928 LHA markers was found between Carson City and the state line during reconnaissance survey. 105 Patrick and Wilson, The Lincoln Highway Resource Guide, 254; Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System”; Richard Weingroff, “The Lincoln Highway,” Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, November 18, 2015, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/lincoln.cfm; Mead & Hunt, Inc. and Heritage Research, Ltd., Nebraska Historic Highway Survey, 52. 106 Durkee, “Highway Map of the State of Nevada”; S.C. Durkee, “Highway Map of State of Nevada,” 1 Inch: 25 Miles (Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, 1929); S.C. Durkee, “Road Map,” 1 Inch: 20 Miles (Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, 1932). 107 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Ninth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways, for the Period July 1, 1932 to June 30, 1934, Inclusive (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1935), 21. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 36

and a “series of living stories” starring various celebrities. Even in Nevada, references to the Lincoln Highway reemerged from time to time. A 1940 article in the Reno Evening Gazette declared “Lincoln Highway Shows Heavy Traffic” and referenced the route over Clear Creek Grade.108

The Great Depression and the New Deal The Lincoln Highway along the Clear Creek Grade was continually used and improved during the 1930s. Nevada weathered the Great Depression well and recovered from it earlier than the rest of the nation. The impact of the market crash in late 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors, was initially light in this remote and sparsely populated state. For a time federal highway funds and public works projects, plus the state’s migratory divorce trade, kept the economy afloat. In addition, savvy decisions by policy makers in the early 1930s, such as legalizing casino gambling and quick weddings, stimulated the tourist industry within the state.109

In 1931 and 1932 Nevada benefited from Congress’s first appropriated emergency funds for road construction, which were essentially a loan program where states received an advancement that was to be paid back through deductions of future federal allotments. Nevada received $1,049,000 of these funds, which, combined with regular Federal Aid allotments and other state revenues, funded construction projects on U.S. Highway routes in the state, including US 50.110 In 1931 the Cave Rock Tunnel along the Pioneer Branch was constructed to replace the timber and stone trestle that had carried wagons, horses, and automobiles around Cave Rock on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe for decades prior (see Figure 10). This tunnel, the first road tunnel in Nevada, cost $375,000 and took three years to build, requiring blasts through volcanic rock (see Figure 11). A second adjacent tunnel was added to the north when the highway was widened to four lanes in 1956.111 Although building the tunnels was more economical than other proposed overland routes, their construction resulted in impacts to scenic qualities of the site and damaged a place of immense cultural and spiritual significance to the Washoe tribe.112 By 1932 the Pioneer Route of the Lincoln Highway between

108 “Lincoln Highway Shows Heavy Traffic,” Reno Evening Gazette, September 3, 1940. 109 Guy Rocha, “The Great Depression in Nevada” (Nevada State Library & Archives, n.d.), 1, nsla.nv.gov/Archives/Myths/The_Great_Depression_in_Nevada/. 110 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Eighth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period of December 1, 1930, to June 30, 1932, Inclusive (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1932), 10. 111 Gregory Crofton, “Cave Rock Provides Historical, Cultural Insights,” Tahoe Daily Tribune, March 4, 2005, Web edition. 112 Lake Tahoe is the geographic center of the Washoe people’s ancestral homelands and De ’Ek Wadapush or Cave Rock is a place of great religious importance to them. The cultural significance is among the reasons that the Forrest Service banned rock climbing at the site in 1997. Cave Rock is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, De ’Ek Wadapush (Cave Rock) Traditional Cultural Property, 26Do08 (Nevada State Museum); Do-1 (University of California-Berkeley; 05-19-871 (USFS); CrNV-03-445 (BLM); 49 (TRPA). NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 37

Carson City and Glenbrook was oiled and the remaining segment between Glenbrook and Stateline had been graded. Within two years the entire route between Carson City and Stateline was paved. In addition to the US 50 designation, the route was also known as Routes 3 and 2A during the early 1930s.

Figure 10. View of timber and stone trestle around Cave Rock prior to construction of tunnel, 1931 (photo courtesy of Nevada Department of Transportation).

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 38

Figure 11. View of Cave Rock tunnel, 1930s (photo courtesy of Nevada Department of Transportation).

Beginning in 1933, in an effort to pull the country out of the Great Depression, the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration and Congress enacted an array of programs and agencies that came to be known as the New Deal. Passage of work-relief legislation such as the Emergency Conservation Work Act of 1933 created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which put unemployed young men to work in the nation’s parks and forests. Other legislation, such as the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 and the Hayden-Cartwright Act of 1934, provided funds for highway and bridge construction. The Federal Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (FERA) of 1935 marked a shift away from direct relief to a broad national works program for the unemployed. FERA funded the Works Progress Administration (WPA, which later became the Works Projects Administration), an agency that oversaw a wide variety of make-work projects, including civil engineering projects. The increased federal support of highway construction during the depression years was an effective vehicle to put thousands of Americans back to work.113

New Deal programs and other federal support were instrumental in Nevada’s economic recovery. Due in part to the efforts of Nevada Senator Key Pittman, the state received the highest per capita

113 Mead & Hunt, Louisiana Bridge Historic Context, Section 2, 24-25. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 39

federal dollars of the states benefiting from the New Deal programs. In addition, Nevada was also first per capita in loans, Civil Works Administration (CWA) and CCC funds, and funds for public roads.114 New Deal programs resulted in several projects completed along the state’s roadways.

Beginning in 1934 plans for improvements along the Clear Creek Grade of the Pioneer Branch were prepared under the National Recovery Highway (NRH) federal-relief program, and revisions were made to the original plans for several years after 1934. The plans included clearing, grading, and resurfacing of the roadway with a 6-inch new asphalt mixed surface.115 Other project components completed at various intervals throughout the early to mid-1930s consisted of construction of several cement rubble masonry walls, a stone drinking fountain, and water tanks (roadside water basins for car radiators), many of which are still extant along the roadway.

By 1935 the State of Nevada enjoyed a budget surplus, and soon the news was broadcast across the country. Business leaders and policy makers promoted Nevada’s economic recovery and modest taxes as part of the national “One Sound State” campaign in hopes of enticing wealthy residents to the state. The land around Lake Tahoe was marketed as a premier development opportunity for the well-to-do, and the campaign paid off when several millionaires moved to Nevada and built lavish estates. The increased revenue from property taxes boosted the state’s coffers, and by 1939 the surplus was so large that property taxes were cut 20 percent, which essentially marked the end of the Great Depression in Nevada.116

World War II A 1939 Federal Bureau of Public Roads report advocated the construction of a special system of direct interregional highways, with necessary connections through and around cities that would meet the requirements of the national defense in time of war, as well as the increasing demands of traffic. In Nevada, US 40 and US 91 were designated primary routes, and US 50 and US 6 were designated alternate routes in the strategic network.117 The completion of this project was delayed by World War II and the diversion of tax money into military rearmament.

114 Rocha, “The Great Depression in Nevada,” 1. 115 S.C. Durkee, “Plan and Profile of Proposed State Highway (Federal Aid Project N.R.H. No. 102A, Douglas and Ormsby Counties, Spooners to County Hospital,” 1 Inch: 2,000 Feet (Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, March 28, 1934). 116 Rocha, “The Great Depression in Nevada,” 1-2. 117 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Thirteenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period July 1, 1940, to June 30, 1942, Inclusive (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1942), 12–13. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 40

World War II had a profound effect on the NHD, as funding cuts coupled with wartime shortages of manpower and materials brought highway construction to a virtual halt. Approved projects were limited to those deemed essential to the war effort, such as those along primary or secondary strategic routes or along roads providing access to military or mining facilities. The NHD kept busy in the interim, building flight strips for the Army Air Force and other projects for the military. In addition, the NHD continued to carry out highway maintenance at a high standard that resulted in a large expenditure of state funds. The shortfall in federal support was predicted to be made up in the postwar years, and highway survey and planning became a focus of the NHD in anticipation of the heavy program of construction to come. By 1944 the department had designed over $3 million worth of projects, with equal weight given to interstate highways and secondary farm-to-market roads.118

The Interstate Highway System The coming of the national Interstate Highway System in northern Nevada further enhanced the Lincoln Highway and Victory Highway/US 40 from east of Reno via Fernley where the two routes merged and traveled as a single road to the California border. This primary route provided continuous travel across northern Nevada from the east, which downgraded the eastern portion of the Lincoln Highway and the Pioneer Branch to secondary routes. The passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 provided a nationwide federal appropriation of $1.5 billion over a three-year period to modernize the nation’s highway system. The act called upon the states and the Bureau of Public Roads to designate a national system of interstate highways connecting state capitals, principal metropolitan areas, cities, and industrial centers by direct routes. The stipulations divided funding so that 45 percent was to be spent on the federal-aid highway system, 30 percent on secondary and feeder roads (those that branched from through routes), and 25 percent on urban extensions. Less than two months after the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, Congress declared that the war emergency was sufficiently resolved and authorized the postwar road program to proceed. Funds became available to states in late 1945, and construction programs began soon after.

Initially, the NHD felt that the funds provided by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 ($5,966,089 between July 1, 1946, and June 30, 1948) would go a long way toward catching up on road work deferred during the war. However, escalating costs of materials and labor associated with highway construction meant that the funds provided covered approximately half the work originally planned. With safety and public convenience its highest priority, the NHD carefully weighed each project, and by June 30, 1948, all but a small amount of funds had been allocated. Despite their status as

118 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1944, Inclusive (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1944), 7–8. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 41

secondary routes, travel along most state highways increased dramatically in the postwar years due to increases in automobile ownership, and interest in taking scenic drives to parks and campgrounds for picnicking, camping, and other recreation. This increase is reflected in average daily traffic (ADT) counts recorded along State and U.S. Highways throughout Nevada. The ADT along US 50 from Carson City to Lake Tahoe more than quadrupled between 1945 and 1948, from 219 to 961.119 No doubt this increase spurred the need for the department to advocate for a safer and updated US 50 between Carson City and Spooner Summit.

In the early 1950s the NHD made limited progress improving the highways through Nevada due to ongoing challenges with inadequate personnel and funding. During this period, traffic over US 50 to Lake Tahoe continued to rise, with an ADT of more than 1,300 by 1952 and 1,600 by 1954. Nevada’s highways needed an accelerated program of construction and maintenance to keep up with the ever- increasing number of motorists and tourists travelling the state.120 Not everyone was in favor of the super-highway model at the expense of the scenic route experience, as evidenced by a 1956 article in the Reno Gazette Journal. The article highlighted the National (U.S.) Highway 50 Federation’s support of its road, “still known in these parts as the Lincoln Highway,” as a popular vacation and pleasure route.121

The 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act allocated $1.1 billion to states for the construction of 40,000 miles of new interstate highways proposed in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944. In passing the act, Congress declared it essential to the national interest to provide a national system of interstate highways for early completion. The act also increased Nevada’s share of construction funds by almost 50 percent over previous congressional grant support, which included $12 million dollars allotted in federal funds the first year. The NHD increased personnel over 20 percent to meet the new demands.122 By August 1956 three construction projects laid claim to be the first segments of the new Interstate Highway System: two in Missouri and one in Kansas. Construction on I-80 in Nevada also began in 1956 and continued through the mid-1960s. The Interstate Highway System in Nevada consisted of 544 miles of road on US 40 and US 91 that were gradually upgraded to modern limited-access freeway standards and renumbered. Nevada’s main east-west Interstate Highway, I-

119 Report of the Department of Highways State of Nevada For the Fiscal Years Ending June 30 1947-1948 (Carson City, Nevada: Nevada Department of Highways, 1948), 14, 45, 66. 120 Nevada Department of Highways, State of Nevada Eighteenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways (Carson City, Nevada, July 1, 1950), 12–13, 68; State of Nevada, Biennial Report: Fiscal Years 1955-1956 (Carson City, Nevada: Nevada Department of Highways, 1956), Table 14, 42. 121 “One Unhurried Route,” Reno Gazette Journal, October 6, 1956. 122 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Biennial Report: Fiscal Years 1955-1956 (Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1956), 9–10. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 42

80, followed the Victory Highway (formerly known as State Route 1 and US 40) instead of the Lincoln Highway (US 50).123 The funding and construction projects authorized under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 signaled an important shift in the development of highways in Nevada and throughout the nation.124

Relocation of US 50 In September 1956 Nevada State Highway Engineer Huston D. Mills announced that Isbell Construction Company, the same company that had improved the Clear Creek Grade for use as US 50 and which carried the Pioneer Branch in 1928, had been awarded the largest highway construction project in Nevada history for yet another alignment of US 50 between Carson City and Spooner Summit. The contract was for $2,467,263 and the new 9-mile road connecting US 395 south of Carson City and the Spooner Summit would be located approximately 600 feet to the north of the previous Clear Creek Grade alignment.125 Construction of the new four-lane roadway spanned nearly 300 days and required the removal of approximately 3.5 million cubic yards of rock and dirt, and at one time employed 200 laborers (see Figure 12).126 Once completed, the four-lane road was 74 feet wide. The road had an average grade of only five percent, no sharp turns like the former alignment, and enabled easy snow removal, making the route dependable in winter conditions. The expanded roadway required the construction of a second tunnel at Cave Rock. The NHD began construction of the new 410-foot northbound tunnel in November 1956. In October 1957 the new alignment of US 50 between the US 395 south of Carson City and Spooner Summit officially opened to motorists (see Map 2) for the location of the relocated highway). Nevada Governor Charles H. Russell, members of the State Highway Board, State Highway Engineer H.D. Mills, Chamber of Commerce groups, and other highway officials participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the occasion.127

123 State of Nevada, Department of Highways, Biennial Report: Fiscal Years 1955-1956, 10. 124 “U.S. Highway 50 - Nevada,” AA Roads, See the Road before You Go, October 8, 2012, http://www.aaroads.com/west/us- 050_nv.html; National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment, 30. 125 “New Clear Creek Highway Scenic, Easy to Travel.” 126 “Largest Highway Contract Awarded”; “New Clear Creek Highway Scenic, Easy to Travel.” 127 “Clear Creek New Highway Open Friday,” Nevada State Journal, September 29, 1957, 1. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 43

Figure 12. The relocated US 50 is shown as road crews resurface the paved four-lane highway, 1960 (photo courtesy of the Nevada Department of Transportation).

Conclusion On a national level, the Lincoln Highway was developed by private interests with the intent of providing a continuous toll-free, paved route from New York to San Francisco. At this level, the National Park Service recognized that its gradual decline in national importance occurred due to the introduction of the numbered U.S. Highway System in 1926 and finally with the construction of the modern Interstate Highway System beginning in 1956. 128 These changes indicate the switch from private funding and local boosters to state and federal governments assuming greater control to maintain and update the nation’s roads as it developed into a modern highway system. Provisions for funding of the U.S. Highway System in 1926, and later the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, provided a stimulus for the improvement and construction of the state’s highway system and signaled a major change in the approach to highway development in the U.S. These events also resulted in the segmentation of the Lincoln Highway at the state and local level as policy and funding for road construction was allocated based on a highway’s use and importance within a larger system of primary, secondary and local roads.

128 National Park Service, Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment, 29–30. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number E Page 44

In Nevada, some portions of the Lincoln Highway developed and functioned as an interstate connection, while other portions languished, and were relegated to routes of secondary status. Segments of the Lincoln Highway in Nevada, generally east of Fernley, were affected by Utah’s decision to construct a route to the north of the Lincoln Highway’s intended connection between Fernley and Ibapah via Fallon, Austin, Eureka, and Ely. After 1922 the construction of the northern route from Utah to Wendover had usurped and diminished the eastern portion of the Lincoln Highway in Nevada. The northern route provided the state’s primary interstate connection that was initially planned and envisioned for the Lincoln Highway. At Fernley, the two routes merged and formed a single route through Reno to the California border.

Multiple periods of use emerged for the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway between Carson City and Stateline. The designation of the original Lincoln Highway in 1913 is a major milestone, as is 1928, when the national LHA provided its last promotion of the highway. After this time, the original use of this segment of the Lincoln Highway as a transcontinental route promoted by the LHA changed as it became subject to the decisions by the NHD. Certainly, the construction of the (current) four- lane US 50 indicated the early era of primitive roads along this segment of the Lincoln Highway had long passed. Additionally, other routes such as the Victory Highway had become more popular and likely carried more traffic across the northern portion of the state after its designation in 1913, demoting the use and transcontinental nature of the Lincoln Highway, and providing an important trend in Nevada’s transportation history.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 1

Associated Property Types

Introduction The associated property types of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway between Carson City and Stateline consist of the highway structure itself and related structures constructed or improved for use as part of the Lincoln Highway. The Statement of Historic Contexts (Section E of this MPDF) revealed three distinct segments of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway with separate periods of use. This section provides guidance on how to evaluate the significance of the segments and their associated road-related structures; how to determine the area, level, and period of significance; and provides considerations to assess historic integrity to determine eligibility for listing in the National Register.

Roadbed and Road-related Structures

Description The portion of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway addressed in this MPDF generally extends from S. Curry Street, one block west of the state capitol building, in Carson City to Stateline, forming three segments with different periods of use.129 Map 2 in Section E shows the three segments addressed in this MPDF. A description of the three segments includes:

• Kings Canyon Grade/US 50 – This segment extends from S. Curry Street (one block west of the state capitol building) in Carson City west to Spooner Summit. Within Carson City, this segment follows W. King Street for one mile and is characterized as an urban street with a paved surface with curbs and gutters. Further west the segment becomes Kings Canyon Road until ending at a U.S. Forest Service trailhead. This portion is characterized by two lanes with a paved surface with gravel shoulders, intersections, turn lanes, and suburban development, and is still in vehicular use. At the trailhead it continues west and begins the ascent into the foothills; here it consists of dirt and gravel with changes in grade (vertical alignment) and direction (horizontal alignment), resulting in a twisting and winding route that closely follows the surrounding topography and provides numerous dips and curves. This portion of segment is in recreational/trail use and closed to through vehicular traffic. A few portions of this segment have areas in which rock slides, streams, or erosion have resulted in the loss of the travel surface and embankment. The context indicates this segment functioned

129 The alignment of current U.S. Highway 50 was constructed after the development and use of the Lincoln Highway marking the end of the overall period of significance of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway from Carson City to Stateline. As such, U.S. Highway 50 does not derive significance for an association with the Lincoln Highway and should not be evaluated under this MPDF. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 2

and was used as the Lincoln Highway from its designation as a part of the original Lincoln Highway in 1913. Its use continued before being designated as US 50 in 1926. US 50 was realigned to the south in 1928 along a different route. Photographs 1 through 13 in Additional Documentation provide representative views of the setting, road, and features along the Kings Canyon Grade.

• Clear Creek Grade/US 50 – This segment extends from Carson City south and then west to Spooner Summit. Within Carson City, this segment follows US 395 south from the state capitol building and is characterized as an urban four-lane highway with center turn lanes with a paved surface and curbs and gutters. After approximately 4 miles south of the current intersection of US 395 and US 50, the segment travels west along local access roads until reaching a U.S. Forest Service trailhead gate. This portion of the segment is still in vehicular use. From the U.S. Forest Service trailhead gate travelling west, this segment consists of a two-lane paved surface with narrow earthen shoulders. This portion of the segment is closed to vehicular traffic and in recreational/trail use. When compared to the Kings Canyon Grade/US 50 alignment in use from 1913 to 1927, this alignment features cut-and-fill, resulting in fewer changes in grade (vertical alignment) and curves (horizontal alignment) extending west to Spooner Summit. This alignment has many areas in which rock slides, streams, erosion, or subsidence has resulted in the loss of the travel surface and the embankment. The context indicates this segment was intended to function as US 50 and used to carry the Lincoln Highway in 1928 when it opened to replace the Kings Canyon Grade/US 50 segment because the LHA specially marked the route along this segment in 1928. Reference to its use to carry the Lincoln Highway continued at least until 1940, when local newspapers note the high volume of traffic from Carson City to Lake Tahoe. US 50 was realigned to the north in 1956- 1957 to its current location. (Note the context indicates the current route of US 50 was not used to carry the Lincoln Highway.) Photographs 14 through 28 in Additional Documentation provide representative views of the setting, road, and features along Clear Creek Grade/US 50.

• Spooner Summit to Stateline/US 50 – At Spooner Summit, both the segments above converge into one corridor. From Spooner Summit, this segment descends for approximately 3 miles toward Glenbrook on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. The highway then turns south and follows the shoreline of Lake Tahoe for approximately 10 miles to Stateline; field review found a corridor but little roadbed from the section south of Glenbrook remaining. This segment consists of one- and two-lane paved sections of roadbed with narrow shoulders. Portions along the shore of Lake Tahoe are not continuous and the route has been incorporated into NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 3

the local system of roadways that provide property access. This portion of the segment is still in vehicular use. The context indicates this segment functioned and was used as the Lincoln Highway after its designation as a part of the original Lincoln Highway in 1913. It was designated as US 50 in 1926. US 50 was realigned further to the south between Spooner Summit and Glenbrook and to the east or subsumed and reconstructed along Lake Tahoe in 1956-1957. Reference to its use to carry the Lincoln Highway continued at least until 1940, when local newspapers note the high volume of traffic from Carson City to Lake Tahoe. Photographs 29 through 34 in Additional Documentation provide representative views of the setting and road between Spooner Summit and Stateline.

These segments of roadbed and any associated road-related structures serve as the primary property types associated with the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway addressed in this MPDF. Segments of roadbed are classified as a linear structure. Culverts, retaining walls, and spring boxes are also classified as structures.

Significance A segment of roadbed and road-related structures may possess historical significance for its association with the history and development of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway from Carson City to Stateline. Evaluating each of the segments, in whole or in part, should consider the important themes, trends and events identified in the Historic Context Statement (Section E of this MPDF) and may require further research to understand its use in carrying the Lincoln Highway to evaluate if the roadbed and road-related structures demonstrate significance under one or more of the National Register criteria and areas of significance outlined below. Each segment, in whole or in part, may derive significance from a unique set of factors and will require evaluation on a case-by- case basis to determine the duration of use as the Lincoln Highway. Further research may reveal that discrete sections within segments have distinct patterns of development, historical associations, or engineering features that other portions of highway do not have, which may also be evaluated separately.

The evaluation of significance will address whether and how the segment being evaluated served as an important component in forming the Lincoln Highway and how its continued use contributed to the intended function of the Lincoln Highway by addressing two considerations:

• Significance Consideration 1: Whether and how the segment contributed in providing a continuous route across the state of Nevada and contributed to the transcontinental interstate nature of the route within Nevada. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 4

• Significance Consideration 2: Whether and how the segment reflects one or more factors in which the route was determined (i.e., at the national level the LHA had stated factors that were used in determining the overall route: utilizing easy to traverse terrain; following existing roads, trails or natural pathways; passing through scenic areas; avoiding the congestion of large urban centers; and the most important factor of establishing the most direct path across the country).

An entire segment or individual sections of a segment may be found to possess significance. Typically, road-related structures such as culverts, retaining walls, and spring boxes were designed to function as part of the overall highway and lack sufficient size and scale to alone convey the historical significance of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway. As such, they typically should be evaluated as either a contributing or noncontributing resource of the overall segment of roadbed in which it is located. This MPDF does not apply to other properties such as motels, gas stations, or campgrounds located along the highway that may have been constructed in response to the Lincoln Highway because they are not integral parts of the highway.

Level of Significance This MPDF provides a state-level historic context of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway and properties are evaluated within the confines of other associated properties within the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway in between Carson City and Stateline, Nevada. According to the National Register Bulletin, “A property that overlaps several state boundaries can possibly be significant to the state or local history of each of the states. Such a property is not necessarily of national significance, however, nor is it necessarily significant to all of the states in which it is located.”130 As such, segments of roadbed and road-related structures that derive significance under this MPDF are significant at the state level.

Criterion A: Event/History A segment of roadbed and road-related structures may possess significance under Criterion A for an association with important trends in twentieth century transportation development in the area of Transportation. The Lincoln Highway is one of the earliest cross-country automobile routes to be widely promoted before the establishment of the U.S. Highways System. The Lincoln Highway represents the most successful private roads campaigns initiated during the Good Roads Movement. The LHA saw the economic potential and benefit of improved roads and was active at a national level

130 U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation (1991), 9. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 5

from the establishment of the route in 1913 through 1928, when the national organization disbanded. The LHA may have provided more limited local support during the 1930s and 1940s. The Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway was one of the initial alignments established and promoted by the LHA beginning in 1913. By 1926 the Lincoln Highway was included in the new federal numbering system. Despite this designation, the LHA continued to promote, improve, and mark the Lincoln Highway at least until 1928. Overall, the Lincoln Highway, including the Pioneer Branch, was representative of the transition from the dominance of the railroad and disconnected local network of roads to the emergence of an improved, continuous, automobile-based transportation system providing direct interstate connections as the primary means of travel between the states.

A section of the 1928-1956 segment (Clear Creek Grade) was improved under the NRH federal-relief program and may possess significance under Criterion A in the area of Government/Politics. This area of significance relates to the historic theme of federal work-relief programs in Nevada during the Great Depression. Federal work-relief programs represent unprecedented national efforts to provide relief to the unemployed during the Depression-era to stimulate the economy by initiating public works projects. The impacts of these programs on the transportation network may be evident in the improvements made to a section of the Carson City (south) to Spooner Summit (1927-1956) segment. As such, it may qualify under this area of significance in addition to the area of Transportation for its association with the Lincoln Highway.

Criterion B: Significant Person This criterion is unlikely to apply to a segment of roadbed and road-related structures along alignments of the Lincoln Highway. Properties may possess significance under Criterion B if they convey a strong association with a person significant to the history of the Pioneer Branch. Criterion B may apply to segments of roadbed associated with an individual who was the key figure in promotion or development of the route on a regional, state, or national level between 1913 and 1956. The specific contributions of the individual must be identified and be important in the history of this portion of the Lincoln Highway. The roadbed segment must also best illustrate the person’s important achievements related to the history and development of the highway. Mere association with the Pioneer Branch, such as involvement by an engineer or contractor in design or construction, alone would not render a roadbed segment significant under Criterion B. Distinctive works of road design or construction by engineers, designers, contractors and artisans are typically recognized under Criterion C. Additionally, roads named for an individual in which the recognition is commemorative in nature do not typically qualify under Criterion B; for example, the Kings Canyon Grade was renamed in 1921 after Henry Ostermann, field secretary of the LHA, but research does not indicate that he was singularly key to the development or promotion of this portion of the Lincoln Highway. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 6

Criterion C – Design/Construction A segment of roadbed and road-related structures may possess significance under Criterion C if they exhibit distinctive design features, important innovations, or an evolution in road building practices or construction methods, or an important period of construction in the area of Engineering. All roads can display patterns of features common to their particular road type and can therefore generally serve as representative examples of the application of road design standards as specimens of the type or period under Criterion C. Therefore, mere representation of widespread and common roadway design standards is alone not sufficient to possess significance in the area of Engineering. A segment or section of roadbed or roadbed-related structure will possess significance for engineering only if it represents important design and/or construction features such as an important variation of road features or an early evolution or transition in road technology or construction practices, which serve to distinguish it from other roads of the same type and period. A segment with few or no other examples of road type may be considered significant as a rare surviving example.

Except for the tunnel at Cave Rock, which has already been listed in the National Register, research yielded no evidence to indicate the use of innovative or important engineering design or construction techniques on the alignments of the Pioneer Branch that serve to distinguish the design or construction of these segments from similar roads of the time. Unless additional information comes to light, the highway’s design and construction appear to fall within the established standard practices of highway design and road construction during the period under study (generally 1913 through 1956) and this criterion is rarely expected to apply.

Criterion D – Potential to Yield Information This criterion is unlikely to apply to segments of roadbed or road-related structures associated with the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway. To possess significance for information potential, the information yielded must answer specific important research questions that cannot be otherwise answered. Roadbeds are designed structures whose physical development relates to engineering, technology, and building practices of roads, which is generally well understood and documented. Roadbed segments and roadbed-related elements are unlikely to yield important information that cannot be discerned from archival records. Earlier segments of roadbed were likely obliterated as improvements were made after 1913 and earlier wagon roads do not relate to the Historic Context Statement and should not be evaluated under this MPDF for its association with the Lincoln Highway.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 7

Criteria Considerations A through G None of the National Register Criteria Considerations are expected to apply to segments or roadbed- related structures of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway.

Period of Significance A segment of roadbed and road-related structures can derive significance from important historical associations or feats of engineering in state history under Criterion A or Criterion C. National Register guidance states the period of significance is the length of time when a property was associated with important events, trends, or activities, or attained the characteristics that qualify it for listing in the National Register. The overall chronological period discussed in the Statement of Historic Context (Section E of the MPDF) for the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway from Carson City to Stateline is 1913 to 1956; however, this is not the period of significance for individual properties. When evaluating and nominating individual properties under this MPDF, a specific period of significance must be determined. The period of significance for a roadbed and road-related structures will relate to when the segment served as an important transportation component based its use and function and how it meets the two significance considerations listed above. This period will be defined by its use in providing a continuous route across the state of Nevada and how it contributed to the transcontinental interstate nature of the route within Nevada before being supplanted by other more important routes.

A segment of roadbed with more than one area of significance may have overlapping periods of significance. Guidance on establishing period(s) of significance under each criterion include:

• Under Criterion A: Transportation, the period of significance for a segment of roadbed and road-related structures will directly correspond to the consideration above; it is likely to commence when it was established in 1913 as the original route of the Lincoln Highway or during the period in which it supplanted an earlier alignment and was subsequently promoted by the Lincoln Highway Association thereby having a direct and important association.

• Under Criterion A: Government/Politics the period of significance will encapsulate the period in which the construction of the federal work relief project commenced and ended.

• Under Criterion C: Engineering, the period of significance for roadbed segments may be relatively short relating to the date of construction or physical improvement.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 8

Eligibility Requirements To be eligible for the National Register, a segment of roadbed and road-related structures must not only possess significance, but also retain historic integrity. Per the National Register guidance, historic integrity is “the ability of a property to convey its significance.”131 It is necessary to have a clear understanding of why and when a highway was important in order to identify the road’s essential physical features, and to understand which aspects of historic integrity are most important to convey its significance. For this reason, the identification of essential physical features considers important physical elements present along the entire segment of roadbed during the period of significance. In assessing historic integrity, a segment of roadbed with significance needs to retain its essential physical features and most, if not all, of the seven aspects of integrity to provide a sense of time and place and travel experience related to the period(s) of significance.

Identifying Essential Physical Features Essential physical features of the segment of the Pioneer Brach of the Lincoln Highway from Carson City to Stateline include:

• Travel surface – an identifiable roadbed surface with the physical form and materials with a similar length, width, and number of travel lanes from the period of significance (travel surface includes shoulders and pull-outs);

• Embankment – the raised foundation of materials that was built to support the traffic surface; and

• Alignment – the grade (vertical alignment) and curve (horizontal alignment) of the roadbed.

Essential physical features may also include:

• Roadbed-related elements – may include culverts (concrete box or metal pipe culverts with concrete headwalls), dry-laid stone retaining walls, and concrete spring boxes (either concrete with recessed panels or rusticated concrete).

131 U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation (1991, rev), 44. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 9

Segments of roadbed are not required to continue to serve their historic function of carrying vehicular traffic to be nominated under this MPDF. Segments of roadbed closed to vehicular use and in recreational/trail use may meet the registration requirements.

Segments of roadbed and road-related structures that do not exhibit the essential physical features above cannot convey significance and are not eligible for listing in the National Register.

Assessing Integrity If the essential physical features of the roadbed are present, the segment being evaluated must also demonstrate most, if not all, of the aspects of integrity important to conveying the road’s significance and historic identity. Per National Register guidance, “It is not necessary for a property to retain all its historic physical features or characteristics. The property must retain, however, the essential physical features that enable it to convey its historic identity.”132 The seven aspects of integrity as they apply to segments of roadbed and road-related structures include:

• Design – The combination of elements that create the physical form and width or number of travel lanes of the segment of roadbed from the period of significance. Among other things, the design of a roadbed encompasses its grade (vertical alignment) and curve (horizontal alignment).

• Materials – The physical composition of the travel surface and embankment from the period of significance.

• Workmanship – Elements that reflect physical evidence of the labor and skill of artisans or master craft persons from the period of significance. Due to standardization and the widespread use of mechanization in road construction, this aspect of integrity is rarely expected to apply to the surface or the embankment; however, workmanship may be evident in road-related structures (dry-laid stone retaining walls or rusticated concrete spring boxes) or federal work-relief project work.

• Location – The spatial location of the segment of roadbed from the period of significance. A segment of roadbed must still be in its original location from its period of significance.

132 U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation (1991, rev), 46. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 10

• Setting – The elements in the environment that comprise the character of the surroundings of the segment during the period of significance. The physical features that comprise the setting may vary along the length of the segment. Combined with other aspects of integrity, setting helps convey a sense of time and place.

• Feeling – Results from the presence of elements that evoke and express the historic character of the segment during the period of significance. Generally, this aspect of integrity is dependent on retaining the other aspects of integrity to add to a sense of time and place.

• Association – Demonstrated by the presence of intact essential physical features from the period of significance that convey its function and direct relationship to the historic themes.

Under Criterion A, design, location, association, setting, and feeling are generally the most important aspects of integrity and must be retained because they convey the function and establish its relationship between the road or roadbed-related resources and the Lincoln Highway. Essential physical features that convey a road’s historic function will typically include the travel surface (especially number of travel lanes and the presence of shoulders), the embankment, and the overall alignment from the period of significance. For roads with historic significance under Criterion C, design, materials, workmanship (if applicable), association, and location are generally the most important aspects of integrity and must be retained because they convey its function and establish its relationship to the Lincoln Highway. Essential physical features will typically demonstrate the important road design or construction related to engineering significance and will typically include travel surface (especially form, width, and other dimensions), the embankment, and may include roadbed-related structures from the period of significance.

Alterations Changes to the segment of roadbed and roadbed-related structures outside the period of significance should be identified to determine if the changes impact essential physical features and to what degree the changes diminish the aspects of integrity. The size and scale of the change need to be considered to determine if the change is severe enough to diminish aspects of integrity that are most important given its significance. The rapid evolution of the automobile and trucking and the development of larger and heavier vehicles dictated that the road and associated properties evolved with the times. Due to ongoing maintenance and changes in design and safety standards, segments of roadbed and road-related structures typically experienced steady changes that may be reflected within the period of significance. Alterations completed within the period of significance generally will not diminish historic integrity. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 11

Typical changes to segments of roadbed include the loss of travel surface and embankment or widening of the travel surface. The loss of travel surface and embankment to a degree in which it precludes the ability for uninterrupted travel may result in a loss of integrity of design, materials, workmanship (if applicable), and feeling. Generally, for a segment of roadbed and roadbed-related structures to be eligible under Criterion A: Transportation, it must retain an uninterrupted travel surface of a sufficient length to provide a similar sense of time and place as during the period of significance. Sufficient length may be retained if an observer can gain a comparable continuous automobile travel experience on the route as during the period of significance.

In-kind replacement of the travel surface, such as replacing asphalt with asphalt, is a common change associated with highways and will typically not result in a loss of integrity of the most important aspects of integrity under Criterion A, such as design, location, association, setting, and feeling. Resurfacing resulting in a new surface type (e.g., from gravel to asphalt) might have resulted in a change to the essential physical feature of travel surface under Criterion A. This change may diminish integrity of materials; however, this is not one of the most important aspects of integrity under Criterion A. If the significance of the roadbed segment can still be conveyed through the essential physical features of embankment, alignment, and other elements of travel surface, such as the number of travel lanes, a change in travel surface when taken alone may not result in a loss of integrity. Similarly, the replacement of roadbed-related structures alone is not typically expected to have diminished a segment’s ability to convey significance under Criterion A. The retention of other essential features such as embankment, alignment, and the number of travel lanes will typically better demonstrate the importance of a road’s historical association and connection under Criterion A.

Under Criterion C, in-kind replacement of the travel surface, such as replacing asphalt with asphalt, is a common change associated with highways. In-kind replacement might have diminished integrity of materials under Criterion C but taken alone does not generally result in a loss of these aspects of integrity. Resurfacing resulting in a new surface type (e.g., from gravel to asphalt) might have resulted in a change to the essential physical feature of travel surface under Criterion C. This change will diminish important aspects of integrity of materials and may result in the loss of integrity rendering it ineligible. Replacement of roadbed-related structures alone under Criterion C will typically not cause an overall loss of integrity and a road’s ability to convey significance if they are not identified as essential physical features. Collectively, roadbed-related structures can be important to convey the historic identity of a segment of roadbed and can contribute to its significance. The impact of previous replacement of roadbed-related structures such as culverts and retaining walls needs to be considered in addition to other changes to determine the overall impact of alterations on the aspects NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 12

of historic integrity most important under Criterion C, including design, materials, and workmanship (if applicable).

Not all alterations, including those to essential physical features, will diminish a road’s historic integrity to the degree that it can no longer convey significance. For example, a small amount of widening (e.g., 2-3 feet) may not have had an impact on essential physical features such as the number of travel lanes, shoulder of the travel surface, embankment, or alignment to the degree that the segment of roadbed can no longer convey its historic identity. In addition to assessing individual changes, the cumulative effect of multiple changes to the segment may collectively diminish aspects of historic integrity.

Conclusion Segments of the Pioneer Branch that are found to possess significance that exhibit a loss of essential physical features or a loss of one or more aspects of integrity to the level that the historic identity can no longer be conveyed, then the segment of roadbed and associated roadbed-related structures no longer retains integrity and is not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number G Page 1

Geographical Data The geographic area covered by the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway extends from Carson City to Stateline, Nevada. Mead & Hunt compiled a map (see Map 2 in Section E) delineating the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway between Carson City and Stateline that is addressed in this MPDF.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number H Page 1

Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods This National Register MPDF is based on work completed in 2017 by Mead & Hunt for NDOT. Archival research focused on addressing the themes in the Statement of Historic Context, which covers the development of the Lincoln Highway nationally, in Nevada, and between Carson City and Stateline. The historic context was based on historical research and a synthesis of existing studies, and secondary source materials addressing the origins and development of Nevada’s road system and, in particular, the Lincoln Highway and the Pioneer Branch. Research was completed at the Nevada State Library and Archives; the Nevada Historical Society; the University of Nevada, Reno, Special Collections Library and Archives; and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Special Collection Library; as well as online sources, files of NDOT, cultural resource reports, and historic photos, film, and maps. The sources used are listed in the Bibliography.

Field review of the alignments was completed in July 2017 by Mead & Hunt staff and consisted of a windshield survey in which the extent and features of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway between Carson City and Stateline were inspected. Following completion of the field review and development of the MPDF, Mead & Hunt completed a National Register Nomination Form for the Carson City (west) to Spooner Summit (via Kings Canyon Grade) Segment of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway, Carson City and Douglas County, for submission in conjunction with this MPDF. Within the area covered by this MPDF, Cave Rock (de’ek wadapush) is the only property listed in the National Register with an association with the Lincoln Highway. This Nomination was completed prior to this MPDF.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number I Page 1

Major Bibliographical References

“Army Truck Convoy to Pass Through Nevada Soon.” Reno Gazette-Journal. June 26, 1919.

Bogardus, J.F. “The Great Basin.” Economic Geography 6, no. 4 (October 1930): 321–37.

Bruno, Paul Robert. “Governor James G. Scrugham and the Search for Economic Prosperity for Nevada, 1923-1927.” Master’s Thesis, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, University of Nevada, 2009.

Butko, Brian. Greetings from the Lincoln Highway, America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2005.

“Carson City Bids for Tourist Travel.” Reno Evening Gazette. July 26, 1919.

“Carson Convention Lays Plans for Pioneer Trail.” Reno Evening Gazette. June 6, 1919.

“Clear Creek New Highway Open Friday.” Nevada State Journal. September 29, 1957.

Crawford, Kristina. “Evolution of Automobile Roads in Nevada.” In-Situ: Newsletter of the Nevada Archaeological Association 20, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 2–6.

Davies, Pete. American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.

Durkee, S.C. “Highway Map of State of Nevada.” 1 Inch: 25 Miles. Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, 1929.

———. “Highway Map of the State of Nevada.” 1 Inch: 25 Miles. Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, 1927.

———. “Plan and Profile of Proposed State Highway, Federal Aid Project No. 102A, Spooners to County Hospital, Douglas and Ormsby Counties.” 1 Inch: 100 Feet. Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, July 6, 1927.

———. “Plan and Profile of Proposed State Highway (Federal Aid Project N.R.H. No. 102A, Douglas and Ormsby Counties, Spooners to County Hospital.” 1 Inch: 2,000 Feet. Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, March 28, 1934. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 2

———. “Road Map.” 1 Inch: 20 Miles. Carson City, Nev.: State of Nevada Department of Highways, 1932.

First Report of the Board of Directors Department of Highways, 1917-1918, State of Nevada. Carson City, Nevada: Nevada Department of Highways, 1918.

“Forest Camps at Lake Tahoe.” The Lincoln Highway Forum VII, no. 5 (November 1925).

Gael Hoag, Field Secretary. “Original Log of 1928 Markers.” Unpublished, 1928. Lincoln Highway Association Records. University of Michigan.

Haynes, Greg, Terry Birk, and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Kings Canyon Road: Maintaining Cultural Connectivity in Peripheral Western Nevada, n.d. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm9_026087.pdf.

Keane, Melissa, and Simon Bruder. Good Roads Everywhere: A History of Road Building in Arizona. Phoenix, Ariz.: Arizona Department of Transportation, March 2004.

Kinst, Gary, ed. “Question Answered.” The Traveler, Lincoln Highway Association - California Chapter 15, no. 4 (October 2014): 6.

“Lake Tahoe Route Location Is Disputed.” Reno Evening Gazette. March 26, 1927.

“Largest Highway Contract Awarded.” Reno Evening Gazette. September 28, 1956.

Lincoln Highway Association. The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway. Detroit: The Lincoln Highway Association, 1916.

———. The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, Fifth Edition. Detroit, Mich.: Lincoln Highway Association, 1924.

———. The Lincoln Highway: The Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1935.

“Lincoln Highway Shows Heavy Traffic.” Reno Evening Gazette. September 3, 1940.

“Lincoln Road Official Dies.” The Sacramento Union. June 20, 1920.

Marriott, Paul Daniel. “The Preservation Office Guide to Historic Roads,” June 2010. http://www.historicroads.org/documents/GUIDE.pdf. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 3

Mead & Hunt, Inc., and Heritage Research, Ltd. Nebraska Historic Highway Survey. Prepared for the Nebraska State Historical Society and Nebraska Department of Roads, August 2002.

“Modern Highways Are 100 Years Old.” Cruise-In, Celebrating Indiana Car Culture, November 4, 2015. http://cruise-in.com/tag/good-roads-movement/.

Municipality of Carson City. “History.” Carson City, Capital of Nevada, 2017. http://www.carson.org/residents/history.

National Park Service. Lincoln Highway: Special Resource Study, Environmental Assessment. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2004.

National Park Service, National Trails Intermountain Region. National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide - Across Nevada. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2012.

National Register of Historic Places. De ’Ek Wadapush (Cave Rock) Traditional Cultural Property, 26Do08 (Nevada State Museum); Do-1 (University of California-Berkeley; 05-19-871 (USFS); CrNV-03-445 (BLM); 49 (TRPA), n.d.

National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Form. “Historic and Architectural Resources of the Lincoln Highway in Nebraska.” Statewide, Nebraska.

Nevada Department of Transportation. “1.2 Nevada Department of Transportation.” Nevada Department of Transportation, 2017. ftp://ftp.nevadadot.com/DesignManual/2005_3_1/PDDM/Body/1_2.htm.

———. “About NDOT.” Nevada Department of Transportation, 2017. https://www.nevadadot.com/doing-business/about-ndot.

“Nevada Tribes.” Nevada’s Indian Territory, n.d. http://www.nevadaindianterritory.com/.

“New Clear Creek Highway Scenic, Easy to Travel.” Reno Gazette-Journal. August 16, 1957.

“New Tahoe Road to Be Opened Sunday.” Reno Evening Gazette. August 13, 1928.

“New Tahoe Route Will Follow Old Trail.” Reno Evening Gazette. June 19, 1926. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 4

Obermayr, Erich. Foot Path to Four-Lane, A Historical Guidebook to Transportation on Lake Tahoe’s Southeast Shore. [Nevada]: prepared on behalf of the Nevada Department of Transportation, in association with Washington Group International and Mactec Engineering and Consulting, Inc., 2005.

“One Unhurried Route.” Reno Gazette Journal, October 6, 1956.

Palmer, Rebecca Lynn. “Kings Canyon Road, HAER No. NV-11,” March 1994. Historic American Engineering Record. Library of Congress.

Patrick, Kevin J., and Robert E. Wilson. The Lincoln Highway Resource Guide. Prepared for the National Park Service, August 2002.

Petersen, Jesse G. A Route for the Overland Stage: James H. Simpson’s 1859 Trail Across the Great Basin. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2008.

“Pony Express Territory.” Pony Express Territory, Nevada, 2016. http://ponyexpressnevada.com/.

Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990. Washington, D.C.: Department of Commerce, U.S. Bureau of Census, n.d.

Riddle, Jennifer E., and Elizabeth Dickey. Building Nevada’s Highways. N.p.: Arcadia Publishing, 2015.

Rocha, Guy. “The Great Depression in Nevada.” Nevada State Library & Archives, n.d. nsla.nv.gov/Archives/Myths/The_Great_Depression_in_Nevada/.

“‘See Tahoe’ Movement.” Nevada State Journal. July 9, 1919.

Snyder, John W. “Central Pacific Transcontinental Railroad, HAER No. CA-196,” n.d. Historic American Engineering Record. Library of Congress. https://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca2300/ca2394/data/ca2394data.pdf.

State of Nevada, Department of Highways. Biennial Report: Fiscal Years 1955-1956. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1956.

———. Eighteenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Fiscal Years Ending June 30, 1951-1952. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1952. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 5

———. Eighth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period of December 1, 1930, to June 30, 1932, Inclusive. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1932.

———. Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1944, Inclusive. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1944.

———. Ninth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways, for the Period July 1, 1932 to June 30, 1934, Inclusive. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1935.

———. Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Fiscal Years of July 1, 1946 to June 30, 1948. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1948.

———. Tenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period July 1, 1934, to June 30, 1936, Inclusive. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1936.

———. Third Biennial Report of the Department of Highways, 1921-1922. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1923.

———. Thirteenth Biennial Report of the Department of Highways for the Period July 1, 1940, to June 30, 1942, Inclusive. Carson City, Nev.: Nevada Department of Highways, 1942.

Summit Envirosolutions, Inc. A Transect Across the Great Basin: Reno, Nevada to Spanish Fork, Utah, A Class III Cultural Resources Inventory. Prepared for ENSR, February 2001.

The Lincoln Highway Association. “Map of Strategic Routes Between Salt Lake City, Utah and California.” Detroit: The Lincoln Highway Association, 1923.

Tingley, Joseph V., Robert C. Horton, and Francis C. Lincoln. Outline of Nevada Mining History. Special Publication 15. Reno, Nev.: Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada, 1993.

“Traffic Is Heavy All Summer but Roads Stand Up Well.” Reno Evening Gazette. September 22, 1928.

“Travel Aided by New Route to Lake Tahoe.” Nevada State Journal. July 27, 1929.

U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. America’s Highways, 1776- 1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, 1976. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number F Page 6

“U.S. Highway 50 - Nevada.” AA Roads, See the Road before You Go, October 8, 2012. http://www.aaroads.com/west/us-050_nv.html.

“Victory Highway, Designated Primary Route, to See Early Construction Work in Nevada.” Sacramento Union. January 22, 1922.

Weingroff, Richard. “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System.” Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, November 18, 2015. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/numbers.cfm.

———. “The Lincoln Highway.” Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, November 18, 2015. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/lincoln.cfm.

“Wyoming History, The Politics of Road Construction.” Western Wyoming Community College, 2008. http://www.wwcc.wy.edu/wyo_hist/lincolnhighway3.htm.

Zeier, Charles, Ron Reno, and Mary Parrish. An Archaeological Inventory of the Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, Nevada. Prepared for Carson City Planning Division and Parks and Open Space, February 2014.

Zeier & Associates, LLC, and Susan Lindstrom Consulting Archaeologist. Archaeological Inventory Report, State Route 207, Kingsbury Grade, Erosion Control-Storm Water Management Master Plan, Douglas County, Nevada. Prepared for Nevada Department of Transportation, September 2006. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 1

Representative images of the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway from Carson City to Stateline Images are organized from the eastern boundary of the study area, at S. Curry Street in Carson City, according to the three segments discussed in Associated Property Types of the MPDF.

Kings Canyon Grade/US 50

Photograph 1. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing the eastern terminus at S. Curry Street (background) as it travels west following W. King Street. View facing east.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 2

Photograph 2. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing the alignment and two-lane travel surface with narrow shoulders and embankment west of Carson City as it enters the foothills. View facing west.

Photograph 3. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing the alignment, two lane paved travel surface with narrow shoulders, and embankment west of Carson City. View facing east.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 3

Photograph 4. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway near the U.S. Forest Service trailhead where the travel surface changes from two-lane pavement to one-lane gravel as it begins to ascend the foothills. View facing southwest.

Photograph 5. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing erosion to travel surface drainage creating a swale. View facing southwest.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 4

Photograph 6. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing surrounding environment and alignment and grade. The pre-existing Kings Canyon Grade was cut into the mountainside and follows the topography and terrain (roadbed is visible near center of hillside). View facing northeast.

Photograph 7. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing road-related structure. Detail of dry- laid stone retaining wall.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 5

Photograph 8. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing the alignment, travel surface and embankment closely following the surrounding topography. View facing south.

Photograph 9. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing the dirt and gravel travel surface illustrating the alignment, travel surface and embankment closely following the surrounding topography. View facing east.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 6

Photograph 10. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing road-related structure: Detail of dry- laid stone retaining wall.

Photograph 11. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing alignment, travel surface, and embankment near Spooner Summit. View facing northeast.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 7

Photograph 12. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing alignment, travel surface, and embankment near Spooner Summit showing current U.S. Highway 50 (at right). View facing east.

Photograph 13. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing road-related structure: Detail of dry- laid stone retaining wall near at Spooner Summit. View facing north.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 8

Clear Creek Grade/US 50

Photograph 14. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway (current U.S. Highway 395) showing alignment, multi-lane paved travel surface, south of Carson City. View facing north.

Photograph 15. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway (current Clear Creek Road/State Highway 705) showing alignment, two-lane paved travel surface and embankment as it enters the foothills southwest of Carson City. View facing southwest.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 9

Photograph 16. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway (current Clear Creek Road/State Highway 705) showing alignment, two-lane paved travel surface and embankment as it follows the contours of surrounding topography. View facing east.

Photograph 17. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway (current Clear Creek Road/State Highway 705) showing alignment, two-lane paved travel surface and a road-related structure: a concrete and stone masonry retaining wall (visible at right) along the south side of Clear Creek Road.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 10

Photograph 18. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway (current Clear Creek Road/ State Highway 705) showing alignment, two-lane paved travel surface east of Golf Club Road. View facing west.

Photograph 19. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway (current Clear Creek Road) showing alignment, two-lane paved travel surface near intersection of Golf Club Road. Driveways and an access road for the Clear Creek Tahoe Golf Course intersect this portion of the former route. View facing east.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 11

Photograph 20. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway west of Golf Creek Road where the two-lane paved travel surface of Clear Creek Road/State Highway 705 and vehicular access ends and the route (Old Clear Creek Road/Old US 50) continues at U.S. Forest Service trailhead as a one-lane earthen travel surface. View facing east.

Photograph 21. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing loss of travel surface due to erosion and road-related structure: concrete culvert (visible at left). View facing east.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 12

Photograph 22. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing alignment, travel surface, and road- related structure: a stone masonry/concrete water tank known as a “spring box.” View facing northeast.

Photograph 23. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing road-related structure: Detail of stone masonry/concrete spring box.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 13

Photograph 24. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing alignment, a section of paved two- lane travel surface, and road-related structure: a pullout, concrete spring box, and stone drinking fountain. View facing northeast.

Photograph 25. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing road-related structure: Detail of concrete spring box (roadway visible in upper left-hand corner).

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 14

Photograph 26. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing road-related structure: Detail of c.1935 stone drinking fountain.

Photograph 27. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing road-related structure: Detail of corrugated metal pipe culvert with concrete headwall.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 15

Photograph 28. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing loss of travel surface and embankment due to erosion and subsidence. View facing north.

Photograph 29. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing alignment, travel surface and embankment as it approaches Spooner Summit. View facing southwest.

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 16

Spooner Summit to Stateline/US 50

Photograph 30. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing sections of pavement and area of loss of travel surface and embankment due to erosion/subsidence east of Glenbrook. View facing southwest.

Photograph 31. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing two-lane paved travel surface with no shoulders east of Glenbrook. View facing northeast. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 17

Photograph 32. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing sections of new pavement with curb at Glenbrook. View facing south.

Photograph 33. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing abandoned section between Spooner Summit and Glenbrook (cars along current US 50 visible in background).

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018

Section number Additional Documentation Page 18

Photograph 34. Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway showing sections of the route that have been subsumed by current U.S. 50 at Cave Rock. The tunnel at right was constructed in 1931 to replace a timber/stone trestle that went around Cave Rock. The tunnel at left was constructed in 1956 and modified by an NDOT project in 2017.