Happy Birthday Highway 99

by Derryl Dumermuth

Tulare Historical Museum

    Get ready for a birthday celebration. This year, 2009, is the one hundredth anniversary of the construction of State Highway 99. Actually, the road was initially designated as Legislative Route Number 4 - not until the 1920's did it become known as State Highway 99. Today the controlled-access portion of 99 runs parallel to Interstate 5 from a point 23 miles south of Bakersfield northward to Sacramento. The freeway ends there but 99 continues on as a scenic byway to Red Bluff, where it joins the Interstate.

    Originally the road was little more than a dirt lane, muddy during the rainy season; dusty during the long hot, dry summers. The highway was not paved until 1913-14. One bright spot - gasoline sold for no more than 15 cents per gallon.

    Primitive though the highway might be by today's standards, it was certainly an improvement over the conditions that prevailed before 1909. An editorial in the May 31, 1883 Tulare Register spoke volumes about the prevailing conditions:

   "It would be very much to the interest of Tulare City to have a county road laid out from here to Goshen. There is quite a large settlement north of Packwood Creek that would trade here a portion of the time at least if there were any convenient way of getting here. Several attempts have been made to have one laid out, but the matter has not been pushed as it deserves to be.

    At present if anyone desires to come to Tulare from that neighborhood, he has a half dozen gates to open, has to follow a cow-path, encounter crossings that are well nigh impassable, and can only come at all by sufferance of the owners of the land through which it passes.

    Some of the parties through whose land the road would pass are willing to give the right of way, but we are sorry to say there are others who claim very high damages, but it can be put through if the citizens of Tulare insist upon it. We must keep the avenues to our town open if we are to enjoy a thriving trade. Will some solid citizen start a petition at once?"

    Until the Tulare bypass was completed, all traffic on 99 passed through the town's business district. Motorists were treated to a view of infamous Front Street (the 100 block of South J) with its saloons, gambling dens, and prostitution. From the north, the highway followed J Street to Inyo Avenue, turned east for one block, and then south on K Street. At Bardsley Road the highway originally turned west over the SP tracks, and then south on an extension of I Street. Since that railroad crossing was not controlled, it soon became known as "death curve". To cater to the ever-increasing traffic, motels (or cabins) and restaurants made their appearance on South K Street.

    Henry Ford started mass production of the Model T (the Tin Lizzie) in 1907 and it would have been a common sight on the new highway for two decades - the Model A appeared in 1927. Ransom Eli Olds started production of the famous "Curved Dash Runabout" in 1901 and by 1909 Oldsmobile was challenging Ford for a share of the market.

    Those earliest "Horseless Carriages" were little more than a motorized buggy. Open to the elements they offered an uncomfortable ride - a self-starter was not introduced until 1911, balloon tires in 1922. By the time the primitive highway 99 was completed, most cars were equipped with a roof and side-curtains. During the twentieth century scores of automobile companies sought acceptance by the motoring public. Most gradually died, leaving only the "Big Three" to compete with the Japanese auto-makers. And now it seems that even these giants are on shaky ground.

    In the 1930's a third lane for passing and turning was added. Over the next 70 years the thoroughfare was gradually widened to four or more lanes.

    During the summer of 1949, to make way for the freeway, several houses had to be moved or razed, including the homes of prominent Tulareans Hamilton Peers and Tom Hennion. The grand opening of the Tulare bypass was celebrated in December 1952. A 20-mile section of the highway south of Modesto was the last portion of the freeway to be completed and Turlock's traffic lights were the last to impede traffic on Highway 99.

    Traffic on 99 is expected to more than double during the next 20 years. To accommodate this increase, the highway will be expanded to six lanes with the ultimate goal calling for an eight lane super freeway.

Derryl Dumermuth is a retired TUHS mathematics teacher, author of "A Town Called Tulare" and co-author with his wife, Wanda, of "Tulare Legends and Trivia from A to Z". Both books were written as fund-raisers for the Tulare Historical Museum and can be purchased in the museum's gift shop.

CAPTIONS

1.       Tulare Bypass. 2001 photo courtesy of Jeff Killion of Gainsborough Studio.

2.       An early Curved Dash Oldsmobile Runabout. Prominent Tulare Banker John Albert Goble stands to the driver's left.

3.       The Hamilton Peers home, one of several buildings moved or razed to make way for the freeway bypass. 1949 photo.