Local History
Feb. 28th, 2011 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robbyI wasted hours today googling images of old maps and other historical documents. I found a blurry image of an 1860 land grant map of this area. It was hard to pinpoint the exact spot where I now live, but I found the long road that runs a block away. A few handwritten names on the original landowners match the current names of some nearby roads. The creek where I walk the dog should exist on the old map, so maybe I'll look again, and compare the old map to a modern map with the creek and the same long road.
One other thing that I learned is that the avenue I live on was US Highway 50 many years ago. It may have been a section of it just southwest of me, but now my road is not even continuous. I live at the end of a section that is about two miles long, but I've seen the avenue start and stop again, both to the north and south. Out by the road, there is lots of grass, but the soil to the side of the road contains lots of gravel mixed deep into the soil. I wonder if this was a bustling place once, and now it's become a sleepy backwater.
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I found a historical account of the old Highway 50 as it wound through the neighborhood, and passed a few blocks to the west. There is still a chopped up road called turnpike road. Highway 50 replaced an earlier highway, called Highway 48, that existed from 1926 to 1933, and had a different local path. My suspicion is that the long gone Highway 48 came even closer, and then was probably the heyday of this little census designated place.
One other thing that I learned is that the avenue I live on was US Highway 50 many years ago. It may have been a section of it just southwest of me, but now my road is not even continuous. I live at the end of a section that is about two miles long, but I've seen the avenue start and stop again, both to the north and south. Out by the road, there is lots of grass, but the soil to the side of the road contains lots of gravel mixed deep into the soil. I wonder if this was a bustling place once, and now it's become a sleepy backwater.
***************************************************************************************
I found a historical account of the old Highway 50 as it wound through the neighborhood, and passed a few blocks to the west. There is still a chopped up road called turnpike road. Highway 50 replaced an earlier highway, called Highway 48, that existed from 1926 to 1933, and had a different local path. My suspicion is that the long gone Highway 48 came even closer, and then was probably the heyday of this little census designated place.
