Highway 99 — (A Window to the West’s Recent History)

Highway 99, was the main north – south highway of “The West” until 1964. Beginning in Calexico, California at the Baja California, Mexico and U.S. southern border, it ran north to Blaine Washington at the U.S. border with Canada. Route 99 evolved from a system of Indian and Pioneer trails of a by-​gone era. Commissioned in 1926 the highway rambles from community to community as it makes its way from border to border. The highway almost meandered connecting communities and main streets on its long journey across the three Pacific Coast states. Highway 99, also known as The Pacific Highway in many places, took time to visit the Capitols of each state that it travels through . In some places 99 was unconventional and split into east and west segments for countless miles just to connect more towns and people. The route was a wonderful combination of rural and urban. Today the route is nearly a memory in some places but in many locales it remains as the main street of the city or town that it passes through. If Route 66 is the “Mother Road”, Highway 99 must almost certainly be a well-​liked aunt or favorite cousin. The highway is spotted with grand vistas and roadside attractions as numerous as the polka dots on Auntie’s favorite yellow dress, its communities are as welcoming as time spent with family on a warm summer’s day at the lake.

Today much of 99 is bypassed by its upstart and in a hurry younger brother, Interstate 5. I-​5 is all business. “Let’s get there and get there now”, is its motto and where 99 connected, I-​5 bypasses. The interstate doesn’t have time for corner diners, vintage neon or historic structures much less the mass of humanity that relies on it for transportation. The Interstate moves commodities and people as fast as possible and where Highway 99 made a point of including as many Western main streets along its length as possible, I-​5 skirts them, leaving once thriving communities and businesses to languish. In some cases those bypassed and stranded have died out altogether.

Jill Livingston did her part to preserve the memory of the route with a wonderfully fun and well written series that retraced the length of the route in her books titled, That Ribbon of Highway I, II, & III.

Jill chronicled locations such as the beautiful and abandoned Harlan D. Miller Memorial Bridge, a beautiful arch structure near Vollmers California, roughly midway between Dunsmuir and Redding in Northern California. She detailed the former highway’s alignment and chronicled many locations that are no longer in use. For the armchair highway historian it is a great read that reaps much from the Works Progress Administration’s, Federal Writer’s Project commissioned books titled, California A Guide to the Golden State (1939), Oregon: End of the Trail (1940), and Washington: A Guide to the Evergreen State (1941). These works were part of the American Guide Series and are essentially the first guidebooks issued for the United States and contained in-​depth histories of each state with descriptions of every city and town along the way with mile by mile automobile tours detailing the regions history and attractions. While exploring Highway 99 I have used these guides to reveal nuances that have been forgotten or passed by.

When traveling Old 99 here in the West, or in any other part of the country for that matter, the American Guide Series can give you a wonderful 80 year old window into our countries depression era heart and soul.