July 28, 2015 - Today is the 100th anniversary of the public opening of the Tioga Road!
This road was originally constructed in 1883 as the Great Sierra Wagon Road to service the needs of the Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Company that had its operations based in Bennettville at the Tioga Crest. Crews worked from both ends to construct the 56.5 mile route, completing a half mile of finished road per day, with a total cost of $61,095.20. This was an amazing feat! The company went bust within a year of the road's construction. The road had minimal maintenance in the years to come, and was semi-passable for decades.
In 1915, as part of the campaign to promote the National Parks and make them more accessible, Steven T. Mather (Assistant Secretary of the Interior, who would become the first director of the National Park Service in 1916) rallied a donation campaign to purchase the road for $15,500 and transfer the ownership of it to Yosemite National Park. Motor clubs added donations to pay for the needed repairs to the Tioga road. The work was completed and the dedication of the road coincided with the ending days of the first Mather Mountain Party. Ceremonially, Mather broke a champagne bottle of water from the Pacific Ocean, at the Tioga crest where the water could flow to both east and west in commemoration of this trans-sierra route.
Source: Yosemite National Park
