The steep canyons formed by the branches of the Mokelumne River presented formidable obstacles to transportation. Development of a route east from Mokelumne Hill was largely dictated by the availability of suitable points to cross the seasonally roaring water courses located at the bottom of steep canyons. While the general location of the river crossings has remained the same for 150 years, there…

The land now inundated by Tulloch Lake was the location of two Stanislaus River ferries, the best-known of which was O’Byrnes Ferry on the Copperopolis to Sonora Road (also known as the Mountain Pass Road, connecting Copperopolis and Yosemite Junction on the Knights Ferry to Sonora Road). The ferry was located at an important crossing on the Stanislaus River, on the principal roads between Sonora…

Known locally as the “ferry roads,” these historic roads provided access to the Stanislaus River ferries and the diggings from, first, the Old Antelope Trail and the later Reed’s Turnpike, constructed after the copper boom in the early 1860s.

The present Highway 4 alignment follows the approximate route of an early emigrant trail over the Sierra Nevada that was improved in 1855-56 and known as the Big Tree Road and in the early 1860s as the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike. Originally a free trail, it became a toll road from 1864 through 1910, and then a free county road in 1911. It was accepted into the state highway system in 1926…