Highway 99: The History of California's Main Street

by Stephen H. Provost

Overview

Before it was a modern freeway, California’s State Highway 99 was “the main street of California,” a simple two-lane road that passed through the downtowns of every city between the Mexican border and the Oregon state line. Highway 99: The History of California’s Main Street turns back the clock to those days when a narrow ribbon of asphalt tied the state’s communities together, with classic roadside attractions and plenty of fun along the way.

Highway 99 documents the birth, growth, and transformation of the highway; the gas stations, motels, restaurants, and attractions that flourished and declined by the roadside; and the communities, personalities, and historical events that made their mark on the highway. From the migrations of the Dust Bowl to the birth of the Bakersfield Sound to the foundation of America’s fast-food culture, the history of California has happened around Highway 99, and Highway 99: The History of California’s Main Street brilliantly depicts that history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610352963
Publisher:	Linden Publishing
Publication date:	09/15/2017
Series:	California's Historic Highways , #1
Pages:	270
Sales rank:	1,035,741
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Stephen H. Provost is a journalist, author, and editor of The Cambrian newspaper. He has worked as an editor, reporter, and columnist at newspapers throughout California. His previous books include Fresno Growing Up: A City Comes of Age 1945-1985, a history of his hometown. Provost lives with his wife on California’s Central Coast, where he frequently blogs on writing and current events.

Table of Contents

Part I: The Story of Old 99
Chapter 1: Making the Connection
Chapter 2: On Top of the World
Chapter 3: Bypassed
Chapter 4: Pointing the Way
Chapter 5: The Long Hard Road
Chapter 6: Disaster Areas
Chapter 7: Full Service
Chapter 8: More Than Four Wheels
Chapter 9: Refreshments
Chapter 10: Accommodations
Chapter 11: Amusements

Part II: A Tour of Old 99

Editorial Reviews

"From the Dust Bowl migrations of the 1930s to the rise and fall of gas stations, motels, attractions, and roadside diners, it’s all here in Highway 99. I highly recommend it." —Diana Bulls, Kings River Life

"An engaging narrative that pulls the reader into the story and onto the road. Just like Highway 99, you want to keep going, seeing what will come next, confident that there will be a place to rest up to continue the adventure. I highly recommend Highway 99: The History of California's Main Street, whether you're a roadside archaeology nut or just someone who enjoys a ripping story peppered with vintage photographs." —Barbara Gossett, Society for Commercial Archaeology Journal

From the Publisher

2017-10-24
A book provides a history of Highway 99, which ran from Mexico to Oregon and subtly transformed California.The first part of this work lays out the history and development of the road and the cities it passed through. In the early 1910s, California sought to build standardized highways of a higher quality than the dirt roads that early motorists had to deal with. A number of early routes eventually were merged into Highway 99, which connected the southern and northern parts of the state, an achievement Provost (Fresno Growing Up, 2015) considers "just as illustrious" as the famed Route 66. In clear prose, the author describes in much detail the early challenges that the road builders faced in traversing the varied terrain of California, from tortuous mountain passes to flood-threatened lowlands. He also gives loads of vibrant background about the people of the area, from the farmland laborers of the Depression to the entrepreneurs who popped up on the roadside. Provost's grasp of local color comes through in his choice of anecdotes; he picks out vivid and intriguing events to discuss the societal changes that the highway brought, such as the rise and fall of motels and roadside diners. These scenes, chock full of captivating characters from the road's history, lift the book out of the highway minutiae—when it was built, when and where it was bypassed, etc.—that Provost occasionally gets lost in and which don't have quite the same verve. The second part gives a short entry on every city and town along the road, from Calexico to Yreka, and information on where to see the remnants of the celebrated highway's route. (Travelers now use the more efficient Interstate 5.) While some accounts merely give the history of how the town was named, others delve deeply into some particularly unusual part of the city, from the underground gardens of Fresno to the renowned date milkshakes of Thermal. Photos by Provost and from various archives are helpfully presented throughout.Readers nostalgic for California's yesteryear or who wonder about the history behind their road maps should find plenty to love in this work.

Kirkus Reviews