March 22, 1913
Merced Evening Sun
NEW ROAD TO MERCED BIG TREES
San Francisco Company is Constructing an
Expensive Mountain Highway Out of El Portal.
A new and very expensive mountain road is being built in the mountains of Mariposa county, having as its lower terminus El Portal. It is headed in the direction of the Merced grove of big trees, and the Sun learned from a reliable source today that the grove is to be the upper terminus, and furthermore that the road is being built by a San Francisco company with a view to doing an automobile stage line business between El Portal on the Yosemite Valley railroad and the Big Trees.
O. W. Lehmer, general manager of the Yosemite Valley railroad, was asked about the road today and he stated unqualifiedly that the Yosemite Valley Railroad company has no connection nor interest in the new road whatever. He confirmed the report that the road is being built, and that it is being constructed in a very substantial manner, but he declared that he had no knowledge of its course beyond Foresta, the new summer resort site above El Portal.
The new road is said to have a uniform grade of 8 per cent. It will intersect the Coulterville road half way between Big Meadows and the Merced grove of big trees. The length of the road will be about 10 miles.
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