By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Historian
The Mountain Turnpike, or the Twin and City Creek Road, was a narrow (12-foot-wide) and steep road (10 to 15-percent grades), which was known as the Daley Canyon Toll Road because Edward Daley engineered and built it.
It took a good driver and team about six to seven hours to transport lumber from Little Bear Valley (now under Lake Arrowhead) to the Del Rosa part of the San Bernardino Valley, opening the mid-range of the mountains to commercial lumbering. It was used by the Caley, Talmadge, James, LaPraix and other Little Bear Valley (L.B.V.) sawmills, traveling from L.B.V. through Blue Jay up Daley Canyon to the crest, and then down to Del Rosa.
The plaque commemorating the Daley Road, which opened the Little Bear Valley area to lumbering in the 1870s.
The first lumber transported over the Daley Road was in April of 1870. Its grand opening celebration was held on July 4, 1870, with a magnificent barbecue attended by hundreds. Many families drove up the new road for the festivities, hearing speeches by politicians, including former and future supervisors and assemblymen, and the L.B.V. sawmill owners.
Mr. Swing’s Brass Band played and everyone danced. The speeches honored the nation’s birthday and excitedly celebrated the grand opening of the mid-range of the mountains. However, just as respected San Bernardino Valley environmentalist attorney Byron Waters was about to speak, an unexpected thunderstorm drenched the festivities. This didn’t discourage the partygoers, nor Waters, as he became a California Assemblyman in 1878 (and later homesteaded current-day Valley of Enchantment). The next day, the toll rates signs went up at the upper and lower tollhouses.
Located in the trees just north of the crest was the upper tollhouse and restaurant – Old John Comerford’s Tollhouse Tavern, but called Old John’s Saloon, run by the asthmatic John Comerford. It provided food, refreshments and a place to relax before or after the long drive.
Comerford sold tobacco, liquor and playing cards and it was known for the wrestling matches held there between the various teamsters and for that “one last drink” before the perilous trip down the mountain. The visit before going down the mountain had less drinking, as the driver had to be in total control of his horse or oxen teams while negotiating the road’s sharp curves, or the entire load could be lost. Old John’s Saloon was located where the Daley Toll Road crossed the crest, near today’s Dogwood Campground.
The lower tollhouse in Del Rosa on the Daley Toll Road.
About 30 wagons a day used the new road. Keeping the team under control while going down the steep sections required skill, since meeting face-to-face with an uphill wagon on the narrow 12-foot-wide road was dangerous for all. Despite the steep cliff along its edge and the hairpin curves, it was over a year before the first accident occurred on Daley Road.
By the 1890s, the Daley Toll Road began losing business, since many of the sawmills were closing, some because the Arrowhead Reservoir Company had bought them, others from the creation of the National Forest Preserve in 1891. Also, once the wider, lesser grade, although more expensive ($2 toll) Arrowhead Reservoir Toll Road opened in Waterman Canyon, the narrow Daley Canyon Road lost its appeal, especially to vacationers.
The Daley Canyon Road monument is a historical oxen yoke on top of a stone pillar, with a plaque, located just west of today’s Rim of the World High School. It denotes where the Daley Toll Road crossed the crest, recognizing the economic impact the 1870 road provided. It was erected by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West on July 4, 1935, exactly 65 years after the road initially opened, soon after the Rim of the World “High Gear” Road was completed. In 1957, it officially became California Historical Monument #570.
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