Page:Tioga Road (HAER No. CA-149) written historical and descriptive data.pdf/17

 grave mistake, because it would intrude a road into an area that is now and will remain wilderness in character if the road is not built," and backed the Park Service's original plans.91 The Sierra Club was consulted, and the group added its approval for the project as. designed. A 1934 report by club directors Francis P. Farquhar, Ernest Dawson, William E. Colby, Walter L. Huber and Duncan P. McDuffie claimed that the road improvements would "enable travelers to reach Tuolumne Meadows and the eastern portions of the park readily and with comfort." However, the club directors, emphasizing their commitment to the preservation of the park wilderness, stated that they would only support improvements to the existing road through the central section of the park, not a new alignment.92

Grading and surfacing work on the new sections of the Tioga Road resumed in June 1938. By the end of July, the section between Crane Flat and Gin Flat was surfaced. At Gin Flat, a connection with the existing (or old) Big Oak Flat Road was made; work on the new Big Oak Flat Road to Crane Flat was rapidly advancing. The paving of this section was a included in the contract for the paving of the new Big Oak Flat Road, and was done by the Union Paving Company of San Francisco. The paving was completed in July 1938, and the road was opened to motorists in September.93

In summer 1939, a bituminous treatment base surface was applied to the section between Gin Flat and White Wolf. The contractor, Hayward Building Supply of Hayward, California, established its construction camp at Harden Flat. A slow-curing Type SC-lA asphalt was applied at the rate of half a gallon per square yard, spread by three 1,300-gallon tank trucks. The work was completed 14 July 1939.94 Following this project, a 6-man NPS day labor crew applied a second bituminous treatment to the Crane Flat-White Wolf section, A Code 411 slow-curing asphalt from park stocks was applied to protect the surface.95 In August and September of 1940, a light armor coat treatment was applied to the section between Gin Flat and McSwain Meadow. This work was done by a partnership consisting of Louis Biascotti & Son, Claude C. Wood, and Frank B. Marlas & Son, all of Stockton, California. The work was completed on 14 September.96 To help meet the demands of the expected new traffic, the central or unreconstructed section between McSwain Meadows and Cathedral Creek was oiled, this work commencing in August. With the paving of the section between Tioga Pass and Cathedral Creek complete, the motorist could now travel over much of the improved route. The 11.6-mile section from Tioga Pass to Cathedral Creek was paved with a hard surface, and the next section, 34.4 miles to Aspen Valley, once a dirt track, featured an oiled surface. The road from Aspen Valley to Carl Inn, the western end of the road, was already paved.97

While work was in progress on the Tioga Road, the state widened and partially realigned the eastern slope road between Lee Vining and Lake Ellery. The work was done in 1939 and 1940 at a cost of S78,000.98

A lack of maintenance funds during World War II forced the Park Service to close the section of road between Carl Inn and Aspen Valley. Deprived of visitors, the tourist complex at Aspen Valley closed. Some of the land remains in private inholdings. Jeremiah Hodgdon's two-story log cabin was later moved to the Pioneer Yosemite History Center at Wawona. In 1943, the Park Service allowed ranch owners at Aspen Valley to drive their cattle over the road, as gasoline and tire rationing prevented them from using trucks.99

Thomas C. Vint, chief landscape architect for the National Park Service, complained in 1948 about the incomplete central section of the road, writing that the "unsafe and inadequate outlet to the east via the Tioga route acts as a bottleneck." Vint supported the new construction, but warned that the