By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – March 28, 2022 Have you ever wondered how the Highway South of Crescent City ever came to be? In this age of mind numbing regulation, endless environmental reports, geologic surveys, and construction engineering, the task would have been overwhelming. Most locals aren't even aware that the original road began on Endert's Beach Road, wandered through over ten miles of sharp curves on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean before connecting to Last Chance Grade then on down to Wilson Creek. Before the completion of the Crescent City-Requa wagon road in 1895 there was no real road south from Crescent City. In 1889, the Klamath Valley had grown to the point a road was felt needed to effectively join Del Norte County with the rest of California. Up to that point traffic south was by water, often subject to weather and tides. The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors, at the urging of local residents, began the process of constructing a road to connect with a private road from Klamath to Wilson Creek. It was completed not without great difficulty and delay in 1895. The original road was carved out of the mountainside above the Pacific Ocean for most of the route and "paved' with redwood planks milled from the trees cut to clear the roadway. It was said that an effort, even at this early date, to save as many trees as possible and to use those that were cut for construction of the road surface and embankments. For the next twenty eight years, this was the only way south out of Crescent City. In winter the road became nearly impassable from the mud, summer it was a cloud of dust. Finally in 1910, California passed a Bond Measure for highway improvement through out the State. In 1919 money was allocated to improve the current alignment of what was known as State Route One, the future US Highway 101 in Del Norte County, and construction began in 1920, to be completed in 1923, except for the Klamath River Bridge, 1926. An amazing feat for the time, in only three years Crescent City to Klamath, a ferry, then on to Arcata in Humboldt County. Three years later Crescent City to Arcata over the new bridge in Klamath. It wasn't long before it was determined that the original cliff side route from Crescent City to Wilson Creek was prone to numerous landslides. The State was lobbied for a new alignment to bypass the original route by creating a new alignment on the ridge above, at least as far as Last Chance Grade. As what seems to be the case even now, money for the construction was slow in coming. It wasn't until 1930 that construction began at the base of Crescent Hill to begin the nine and a half mile bypass which has become Highway 101 South in its present location. The total cost for the 9.52 mile section of new road was a bit over $700,000. The opening ceremony took place in the Spring of 1935, but the road officially opened in August of 1934, a mere four years after commencement of the work. In the process of clearing the new roadway, nearly 800,000 board feet of redwoods was cut to provide space for the two lane road. Corners were reduced to thirty eight over the course of the new alignment, nearly two hundred less that the old road boasted. In spite of what would now send environazi's wild, even then there was consideration to minimize the impact on the forest the new road passed through. Now, the road would have unlikely to have ever taken the path chosen as regulation and religion would have stopped it dead in it's tracks. As time has passed even the new alignment south of town has proven to be a problem. Not only at Last Chance Grade, but at numerous other locations before reaching the slide prone stretch, have other instabilities been revealed. Much of the slope above the Pacific Ocean is composed of easily shifting material that when undermined by the Ocean is sensitive to downward movement. Winter weather, water, and unstable composition of the mountain side make it ripe for slides in quite a few locations going South. This situation will never improve and at some point Last Chance Grade will become a memory…. Throughout its nearly century and a quarter of existence Highway 101 South has been a trial for all involved. If it were located in say, Orange County, the issues would have been addressed one hundred years ago. Sad to say, but Sacramento barely recognizes we are part of California. Money for road issues of significant size are relegated to the bottom of the list. Currently we are told that the new alignment for the Highway South will be completed in 2039, yet there is no money to satisfy the steps leading up to the project's commencement. Maybe in another hundred years of the highway's history…