Highway Scrapbook

by Wes Hammond

The road passing in front of the Summit Hotel in Altamont was first a trail for Indian and animal migration. It became a wagon road, with miners headed for the Sierra gold fields. Its first official name was given with the completion of the Lincoln Highway in 1915-16. Around 1926-28, the names being used for roads were dropped, and numbers were assigned. Many highways were given numbers and then were renumbered a short time later. The old Lincoln Highway between Manteca and Oakland was first given the number U.S. 48 (see map below). Eventually, it received the number U.S. 50, which remained until the Interstate Highway System was created in 1962.

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