The Forgotten Road That Once Linked Arizona to California
Last week, I was frustrated by a stretch of road that was closed for repairs. The construction made my commute longer, but it was much needed and has resulted in a smoother drive. While it’s a change I appreciate, getting through the construction wasn’t a ton of fun.
You Think Potholes Are Bad? Imagine Driving to Arizona Like This
We all complain about potholes, right? Every rough stretch can make our commutes feel unbearable. But sometimes, it's helpful to put those annoyances in perspective.
Speaking of perspective, imagine this: you're driving from Arizona to California. The road isn't just rough—it's made entirely of wooden planks. There’s no pavement, no guardrails, just boards laid across miles of shifting desert sand. It sounds wild, but it was real.
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The Wooden Highway Across the Desert
At today's highway speeds, this would never work. However, back in 1915, engineers built the Old Plank Road across the Algodones Dunes, a massive sand field near the Arizona-California border.
Incredibly, the wooden road stretched about 6.5 miles and connected Yuma to San Diego, California. Its bumpy passage was a critical trade and travel route. Instead of a normal road, crews laid two narrow wooden tracks—each about 25 inches wide—on top of the sand. The wooden path basically served as a guide for early cars attempting to cross terrain that would otherwise swallow them whole.
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Why They Built Something So Unusual
If you’re imagining a tough journey, you’re on the right track. Crossing the Algodones Dunes truly was a nightmare. It wasn’t unusual for drivers to get stuck in deep sand, making travel between Arizona and California a grueling, days-long ordeal.
Meanwhile, there was a rush to better connect these towns. San Diego was competing with Los Angeles to become a major transportation hub. Businessman "Colonel" Ed Fletcher helped push the idea forward to secure a reliable route east. The plank road, while only a temporary solution, addressed these challenges.
From Innovation to Obsolete
Concrete and asphalt were not yet widely used, so the wooden plank road was a creative solution. However, as you might expect, it didn’t hold up well over time. Sand constantly buried the planks, and crews had to clear and repair them nonstop.
By 1926, as road technology advanced, the wooden plank road was replaced with a paved highway, which later became part of U.S. Route 80—and eventually Interstate 8.
Today, only small remnants of the wooden road remain. It’s a testament to how much road travel has improved over time.
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