An Oak Ridge Road History
Excerpted from Andy Finfrock's White Paper on Road Maintenance

Remains of the old road can be seen on the hillside above the gate.

The history of Oak Ridge Road should begin with the settlement of this part of the mountain by the Pfeffers on what is now the land bordering Oak Ridge to the East, near where Black Road deadends into Skyline Blvd. The Pfeffers raised a family on their land by raising livestock, selling butter in town twice a week, and through the fruit they raised in the orchards and vineyards.

Old Skyline Road ran up the current Oak Ridge Road from near the vicinity of our current gate, turned uphill up the Weigle's driveway and below the cabin in which Jim and Alis Whitman now reside. When Betsy and I arrived on the Road, the cabin was inhabited and had been, so we were told, continuously since the 1880's. There was an old farm road which ran down the spine of Oak Ridge. It ran through Betsy and Andy's front yard, through Deb and Todd's yard, down the hill through Emilie and Jerry's properties exiting their property below the cabin and coming out near the rock wall at the head of Bruce's driveway. It followed Rhea and Greg's driveway and ran through the meadow onto the Jorgenson meadow... and so on down the mountain. Along this "road" were grapes, a few rare plants are still around for those interested in locating old grape varieties.

The old road serviced Oak Ridge for the purpose of accessing the fields, vineyards and pastures that once were located here. It also served as a means of taking to market the redwood shingles made by hand by Chris Müller, a loner whose cabin below the Skilman property still stood in 1980.

There was a problem with the location of the road that was addressed when this property was subdivided and "developed" in the 1970's, i.e., the road ran through the best and flattest property...perfect for the future home sites, yards and gardens of homeowners yet to build. Therefore, the location of the road was moved to one side of the crest of the ridge to the current location. A few of us have discovered that the surveyor's description of the old road still remains on their title ... and have been forced to re-survey the road location as part of the process of getting a building permit.

Stories of living on Oak Ridge Road in the early 1970s always seem to include, as one of the re-occurring themes, some version of "life in spite of the road". The early road association fee collection process included an algorithm for establishing the assessment that was the envy of the IRS. Never has our tax law been as complicated as the Oak Ridge Road Assessment algorithm. It included a parcel's distance from the gate, the number of acres and the number of drivers. Changes to the bylaws took a unanimous vote ... and many of the original owners were unfriendly to any attempt to revise the rules (as well as to each other). Over the years, the assessment process and bylaws have been cleaned up. Even more important, the annual budget has increased from the $300 total budget in the 1970s to our current budget ... and we have been able to progress from the early days of having just enough of a budget to provide a little gravel to be thrown into the worst of the ruts... to our current asphalt, all-weather road. As late as 1980, Oak Ridge Road was a gravel road in marginal condition. The neighbors turned out when it rained, because one blocked culvert could lead to a washout in the road that would trap you in until the road was repaired, a repair for which there was never a budget.

Beginning in the early 1980s, the neighbors voted to start the process of putting an all-weather surface on the road. At first, the worse sections of the road were addressed with baserock. After six to 12 inches of baserock were compacted, then Bob Whalen would top the section off with two layers of a thick road oil with granite screenings. The one and a half miles of the road were attacked section by section, the length of each road section determined by the quantity of work required and the budget for that year. Not all sections of the road received the baserock because of lack of funds and a belief that the dirt in those areas was "ok" by itself. These sections continue to plaque us today, as the dirt is largely clay and is unable to provide the resistance required in traffic areas. In the 1990s, the quality of the original oil and screenings had deteriorated and the neighbors voted to surface the entire road with a two inch, asphalt overlay. Again the resurfacing was attacked section by section. Over the last few years, some trouble sections have been readdressed with additional repair using a structural mat sandwiched between the layers of asphalt in order to give the road more strength and ability to resist the heavy truck loads which sometime travel the road. In 2000, the asphalt was again deteriorating with a multitude of cracks, potholes and alligatoring. The neighbors voted to seal the asphalt with a new round of oil and screenings, again by Bob Whalen.

Thus a road that began as a farmer's service road to his pastures and vineyards has progressed to a modern, all-weather road serving our homes.