Highway 395 event a fun run

Eye candy abounded when participants of the Historic 395 Fun Run and Car Rally streamed into downtown Fallbrook on Saturday, June 25 and gathered at the Elder House (home of the Village News) at the corner of Main Avenue and Elder Street. While some were driving modern sports cars, sedans, or pickups, those provided modern day contrast to the many vintage vehicles that were driven, underscoring the historical significance of the event.

“I am very pleased,” said organizer Tom Casey, who worked hard to have a Resolution he wrote be approved that would designate Old Highway 395 as a historic route by the State of California. “This free event was designed to celebrate the June 30, 2008 signing of Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries’ Concurrent Resolution 98.”

Approximately three dozen cars participated in the inaugural event. Two dozen vehicles started the route at 9 a.m. from the recently-renovated 1945-era Perris Theater and traveled southbound, and one dozen began at the same time from Escondido’s Centre City Café, traveling northbound. The two groups of participants met for a car rally at the Fallbrook site at approximately 10:30 a.m.

Casey and fellow members of the Historic Route 395 Association are pleased to report progress in gaining support from cities, towns, and individuals along the route to help provide signage on the highway.

“Historic Route 395 signs will now appear in five additional southland cities,” said Casey. “I really hope it will encourage people to forgo the interstate freeways and once again drive the old roads that proudly portray history and support each community’s future.” Much of the effort is hoped to revitalize businesses in areas that have suffered due to freeways bypassing small towns, like Fallbrook, Casey said.

Those that participated in the event enjoyed food available from Trupiano’s Italian Bistro and classic music by Rock Mountain band.

At about 1:30 p.m., participants began packing up and moving on to finish their run to the opposite end of the route they began earlier.

In 1926 Highway 395 began in Spokane, Wash. and Canada and was configured in 1932 as part of the International Pacific Highway System. The Three Flags Highway, as it came to be called, was sponsored by the Automobile Club of Southern California in cooperation with the governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico to lead motorists along an inland route from Banff National Park to La Paz.

Promoted as including some of the most majestic scenery in the west, including Banff, Crater Lake, Lake Tahoe, Lassen’s volcanoes, Yosemite, Mono Lake, Mt. Whitney, Death Valley and Baja, the highway also directly passed through more civilized points of interest such as Riverside’s internationally acclaimed Mission Inn and San Diego’s Balboa Park.

In 1934, the California Division of Highways joined in, linking what ultimately became in the United States a 1,500 mile road that flowed through the hearts of many small local communities like Perris, Lake Elsinore, Murrieta, Temecula, Rainbow, Fallbrook, Bonsall, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido.

For more information on the Historic Route 395 project, or to sponsor a sign, please call (760) 723-3232 or email [email protected].

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