Then and now: Pioneer Trail dates to Pony Express era

Pioneer Trail wasn’t always paved. Photo/Special Collections Department UNR

In 1963, Pioneer Trail was paved only from Highway 50 near Stateline to just south of the Glenwood Way junction.

It was a very bumpy dirt trail beyond that, an original portion of which still exists parallel with today’s paved road, running alongside STPUD’s black-lined holding ponds and the KTHO radio towers. It serves now as a gated STPUD access road at Black Bart Avenue just behind the closed postal neighborhood delivery center building).

Today Pioneer Trail is an alternative to Highway 50. Photo/Bill Kingman

Pioneer Trail was also once the Pony Express route.

The construction and joining of Al Tahoe Boulevard circa 1965 resulted in paving all of Pioneer Trail.

The pictures look north toward Black Bart Avenue comparing approximately 1965 with 2013.

–– Bill Kingman