California ACSC US route 395 highway road sign auto shops club Owens Valley Mono Lake

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Up for sale today is this California US 395 route sign. Made to the exact standards as used between 1935 and 1939 along this historic highway.

US route 395 is the easternmost principal highway in California, and originally ran from San Diego through the Inland Empire area, multiplexing with route 66 through Cajon Pass and then heading north through the high desert before briefly entering Nevada at Carson City and Reno, before looping back into California to head through Susanville and Modoc County, before continuing even further north through Oregon and Washington.

An original of these, complete with the logo of the Automobile Club of Southern California, would cost many thousands of dollars if it ever came to the market.

This sign is made of steel, to the highest standards of quality. 16 1/4 by 15 3/4 inches, and weighs four pounds and six ounces. This sign style was the second style of route marker in California, and the first 395. The route was extended down from Washington in 1935, and therefore it received the 1934 style of highway marker from the get-go.

This is a high quality, heavy steel sign. Accept no imitations that may be one-third this price, but are one-tenth the quality. No cheap tin to be shops found here, with the wrong fonts, layouts, size, shape, or any other manner of embarrassing imperfection. This one will make even the most discerning collector stick their nose into the sign, as it looks that good from that close!

US-395 retains most of its original mileage, but between San Diego and Hesperia it has been replaced with interstate 15, and - through Balboa Park in San Diego, with the historic Cabrillo Freeway. San Diego's first freeway dates to 1948, but nowadays it has lost its US-80 and US-395 dual designation and is known simply as state highway 163. However, north of Hesperia, the old route survives largely unchanged, with just a few four-laning projects taking it through such historic eastern Sierra towns as Lee Vining and Independence.

Would you like a number not seen here? Or perhaps a different style? I can of course make these signs with any route number of your choice, and not just this style, but others with the reflectors, the embossed style that other states used, and even the classic mileage, direction, and city limit guide signs from the era. Anything you would like, made with unsurpassed quality right here in the good old US of A.

Please note: actual international shipping will be calculated on a case by case basis. Please contact us so we can calculate the shipping for you.

"Life doesn't happen along the interstates. It's against the law." - Charles Kuralt