I’m modelling in the 1950’s with a meat packing plant. Walthers Champion Packing, as one of the dominant industries. On one end of it, I am planning on a parking lot and a road leading off of the parking lot and into the sunset…as it were. There is a truck loading dock on the end of the building where the parking lot will be. The question is, would that parking lot and the road have been dirt? Or asphalt? Location is the southwest desert near a town called Maricopa, AZ. I have been trying to score some old pics of the area, but nothing has come up on a Google search. Anyone have any ideas or advice?
If it were in a big city, it probably would be paved, or even cobblestone. I think in small to medium-sized town in the Southwest it would probably be dirt. With as little rain as most of that area receives, there wouldn’t be as big a need to pave things to prevent mud from causing trouble.
My hunch is that by the 1950s a pure dirt parking area might still be seen way out in the country but a larger and more prosperous outfit would probably have gravel, if not paved, even in urban areas. When I was a kid in the 1950s the alleys in my neighborhood were all gravel and are now paved. Likewise the parking areas around certain truck depots, oil companies, and lumber yards were gravel as I recall. Gravel tended to stay put, unlike mud, which is important once you have storm sewer systems and such to contend with.
Out in dry climates I suspect gravel also – that reddish crushed gravel (volcanic in origin?) you see used for yards in the Phoenix area for example.
Dave Nelson
Even today, Maricopa can hardly be described as a big city. It grew up overnight in the 1990’s and was hit hard by the real estate crisis. Lots of forclosures. In those days, Maricopa would have been connected to the outside world via dirt roads and surrounded by cotton fields and the Gila River Indian Reservation immediately north of the town. There were also some feedlots. Virtually all of the residential/commercial activity would have been centered around Casa Grande to the south. The red rock country is way north in Arizona, up around Sedona at the edge of the Colorado Plateau. If the road was gravel, most likely it would have been some sort of greyish/sandy gravel.
PS: That reddish crushed gravel I suspect is the ATSF “mauve” ballast. ATSF has a branch line from Seligman to Phoenix. SP had a mainline that came up from Tucson to Picacho and then through Casa Grand, Maricopa, Gila Bend to Yuma. At Picacho, the main branches north and west to Phoenix then up through northern Maricopa county (the city of Maricopa is located in Pinal county) eventually trending SW where it joins the SP main east of Yuma, in or near Wellton. I believe there is an ATSF/SP interchange in Phoenix. As you know, the ATSF is now the BNSF andthe SP is now the UP around here.
Don’t forget the possibility that the parking lot could have been concrete, especially for heavy truck traffic. The road would most likely have been asphalt.
Even today there are old parking lots around the Casa Grande area that are concrete.
Cacole, you must know Casa Grande. I have been there on business a few times this past year, but mostly itwas drive in and drive out. Have not spent any time exploring the place.
Hi!
I can say I have been in a lot of parking lots in the '50s…
For the cities, parking lots were often paved with concrete with asphalt being used as well - but usually later on in the decade. However, the parking lots up north were subjected to weather extremes and often got filled with potholes and the like. “Rich” companies typically had better lots, while “poor” companies had gravel or lots in very bad condition.
Down south it was pretty much the same, but as I recall gravel was used much more extensively. Also, near the Gulf Coast, crushed oyster shells was (is) used in place of gravel. Plain dirt lots were only for those companies that just couldn’t afford a finished lot.
One type of lot/roads I saw a lot of in Southern Illinois and Texas were gravel roads that had tar sprayed on them. This kept them together and eliminated the dust (to a good extent).
We had a feedlot and went to the slaughterhouse to deliver in the TX, OK area in that time frame. Gravel was used a lot where we would unload the cattle and for the large turnaround areas for the trucks. The parking lots for the office end were concrete as best I can recall. The entrances were different for the trucks vs office. For refer trucks those areas around the docks were concrete. Sometimes the gravel was coated with used oil to keep the dust down. It also helped keep the gravel hard packed.
An often missed element is a weigh scale for those facilities since they paid by the pound for the cattle.
Richard
Whew…well, lot’s of speculation here but as the onetime (late 60’s) Prez of the AZ Chapter NRHS and a resident of that state for 20+ years here’s my info.
First the “Peavine”, or the NEW ATSF line to Phoenix came in from Williams Junction…not Seligman. It was a lower grade line that bypassed Prescott.
Second…good old Maricopa. In the 60’s, the depot thereof resided in the backyard of one Bob Echols of Phoenix. It’s where we had our monthly NRHS meetings, mostly. Now, it’s in the Scottsdale RR Park. At one time, there was a branch from the SP at Tempe ( called the Kyrene branch in later years as it served the Kyrene Steam Plant) that was originally the connection line to the SP main at Maricopa. Most all geology in the Maricopa area is just good old desert caliche…a rather hard but crumbly substance, somewhat dark tan mixed with the local sandstones and basalts. There’s your parking lot material.
I’m going to bet on macadam unless it was a major lot for a major industry, the probably concrete. Macadam was common long before asphalt and cheaper to put down. Growing up in the 60s there were a lot of parking lots and even secondary roads built with with. Basically they poured a coat of oil then dumped gravel on top and rolled it into the oil
Concrete is another likely surface. The plant where I work used mostly concrete for lots when it was built in the 50s and those concrete lots are still in reasonable shape for being 60+ years old. Only now are some being covered with asphalt. We had to cut one recently to put in an underground line and the contractor had to bring in some serious equipment. The concrete on that parking lot was over a foot thick.
Smaller lot coulde have been dirt & gravel, but not just any dirt. A lot of small businesses were “paved” with a base kind of dirt (not sure the proper name) that was mostly white. It would pack down tight when wet rather than get muddy and when dry provided a very hard surface. Many times this would be overcoated with gravel, but within a few months the gravel would get packed down. Left a very interesting road within a business such as a lumber yard consisting to two white dirt paths where the tires ran with a mound of gravel in the middle and on each side.
Without prototype pics or reference, I would also go along w/ a compacted base of gravel or vocanic mix. It’s possible that concrete could have been used. I doubt that asphalt would be used for heavy truck traffic in such a hot enviornment. Summer surface temps would soar, softening the asphalt. It would be rutted and truck tires would sink in a relativly short time.