Picture the paved path behind the Lafayette Community Center with four lanes of traffic coming out of a tunnel from Oakland, heading for Highway 24. In the 1950s that was the plan. According to the text of a new history panel planned for that stop, the "Shepherd Canyon Freeway," or Highway 77, would have split Moraga Valley and Burton Valley and passed "just feet from this spot."
The trail turned 50 this month. On October 10, the East Bay Regional Park District and the Lafayette and Moraga Historical Societies held an open house at the Jennifer Russell Building on St. Mary's Road to preview new interpretive panels for the corridor. As of the City of Lafayette's October 16 Weekly Roundup, installation was still to come. Most stops tell the story you'd expect for a rail trail: mule trains, electric railcars, orchards. One stop tells a different story. This path was a planned highway corridor before it was a park, and it's a park because that freeway was dropped from state plans first.
A Route People Have Used for Centuries
The panels start at Reliez Station Road. They describe the corridor as a path that has linked Lafayette south to Moraga and the redwoods of Canyon for centuries, first on foot, then on horseback, then by rail until 1957. In the 1800s, mule trains used it to haul freshly milled redwood lumber. In 1913 the route became an electric railway, which later joined the 183-mile Sacramento Northern interurban system, one of the longest interurban lines in North America.
The Glenside Drive stop covers the high point. By 1939, commuters could board the Sacramento Northern's daily Comet and Meteor trains at Glenside and ride straight into San Francisco on the lower deck of the new Bay Bridge. The trains offered dining and parlor cars, reached speeds of up to 60 mph, and ran from San Francisco to Sacramento in under three hours.
Roads ended that run. The panel says the Bay Bridge in 1936, the new Caldecott Tunnel in 1937, and better roads for cars pulled riders away. Passenger service ended in 1941, and freight followed in 1957. The Contra Costa Herald's publication of the anniversary notice says the old right-of-way then "sat quietly, waiting for a new purpose." State planners already had one in mind.
The Never-Never Freeway
The Moraga Historical Society's history of the Highway 77 controversy shows how close the road came. The fight wasn't really about whether to build a freeway. It was about which route it would take after a new Shepherd Canyon tunnel, since the old railway tunnel had been sealed when rail service ended in 1957. State highway planners favored the shorter, cheaper "Red Route," which ran through the middle of Moraga.
Here is how the plan rose and fell:
- 1953. The four-lane freeway is first proposed, running from an Oakland tunnel through Moraga and along today's trail corridor to Highway 24.
- 1956. Utah Construction and the Orinda-Moraga Homeowners Association publish a 12-page booklet titled "The RED ROUTE is the WRONG ROUTE," arguing that the preferred route would split Moraga in two. On December 19 of that year, the state adopts the last gap in the route, according to California Highways.
- The 1960s. Endless studies earn the project the nickname "never never freeway," and residents attend late-night community meetings about it.
- 1972. BART begins service, and the State Assembly votes 56–0 to remove Highway 77 from the state highway plan.
- 1974 and 1975. The adopted routes are formally rescinded in stages, the western segment in July 1974 and the eastern segment in July 1975. The 1975 action came eight months after Moraga incorporated as a town.
The new panel at the Community Center sums up the early plan bluntly. "The State planned to use eminent domain to force property owners to sell their land to clear the way." It closes the chapter as "the freeway that never was."
Two Years Later, a Bike Path
The dates line up closely. The Assembly dropped the freeway in 1972. By 1974, according to the Lafayette–Moraga History Trail site, local communities were working with the park district to turn the corridor into a paved path.
The idea came from two Lafayette residents. The park district's 45th-anniversary history says Avon Wilson and Lynn Hiden, then known as the "bike ladies," began pushing for bicycle safety in Lamorinda in the early 1970s. At first, the trail was meant only to give kids a safe ride to and from school. Lafayette, Moraga and the park district then formed a nine-member Trails Advisory Committee to plan the reuse of the abandoned railroad. The trail was dedicated on July 4, 1976. The Herald notice credits Don Goode, Jerry Kent and other local leaders with helping make it happen, and calls the trail one of the nation's early Rails-to-Trails projects.
The Glenside panel describes the 1970s change this way:
"With the 1974 opening of the Lafayette–Moraga Regional Trail, transit returned to the trail, but this time for pedestrians, bicyclists, and equestrians."
The 1974 date on the panel and the July 4, 1976 dedication both count. The conversion was underway in 1974, and the formal dedication two years later is the date this month's 50th anniversary marks.
What the Rest of the Walk Covers
With the freeway story in mind, the other stops read as a list of everything the corridor carried before the cars that never came. The companion site arranges the stories north to south from the Olympic Boulevard end to Valle Vista.
| Stop | Location | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reliez Station Road | The route as a centuries-old link between Lafayette, Moraga and Canyon |
| 2 | Topper Lane | Elam Brown's 1847 purchase of the 3,329-acre Rancho Acalanes and the stores that served Gold Rush travelers |
| 3 | Glenside Drive | The Comet and Meteor, and the end of passenger and freight service |
| 4 | Lafayette Community Center | Highway 77, the Shepherd Canyon Freeway |
| 5 | Rheem Boulevard & St. Mary's Road | An ancient inland sea, fossil sand dollars, and tracks left by prehistoric horses and camels |
| 6 | Saint Mary's College | The college's 1927 move to Moraga, Navy pre-flight training in World War II, and the switch to co-education in 1970 |
| 7 | Moraga Commons | The 13,316-acre Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados, granted in 1841 to Joaquin Moraga and Juan Bernal |
| 8 | Moraga Country Club | James Irvine's Moraga Company and the Bartlett pears that rode the railroad to markets across the country |
| 9 | Valle Vista | A 1914 commuter subdivision razed for the Upper San Leandro Reservoir |
Two southern stops tie back to the railroad. At Moraga Country Club, the panel says Moraga became one of the largest Bartlett pear producers in the United States, and the Sacramento Northern shipped its produce nationwide. It adds that pear and walnut trees still dot the town. At Valle Vista, the residents of Moraga's first subdivision caught electric commuter trains to Oakland. The East Bay Water Company announced in 1924 that it would flood the valley, and the 500-acre Upper San Leandro Reservoir now covers where those homes stood. Hiking trails along the old Valle Vista roads still pass their foundations.
Where to See It Before the Panels Go Up
The physical panels aren't on the trail yet. In its October notice, the park district said installation along the 7.65-mile route is planned for later this year. Until then, the full text and archival photos for all nine stops are at lmhistorytrail.org. Each stop has its own page, so you can pull one up on your phone while standing at its future location. One example is a June 1941 photo of Sacramento Northern car No. 1014 at Glenside station, taken days before passenger service ended.
One trail panel is already in place. The Community Center stop points to an existing panel on how the Bay Miwok people have lived with this land. It stands in the Lafayette Community Center's native plant garden and parking lot, next to the children's play area. The park district also unveiled a historic panel in 2021, at the spot where the trail was dedicated in 1976.
The panels were developed with the Lafayette and Moraga Historical Societies, the Town of Moraga, the City of Lafayette, the Moraga Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of Lafayette. Shane Reisman represented the historical societies at the October program.
If your home sits near one of these nine stops and you'd like to know what it's worth today, Jill Fusari can walk you through it quietly and on your schedule. Request a confidential home valuation.
