David K - 9-21-2017 at 02:19 PM
While going through my many files of Baja collectibles I have saved since I was a kid, here is one I thought I could share.
It is a single sheet flyer handout provided by the Auto Club of Southern California, who until 2010 produced frequent maps and guidebooks promoting
Baja as a Mecca to sportsmen and campers as well as those in RVs.
Baja was undergoing some rapid changes in the early 70s. The paved road from La Paz to Cabo (via Los Barriles) was completed in 1970. The paved road
from La Paz north to Santa Rosalia was completed in 1972. The construction crews were working the mountain grade to San Ignacio, as well.
After so many years of being promised a highway, things were moving at a rapid rate. The majority of work was done in the southern half (then a
federal territory). In the north, the pavement had ended just north of Colonet in the 1960s.
In this report, produced ahead of the 1973 edition of the Auto Club map and guide, we can read that in May 1972 the pavement southbound had only
reached Colonia Guerrero (north of San Quintin). The northbound crews had opened the paved road 20 miles east of San Ignacio, just over halfway to
Santa Rosalia. The 1972 Baja California Sur AAA guidebook also gave 20 miles east as the point reached by pavement. It may have been published not
long before this flyer was produced in May?
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