Happy 50th Birthday Highway One: Dec. 1, 1973

December 1, 1973, President Luis Echeverría officially opens Mexico’s completed Highway #1.



The above event at the newly built eagle monument, was less than three months after construction crews, working north and south met:


The original plaque at San Ignacito (Km. 191.5) commemorating the meeting of the road building crew working north with the crew working south. Paving came just two months later and was officially opened by the president at the newly built Eagle Monument, near Guerrero Negro.
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Homer Aschmann made this map to show the route changes with the paving advances from the previous roads used:



Here is the paper he wrote:
https://vivabaja.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/History-of-t...
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Before 1973 and especially before 1970, it was a big deal to drive the length of the peninsula. Dick Cepek created this patch:




Photo by David Woodward: In 1965, the blacktopped highway was greeted with joyous ‘pavement kissing’ by these northbound Baja travelers, at Arroyo Seco. Today, this is at Km. 120, 74 miles south of Ensenada and 5 miles north of Colonet.


[Photo from Barbara Rainey]

Between San Quintín and San Ignacio (the section built in 1973), the budget allowed the bare minimum of asphalt, so here it was only 19 feet wide, and very thin. The government promised that soon this section would be widened.
In less than 10 years, the thin paving turned into miserable potholes between El Rosario and Eagle near Guerrero Negro. Better paving would come...
About 35 years later, some sections have been widened for 10-20 kms.

I turned 16 just before the this event, in 1973. I had wanted to drive the original dirt road before it got paved, having experienced it as a kid in 1966.

Spring Break 1974 was my first trip driving into Baja. Using a Meyers Manx, a school friend and I drove it south of Laguna Chapala, then turned to go into Calamajué Canyon and on north to Gonzaga Bay and San Felipe and the border. A one week trip... that allowed me to drive the worst main road and what would be Hwy. 5 from Gonzaga to Puertecitos. I repeated the trip with a different friend in '75. The final time was in 1979, before the road was graded (1986) or paved (2013) between Puertecitos and Gonzaga Bay.

1974, north of Gonzaga on one of the several steep grades, I ask my friend to run down and take a photo:




The paved road was built across the canyon from this long grade.

Quote: Originally posted by KurtG

My first Baja trip was in Oct 1974. I had a new Honda CB750 and a AAA map. It was a great ride, the asphalt was still new and sticky and there was almost no traffic. I was 30 years old and had been riding for 15 or so years but had never enjoyed a road more. I was from Minnesota so the terrain and environment was all new to me. I rode to La Paz and then the dirt road on to Cabo which was a bit of a challenge. I had planned to take the ferry to the mainland but on my way south I had spent a couple of nights in Mulege staying at the Hotel Hacienda. I was very impressed by that little town so returned north and settled into the hotel for a couple of weeks and got to know the town a little more. Almost 50 years later I keep returning there and still stay at the Hacienda when not camping. Owner Alfonso Cuesta is gone now but his son still runs the place and I feel very at home and comfortable there. The town felt much more remote in those days and the Gringo community was very small but it was a great time for private pilots and the strip at Serenidad was very busy on weekends. In 1975 I rented a small house on the street behind Las Casitas from Alan Gorosave and brought my 2 pre-school age kids down there for a few months. It was a wonderful time and my kids feel it was a great time in their childhood. These have been great years and there are many great memories and in 2024 I will be visiting again. I had to give motorcycling a couple of years ago so its 4 wheels now but I have never tired of that road after dozens of trips.