From Stockton to Los Angeles by way of Millerton, where Friant Dam now stands, ran the first road used by goldseekers and settlers and for many years their main route. It followed the edge of the hills to stay near the mines, to provide a firm roadbed in wet weather, and to allow narrow river crossings. Much of the road was abandoned when railroads changed the route of travel, but its east line between Phillip's Old Toll Ferry on the Merced and Newton's on the Chowchilla, as traveled in 1864, remains the official boundary line between Merced and Mariposa Counties.