Tejon Pass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tejon Pass | |
|---|---|
 Tejon Pass |
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| Elevation | 4,160 ft. / 1,260 m. |
| Traversed by | Interstate 5 |
| Location | |
| Location | Los Angeles County, California, and Kern County, California,  United States |
| Range | Tehachapi Mountains |
| Coordinates | 34°48′08″N 118°52′34″W / 34.80221°N 118.87619°WCoordinates: 34°48′08″N 118°52′34″W / 34.80221°N 118.87619°W |
The Tejon Pass (pronounced /teɪˈhoʊn/) is a mountain pass at the southwest end of the Tehachapi Mountains linking Southern to Central California.
Contents |
[edit] Geography
The apex of the pass is near the northwesternmost corner of Los Angeles County in the vicinity of Gorman; the pass crosses the boundary between Los Angeles and Kern counties. Its highest point at 4,160 feet (1,260 m),[1] is 75 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles[2] and 47 miles from Bakersfield.[3]
Through it winds the route of Interstate 5, which connects the southern part of the state with the San Joaquin Valley to the north.
On its northward side lies Fort Tejon State Historic Park, the site of a former U.S. Army post, built in 1854.
The pass has a mostly gradual rise from its southern point of 1,362 feet at Santa Clarita,[4] but a precipitous descent towards the Central Valley on the north, where it ends near the small community of Grapevine at 1,499 feet.[5]
[edit] Weather
| “ | Californians simply can't be trusted to drive in bad weather . . . Chains are not required through the [pass] . . ., and officials said it would be nearly impossible to regulate them. Californians also are unlikely to have snow tires.[6] | ” |
The pass is sunny in the summer, spring, and fall, but is subject to severe weather and closure to traffic in the winter. The 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5 between Grapevine and Castaic is sometimes blocked by the California Highway Patrol because road crews cannot keep up with the snowfall. Traffic must then either wait or endure a seven-hour detour between Bakersfield and Los Angeles (normally a two-hour drive).[6]
[edit] History
Historian Bonnie Ketterl Kane wrote that Gorman, just south of the crest of the Tejon Pass, is "one of the oldest continuously used roadside rest stops in California," explaining that native Americans "would have stopped there when it was the Tataviam village of Kulshra'jek."[7]
In 1858 the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line ran through the pass. The Butterfield Overland was discontinued in 1861 but was replaced by the Telegraph Stage Line, which stopped at almost all the former stations, including Gorman's, where the horses were changed. Six of them were used for the pull up from Bakersfield to Gorman's.[8]
The first automobile highway linking the Central Valley with the Los Angeles Basin, called the Ridge Route, was laid in a sinuous fashion through the ridges and gullys of the Tejon Pass around 1910. The northern portion of this highway, which became a part of U.S. Route 99, was known as "The Grapevine," after a hill by that name over which it passed.
[edit] Communities
This historic gap has given its name to the Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass. Beginning on the south at Santa Clarita, it passes through Castaic, Gorman, and Lebec, to end at Grapevine. It skirts the Tejon Ranch, where a large planned community is expected to be constructed.
[edit] References
- ^ U.S. Geographic Names Information System, No. 274055
- ^ Google page showing distance between the Tejon Pass and Los Angeles
- ^ Google page showing distance between the Tejon Pass and Bakersfield
- ^ U.S. Geographic Names Information System, No. 2411819
- ^ U.S. Geographic Names Information System, No. 1660696
- ^ a b Jorge Barrientos, "Grapevine closures: It's for our own good," The Bakersfield Californian, December 20, 2008.
- ^ Santa Clarita Valley in Pictures, "A History of Gorman," by Bonnie Ketterl Kane, March 2002.
- ^ Frank F. Latta, Saga of Rancho El Tejón, Santa Cruz, California: Bear State Books, 1976.
