Freeman Junction Freeman's Junction (c.1800 - c.1920) | |
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Former settlement | |
Overlooking the area where Freeman Junction once stood. The town of Ridgecrest is visible in the background | |
Nickname(s): A Town With Two Pasts | |
Coordinates: 35°36′06″N117°54′11″W / 35.60166°N 117.90295°W Coordinates: 35°36′06″N117°54′11″W / 35.60166°N 117.90295°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
County | Kern County |
Reference no. | 766 |
Freeman Junction, a ghost town in Kern County, California, USA, was first homesteaded in the early 1870s. Freeman S. Raymond built a stage coach station here to accommodate travelers between the desert mines and Los Angeles. A group of Native Americans who were defending their homes and families in 1909 killed off the homesteaders and burned the stage station, after which the property lay dormant for several years. It was re-homesteaded in the 1920s by Clare C. Miley, who was born in 1900, and his wife. By the 1930s their small stone cabin became a gas station/car repair and later, a restaurant and some mining activities dominated the site. In 1953 a post office was planned, but never materialized and residents had to travel seven miles to Inyokern to collect their mail. By June, 1978, the town had died once again and the remains of the town have since been removed by passersby. Today, the site has reverted to its natural state and nothing remains.
Bedrock mortars near the original spring suggest that this area was regularly used as a campsite by Native Americans.
In 1834 explorer Joseph R. Walker passed this junction of Indian trails after crossing the Sierra Nevada via Walker Pass. In the winter of 1849–50, forty-niner parties, en route to the California gold fields, passed through here after escaping Death Valley.
In 1873 or early 1874, Freeman S. Raymond, a member of the original forty-niners, built his stagecoach station here, at the junction of the Walker Pass road (the route of modern California 178) and the road to Los Angeles (now replaced by California State Route 14). Both roads carried traffic to and from the mines then in the area. The Walker Pass road led to the Kern River mines, while the Los Angeles road continued further north and east to the mines at Cerro Gordo, the Panamints, and later Darwin and Bodie, California.
On February 25, 1874, Tiburcio Vasquez and his band of outlaws robbed several freight wagon crews at Raymond's station (then called Coyote Holes). They had apparently scouted the location from a nearby rock formation, now known as Robber's Roost. Vasquez's group also ambushed and robbed an arriving stagecoach before making their escape. One of the robbery victims was shot in the leg.
Raymond continued operating the stagecoach stop, which after 1889 or 1890 included a post office, until his death in August, 1909. The station burned down a few years later. The Los Angeles Aqueduct now passes through the site.
California Historical Landmark #766 [1] is located nearby, beside California 178 within sight of the junction with California 14.
California Historical Landmark reads:
Stovepipe Wells is a way-station in the northern part of Death Valley, in unincorporated Inyo County, California.
Tiburcio Vásquez was a Californio bandido who was active in California from 1854 to 1874. The Vasquez Rocks, 40 miles (64 km) north of Los Angeles, were one of his many hideouts and are named after him.
Walker Pass is a mountain pass by Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada. It is located in northeastern Kern County, approximately 53 mi (85 km) ENE of Bakersfield and 10 mi (16 km) WNW of Ridgecrest. The pass provides a route between the Kern River Valley and San Joaquin Valley on the west, and the Mojave Desert on the east.
An Indian Wells California Historical Landmark was erected near the Indian Wells Lodge, 4.9 miles north of Freeman Junction on Highway 14 where William L. Manly found water after his group left Death Valley.
Panamint City is a ghost town in the Panamint Range, near Death Valley, in Inyo County, California, US. It is also known by the official Board of Geographic Names as Panamint. Panamint was a boom town founded after silver and copper were found there in 1872. By 1874, the town had a population of about 2,000. Its main street was one mile (1.6 km) long. Panamint had its own newspaper, the Panamint News. Silver was the principal product mined in the area. The town is located about three miles northwest of Sentinel Peak. According to the National Geographic Names Database, NAD27 latitude and longitude for the locale are 36°07′06″N117°05′43″W, and the feature ID number is 1661185. The elevation of this location is identified as being 6,280 feet AMSL. The similar-sounding Panamint Springs, California, is located about 25.8 miles at 306.4 degrees off true north near Panamint Junction.
For the trail's section in West Virginia see: The Midland Trail in West Virginia.
Sierra Highway or El Camino Sierra is a road in Southern California, United States. El Camino Sierra refers to the full length of a trail formed in the 19th century, rebuilt as highways in the early 20th century, that ran from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe following parts of modern State Route 14, U.S. Route 395 and State Route 89. Two portions of this road are currently signed as Sierra Highway. The first is an old alignment of SR 14/U.S. Route 6 from Los Angeles to Mojave. This road is also signed with the unusual designation of State Route 14U through the city of Santa Clarita. The second part signed as Sierra Highway is a portion of US 395 in Bishop.
U.S. Route 395 (US 395) is a United States Numbered Highway, stretching from Hesperia, California to the Canadian border in Laurier, Washington. The California portion of US 395 is a 557-mile (896 km) route which traverses from Interstate 15 (I-15) in Hesperia, north to the Oregon state line in Modoc County near Goose Lake. The route clips into Nevada, serving the cities Carson City and Reno, before returning to California.
Havilah is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California. It is located in the mountains between Walker Basin and the Kern River Valley, 5 miles (8.0 km) south-southwest of Bodfish at an elevation of 3,136 feet (956 m).
Leavitt Peak is located in the Emigrant Wilderness near Sonora Pass in the eastern Sierra Nevada range of California. Leavitt Peak is located on the Tuolumne County - Mono County line. The Pacific Crest Trail runs close to the east of Leavitt Peak, at an elevation of about 10,800 feet (3,290 m) elevation. The peak offers views south to Yosemite National Park and north towards South Lake Tahoe.
The Old Santa Susana Stage Road, or Santa Susana Wagon Road, is a route taken by early travelers between the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley near Chatsworth, California, via the Santa Susana Pass. The main route climbs through what is now the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, with a branch in Chatsworth Park South.
Woody is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California, in the United States. It is located in the foothills of the Greenhorn Mountains, 25 miles (40 km) north-northeast of Bakersfield at an elevation of 1,654 feet (504 m).
Desert Spring is a former settlement in Kern County, California in the Fremont Valley, south of Red Rock Canyon State Park. It was located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northeast of Cantil. About .8 miles north of California State Route 58 on Bellville Road at the railroad tracks.
Fountain Spring is a spring in Tulare County used in the 19th century for domestic and garden water supply. Fountain Springs was a settlement established in Tulare before 1855, at the junction of the Stockton - Los Angeles Road and the road to the Kern River gold mines. From 1858 to 1861, Fountain Springs was a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, 14 miles southeast of Tule River Station and 12 miles north of Mountain House. The site of the settlement was 1 1/2 miles northwest of the California Historical Landmark NO. 648 on the southwest corner of County Roads J22 and M 109, in Tulare County, California.
The Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop,, was a tavern and stagecoach stop near the southwest corner of Newhall Avenue and Sierra Highway, by Eternal Valley Cemetery. The site is located in the present day Newhall section of Santa Clarita, in Los Angeles County, California.
The Stockton–Los Angeles Road, also known as the Millerton Road, Stockton–Mariposa Road, Stockton–Fort Miller Road or the Stockton–Visalia Road, was established about 1853 following the discovery of gold on the Kern River in Old Tulare County. This route between Stockton and Los Angeles followed by the Stockton–Los Angeles Road is described in "ITINERARY XXI. From Fort Yuma to Benicia, California", in The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions by Randolph Barnes Marcy. The Itinerary was derived from the report of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson on his topographical survey party in 1853, that was in search of a railroad route through the interior of California.
Tejon Creek, originally in Spanish Arroyo de Tejon, is a stream in Kern County, California. Its headwaters are located on the western slopes of the Tehachapi Mountains, and it flows northwest into the southern San Joaquin Valley.
Posey Creek Station of the Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division was located on Posey or Poso Creek, in the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, in present-day Kern County, California.
Robbers Roost is a rock formation in the foothills of the Scodie Mountains portion of the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in the North Mojave Desert. The formation overlooks the southern portion of the Indian Wells Valley. The nearest municipality is Ridgecrest, California. The Los Angeles Aqueduct is within several hundred yards of the formation. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Robbers Roost lies west of Freeman Junction, which is approximately at the intersection of California highways 178 and 14.
The Mojave Road Los Angeles was designated a California Historic Landmark on March 19, 1985. It runs from Drum Barracks in Los Angeles County to the Colorado River in San Bernardino County, California