Tejon Creek | |
---|---|
Etymology | Spanish |
Native name | Arroyo de Tejon (Spanish) |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
Region | Tehachapi Mountains |
District | Kern County |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | source |
• location | on the west slope of the Tehachapi Mountains., Kern County |
• coordinates | 35°00′55″N118°28′48″W / 35.01528°N 118.48000°W [1] |
Mouth | mouth |
• location | Kern County |
• coordinates | 35°08′09″N118°53′45″W / 35.13583°N 118.89583°W Coordinates: 35°08′09″N118°53′45″W / 35.13583°N 118.89583°W [1] |
• elevation | 410 ft (120 m) [1] |
Reference no. | 540 |
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.
Arroyo de Tejón (Tejon Creek), the canyon and stream, along with the pass through it and over the Tehachapi Mountains, were named with Tejón (Spanish: badger) after a dead badger was found at the canyon's mouth by Lt. Francisco Ruiz in 1806. The Spanish military expedition led by Ruiz was exploring inland routes to the San Joaquin Valley and 'upper' settled Alta California, via the deserts from colonial New Spain (present day Mexico).
Along the creek and south of it the land grant Rancho Tejón was established in 1843.
Lieutenant Robert Stockton Williamson of the Pacific Railroad Survey Expedition surveyed the area in 1853, setting up his Depot Camp along the creek, on the land of the Rancho Tejón.
The Sebastian Indian Reservation (Tejon Indian Reservation), the first Indian reservation in California, was established along Tejon Creek in 1853. It existed for 9 years, until the treaty was revoked by the U.S. government in 1864.
The ancient native trail now known as Old Tejon Pass was "discovered" in 1772 by Spanish explorer Pedro Fages, [2] and used in 1776 by padre Francisco Garces, traveling east of the Anza Colonizing Expedition's main route. It is 15 miles (24 km) to the northeast of the present day Tejon Pass, in the Tehachapi Mountains, at the top of the divide between Tejon Creek Canyon in the San Joaquin Valley and Cottonwood Creek Canyon in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert.
In 1806, Lt. Francisco Ruiz named it Tejón Pass while on an expedition into the San Joaquin Valley. Ruiz also named Tejon Canyon and Tejon Creek, all after the dead badger (tejón) he had found at the canyon mouth.
Later the El Camino Viejo, a Spanish and Mexican inland route from the Pueblo de Los Angeles northward, crossed the western Antelope Valley from Elizabeth Lake to Cottonwood Creek, and then crossed the Tehachapi Mountains at Old Tejon Pass, following Tejon Creek down into the San Joaquin Valley.
Gold Rush 49ers, and early emigrants and teamsters followed this route. The Five Joaquins Gang used the route over the pass to drive their droves of stolen and wild horses southward to Sonora. [3] : 495
It was described in 1853, by an Army Topographic Engineer, Lieutenant Robert Stockton Williamson as "one of the worst roads he ever saw." In an oak grove along the middle reach of the creek, on Rancho El Tejon, was the site of the Depot Camp of Williamson's Pacific Railroad expedition while it surveyed the passes into the San Joaquin Valley as possible routes for the railroad. [4]
Williamson much preferred as a wagon route the lower and easier Grapevine Canyon to the west that led to a pass between the Tehachapi and San Emigdio Mountains. [4] Following this discovery and the construction of Fort Tejon, wagon traffic soon changed to the easier Grapevine route named Fort Tejon Pass. The new Stockton - Los Angeles Road used it, and the Old Tejon Pass route was gradually abandoned.
The name Tejon Pass was transferred west following the closure of Fort Tejon, when "Fort" was dropped from the Fort Tejon Pass name. [4] The (Old) Tejon Pass eventually was so unused that it lost its name altogether on maps.
In 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division established the Sinks of Tejon Station at the mouth of Tejon Creek, west of Comanche Point. There at the Sinks of Tejon, the creek's waters sank into the ground of the San Joaquin Valley here during the dry season, instead of reaching Kern Lake.
The Butterfield Overland Mail (1857-1861) stagecoaches' next stations were: Kern River Slough Station located 14 miles (23 km) to the northeast; and Fort Tejon Station located 15 miles (24 km) to the southwest.
The Sinks of Tejon Station site is a registered California Historical Landmark, #540.
The California Historical Landmark reads:
The Tehachapi Mountains are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately 40 miles (64 km) in southern Kern County and northwestern Los Angeles County and form part of the boundary between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert.
The Tejon Pass, previously known as Portezuelo de Cortes, Portezuela de Castac, and Fort Tejon Pass and also commonly referred to as “The Grapevine," is a mountain pass between the southwest end of the Tehachapi Mountains and northeastern San Emigdio Mountains, linking Southern California north to the Central Valley. It has been traversed by major roads such as the El Camino Viejo, the Stockton – Los Angeles Road, the Ridge Route, U.S. Route 99, and now Interstate 5.
Gorman is an unincorporated community in northwestern Los Angeles County. It is located in Peace Valley south of the Tejon Pass, which links Southern California with the San Joaquin Valley and Northern California. Due to this location, the area has served as a historic travel stop dating back to the indigenous peoples of California. Tens of thousands of motorists travel through Gorman daily on the Golden State Freeway since the highway's completion in the mid-20th Century.
Fort Tejon in California is a former United States Army outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon between the San Emigdio Mountains and Tehachapi Mountains. It is in the area of Tejon Pass along Interstate 5 in Kern County, California, the main route through the mountain ranges separating the Central Valley from the Los Angeles Basin and Southern California. The fort's location protected the San Joaquin Valley from the south and west.
San Francisquito Canyon is a canyon created through erosion of the Sierra Pelona Mountains by the San Francisquito Creek, in Los Angeles County, Southern California.
Elizabeth Lake is a natural lake that lies directly on the San Andreas Fault in the northern Sierra Pelona Mountains, in northwestern Los Angeles County, southern California. The lake has been dry since 2013 because of prolonged drought.
Rancho El Tejón was a 97,617-acre (395.04 km2) Mexican land grant in the Tehachapi Mountains and northeastern San Emigdio Mountains, in present day Kern County, California. It was granted in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José Antonio Aguirre and Ygnacio del Valle.
The Sebastian Indian Reservation (1853-1864), more commonly known as the Tejon Indian Reservation, was formerly at the southwestern corner of the San Joaquin Valley in the Tehachapi Mountains, in southern central California.
The Butterfield Overland Mail in California was created by the United States Congress on March 3, 1857, and operated until June 30, 1861. Subsequently, other stage lines operated along the route until the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in Yuma, Arizona in 1877.
Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage Trail, was a major land route for immigration into California from the eastern United States that followed the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico during the California Gold Rush. Unlike the more northern routes, pioneer wagons could travel year round, mountain passes not being blocked by snows, however it had the disadvantage of summer heat and lack of water in the desert regions through which it passed in New Mexico Territory and the Colorado Desert of California. Subsequently, it was a route of travel and commerce between the eastern United States and California. Many herds of cattle and sheep were driven along this route and it was followed by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in 1857-1858 and then the Butterfield Overland Mail from 1858 - 1861.
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.
El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles, also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail, was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta California (1822–1848), present day California. It became a well established inland route, and an alternative to the coastal El Camino Real trail used since the 1770s in the period.
San Francisquito Pass is a mountain pass in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, located northeast of Green Valley and Santa Clarita, in northern Los Angeles County, California.
The Old Tejon Pass is a mountain pass in the Tehachapi Mountains linking Southern and Central California.
Mud Spring, formerly called Aquaje Lodoso, is a spring and historic site in the western Antelope Valley, within northern Los Angeles County, southern California.
Willow Springs Canyon is a canyon cut by Willow Springs Canyon Wash. Its source is at the head of the canyon in the gap in the Portal Ridge of the Transverse Range, 0.5 miles north of Elizabeth Lake. It is cut into the slope to the northeast into the Antelope Valley, crossing the California Aqueduct. The mouth of the Canyon is 0.25 miles southwest of its confluence with Myrick Canyon Wash which is 300 feet southwest of the intersection of Munz Ranch Road with the Neenach - Fairmont Road in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
Cottonwood Creek, is a stream in Kern County, California. Its headwaters are located on the eastern slopes of the Tehachapi Mountains, near a spring 2 miles northwest of the Libre Twins peak. It flows east then southeast into Antelope Valley in the western Mojave Desert.
King's Station, also known as Moore's and Hollandsville, was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division between 1858-1861 in southern California.
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.
Castac Lake, also known as Tejon Lake, is a natural saline endorheic, or sink, lake near Lebec, California. The lake is located in the Tehachapi Mountains just south of the Grapevine section of Interstate 5, and within Tejon Ranch. Normal water elevations are 3,482 feet (1,061 m) above sea level.