Page 6 - eternalvalley1969

show of resistance and on January 13, 1847, he surrenderd to Fremont at
Cahuenga Pass. Today there is a plaque on Highway 14, near the place where
the Fremont expedition encamped, calling attention to Fremont Pass. Un-
fortunately, the plaque gives the erroneous impression that the cut made by
E. F. Beale in 1863 is Fremont's pass.

Oak of the Golden Dream, site of California's first gold discovery
wait for its completion. In December, 1854, he took off with nine passengers
for Fort Tejon. His fares had to walk up the grade to the Pass. There they saw
only a great drop on the far side. While they watched in awe, Banning cracked
the whip and took off downward. In the words of one witness: "Sometimes
the horses were ahead of the stage and sometimes the stage was ahead of the
horses." Eventually the Butterfield Overland Mail as well as local stages and
freight wagons used the route.
The road, opened for traffic in January, 1855, was improved slightly in
DON YGNACIO DEL VALLE 1858. It was still fearsome and in 1861 the State Legislature granted Andres
Pico a franchise to improve the road and to collect tolls. But storms in 1862
washed out the road and Pico's franchise was given to General Edward F.
Beale for a turnpike road from Mission San Fernando to the Arroyo de Santa
Gold Sets Course of History Clara.
It was Beale's men who deepened the cut over the San Fernando pass to
The great California Gold Rush in 1849 created unlimited money almost its present dimensions, using only picks and shovels. For 22 years this
and business in the mining camps and towns of the north. Pioneer merchants was a toll road until Beale's franchise expired and Los Angeles County took it
in the sleepy Pueblo de Los Angeles - the area that is today Olvera Street over. It was the main outlet for Los Angeles northward as late as the early
and the Civic Center - were fully aware of the possibilities developing. 1900's and was used even by automobiles. The first car over the pass was a
Accustomed to surmounting handicaps, these rugged frontiersmen intended 1902 Autocar, which had to be backed up the grade because of its gravity flow
to get their full share of whatever development might take place and the of gasoline to the carburetor.
founding of Fort Tejon in 1854 brought pressure for a better road from Los The San Fernando Pass became known as the Newhall Grade until it was
Angeles. Work began on a toll road over San Fernando - or Fremont Pass - replaced by a tunnel in 1910. The tunnel in turn was made obsolete by a new
but Phineas Banning, 24-year-old merchant and stage line operator, couldn't road built in 1939.

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