Page 10 - sw_yesterdaysoflosangeles1927

Fremont'ss March to 'Peace

up the Newhall Grade and through the tunnel is
Scotting
now so easy for the modern motorist that he gives little
thought to this section of the road aside from traffic and
the picturesqueness. Yet it has historic and toilsome associations
dating from the earliest days when it was the Pass of San Ber-
nardo, later Fremont Pass and, in the more modern times, New-
hall Pass.
Instead of travel being carried through the tunnel at an ele-
vation of 17 50 feet, the toiling way was made up through the
narrow rift in the mountain top to the right. This was the one
outlet to the northward. It came into the first recorded use for
regular travel when the Butterfield stages operated from St. Louis,
Missouri, to San Francisco just before the Civil War.
It was through this defile that Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont,
with 450 American troops on a forced march from the north to
aid Commodore Stockton and General Kearney's army in the sub-
jugation of Mexican revolutionists in Los Angeles, passed on Jan-
uary 12, 184 7. Fremont expected to meet hot resistance in the
pass, which was a natural military trap, but the enemy had with-
drawn across San Fernando Valley toward Cahuenga Pass. It
was on the following day that the Treaty of Cauenga was signed,
as is told on another page of this booklet.
Because of this association, the Pass of San Bernardo later
became known as Fremont Pass and was so marked by the San
Fernando Ebell Club with a cobblestone memorial and bronze
tablet. This may now be seen near the south entrance to the old
pass.
But locale was stronger than history and Fremont Pass be-
came Newhall Pa .