Old CA 138 on Lancaster Road, San Francisquito Canyon Road and Newhall Pass

[Max Rockatansky]

Took a day trip today over the old Lancaster Road alignment of CA 138 to reach San Francisquito Canyon Road.  I was after some early alignments of US 99 and US 6 around Newhall which had me ending up at Newhall Pass in front of Beale's Cut.  Just finished editing my photos:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmwP38Ve

San Francisquito Canyon Road was used by the El Camino Viejo and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.  According most period maps Old CA 138 on Lancaster Road is a close analog of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road in Antelope Valley.  I'm looking to incorporate my photos into the below blog about the Ridge Route, El Camino Viejo, Stockton-Los Angeles Road and I-5 Grapevine Canyon Route:

https://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/11/legend-of-ridge-route-history-of.html

Regarding San Francisquito Canyon Road there is an old alignment that goes directly through the ruins of St. Francis Dam.  The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity dam which failed back in 1928 and killed over 400 people.  There isn't much left of the Dam that is obvious aside from the broken up white washed concrete.

[Max Rockatansky]

Added a substantial amount of content to the Legend of the Ridge Route blog.  This in "theory" should be the third and final revision unless I end up hiking San Emidgio Canyon completely or find a way up to Old Tejon Pass.

-  A new chapter was added regarding Old Tejon Pass.
-  I added more content regarding Fort Tejon and backstory behind why the Army was there in the first in the first place in the Old Ridge Route chapter.  Fort Tejon State Park aided immensely updating this chapter and had a ton of takeaway information at the State Park visitor center.
-  I added a chapter for Old California State Route 138 which closely follows the El Camino Viejo and Stockton-Los Angeles Road in Antelope Valley.
-  There is a new chapter on San Francisquito Canyon which includes the namesake road, Elizabeth Lake and St. Francis Dam.  San Francisquito Canyon was the route of both the El Camino Viejo and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.
-  There is a new chapter about the right-of-way through Saugus prior to the Old Ridge Route.  I added photos of the old surface highway alignments through Newhall to Newhall Pass.  I did get some photos of the remains of the Newhall Tunnel and Beale's Cut.

https://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/11/legend-of-ridge-route-history-of.html

[pderocco]

San Francisquito Canyon Rd has some interesting more recent history. Back in 2005, I believe, major flooding took out a stretch of the road about seven miles from its southern end. It was closed for about a year, as that section was replaced by a new road NW of the old alignment, higher up on the canyon wall. You can see this easily in Google Earth historic imagery.

But the odd thing is that the roadbed they used was already there, and can be seen even in the 1994 aerial imagery. If you zoom way out in Google Earth, it switches to actual satellite imagery, and that goes back to 1984. If you look carefully, you can see that this roadbed had been originally cut around 1985. They apparently started work on the road, perhaps ran out of funds, and abandoned it. 20 years later, they suddenly needed it, and finally paved it.

[Max Rockatansky]

San Francisquito Canyon Rd has some interesting more recent history. Back in 2005, I believe, major flooding took out a stretch of the road about seven miles from its southern end. It was closed for about a year, as that section was replaced by a new road NW of the old alignment, higher up on the canyon wall. You can see this easily in Google Earth historic imagery.

But the odd thing is that the roadbed they used was already there, and can be seen even in the 1994 aerial imagery. If you zoom way out in Google Earth, it switches to actual satellite imagery, and that goes back to 1984. If you look carefully, you can see that this roadbed had been originally cut around 1985. They apparently started work on the road, perhaps ran out of funds, and abandoned it. 20 years later, they suddenly needed it, and finally paved it.

I believe that was apparent on a lot of the images on Historicaerials.  What is interesting to me is how fast the old road has been overgrown and consumed in little over a decade.  The foot of the dam probably acts as a funnel to channel water directly onto the road deck.  I suspect it was almost a constant problem from the time it was built through St. Francis Dam.