QUIZ – What Lies Beneath (Old Santa Susana Stage Road)
Laura Floom Manning figured it out! Go Laura! The full answer is after the jump.
This week’s little quiz takes us on a little road trip… outside of Los Angeles proper and over to Simi Valley.
Just to remind you, here’s how this little game goes… we’ll show you a spot on a google map (see below). We’re thinking of something notable that once happened or existed a stone’s throw from the point on that map. Within 24 hours we’ll give you the full details… but as always, we’re going to give you a fair amount of time to guess what we’re referring to first. We encourage you not to cheat by googling the address and if you know the answer right away please try not to announce it too quickly and ruin the game for the people who don’t.
9:37am – Okay, since nobody’s guessed yet… here are two clues: it has nothing to do with Manson or the movies.
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The area shown here… was once better known as the Old Santa Susana Stage Road, a now-forgotten stagecoach thoroughfare once so important to the United States of America that it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(SOURCE) “In 1859, the California Legislature appropriated $15,000 towards improving an old wagon road through the Santa Susana Pass. Additional funding was provided by the Counties of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 disrupted mail service along the Butterfield Overland Mail’s southern stagecoach route from St. Louis, Missouri via El Paso, Fort Yuma and Los Angeles and on to San Francisco via the Tejon Pass, which had begun its run in 1858. To compensate, the government contracted the Butterfield Company to carry mail between Los Angeles and San Francisco via the new wagon road over the Santa Susana Pass. The first overland mail stage run through the pass took place on April 6, 1861. The new route diverged from the Tejon Pass route at the north end of the Cahuenga Pass, following the old coast road (El camino Viejo, the former El Camino Real to San Buenaventura (Ventura) and Santa Barbara) as far as the Rancho Los Encinos before striking northwest across the San Fernando Valley toward the Santa Susana Pass.”
“The precipitous portion of the route down from the summit on the San Fernando Valley side was called the Devil’s Slide; horses were usually blindfolded and chains were used to augment brakes on the steep descent. Passengers debarked and walked.”
“The Santa Susana Pass Road continued in use as an alternative to the route along El Camino Viejo from 1861 to 1875, replacing the older road as the main route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. William E. Lovett acquired the mail contract in 1867 and carried mail and passengers via the Santa Susana Pass and between Los Angeles and San Diego. In 1876, the Southern Pacific Railroad opened a tunnel through the Newhall Pass, enabling rail connections from Los Angeles north to San Francisco, and rail travel soon replaced travel by stagecoach between Los Angeles and San Francisco. From this time the stagecoach traffic to Santa Barbara once again used the coast route, and the Santa Susana Pass road was relegated to local traffic.”
“The precipitous portion of the route down from the summit on the San Fernando Valley side was called the Devil’s Slide; horses were usually blindfolded and chains were used to augment brakes on the steep descent. Passengers debarked and walked.”
“The Santa Susana Pass Road continued in use as an alternative to the route along El Camino Viejo from 1861 to 1875, replacing the older road as the main route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. William E. Lovett acquired the mail contract in 1867 and carried mail and passengers via the Santa Susana Pass and between Los Angeles and San Diego. In 1876, the Southern Pacific Railroad opened a tunnel through the Newhall Pass, enabling rail connections from Los Angeles north to San Francisco, and rail travel soon replaced travel by stagecoach between Los Angeles and San Francisco. From this time the stagecoach traffic to Santa Barbara once again used the coast route, and the Santa Susana Pass road was relegated to local traffic.”
Learn more here: Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park Historic Overview (PDF)
24 Responses to “QUIZ – What Lies Beneath (Old Santa Susana Stage Road)”
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Spahn Ranch-home of the manson family
?
Let’s see, you’re pointing close to Hope Ranch which makes me think that you could be referring to the Regan cowboy films or Gene Autry, but more recently waa the discovery of the Mammoth that was uncovered during the development of White Face/ Tapo Cyn Ranch. So, my answer is the Mammoth.
is that where The Flintstones (live-action) movie was filmed?
No, that is actually Vasquez Rocks, which is north of Santa Clarita off the CA-14 Freeway.
I do know that some of the sets for the Flintstones movie “Viva Rock Vegas” were built at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills.
corriganville
arroyo simi
Is it where Joe Dirt found his parents? ;)
wasnt that where cahuenga capitulated california to the americans? Then they signed to it in a shack near Universal Studios?
Was it the nuclear leak?
Nope, but good guess! That was very nearby at Runkle Canyon: http://hiddenlosangeles.com/?p=4682
i thought that leak was up black canyon
Nope, Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Nuclear Facility.
Wells Fargo, the man.
The Painted Caves ?
A rail tunnel…
I like mine better, darnit!!!
The Yellow Brick Road to Oz
I am thinking that there is a fault line there.
The ’50s Lone Ranger series was filmed here.
There is an underground aqueduct there built around the time Mulholland stole the water from up north to feed to the Valley. Ronnie Reagan buried some of his skeletons up there too.
@Angsto – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley#Aqueduct
actually the aqueduct runs behind my house along valley circle /baden to the chatsworth lake reservoir.
there was a plane crash there in the 50s if youre lucky you can still see some of the parts esspecially after the fires clear out the underbrush also there is a waterfall in the winter months as well as a rock quarry that was originally for the LA harbor