Monuments

San Bernardino County

Los Angeles County

NO. 20 PARENT WASHINGTON NAVEL ORANGE TREE - The tree was introduced into the United States from Bahia, Brazil, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1870. Twelve young trees were received and buds from them were propagated on sweet orange seedlings. In 1873 two of these greenhouse-grown trees, which were distributed throughout the United States, were sent to Mrs. Eliza Tibbets in Riverside.
Location: City Park, SW corner of Magnolia and Arlington Sts, Riverside

NO. 101 GIANT DESERT FIGURES - Times of origin and meaning of these giant figures, the largest of which is 167 feet long and the smallest 95 feet, remain a mystery. There are three figures, two of animals and one of a coiled serpent, and some interesting lines. (Sandstone pebbles glazed on one side with 'desert varnish,' strewn over the surface of the mesa, have been moved away, leaving the earth forming the figures, the pebbles were placed in windrows about the edge as an outline.)
Location: On Hwy 95 (P.M. 15.3), 16 mi N of Blythe

NO. 104 SITE OF INDIAN VILLAGE OF POCHEA - Pochea was one of a cluster of Indian villages forming the very large settlement of Pahsitnah, which extended along the ridge east and west of Ramona Bowl. Pahsitnah was thriving when the Spanish first passed by in 1774. A tragic story tells of the natives contracting smallpox from Europeans, a terrible epidemic spreading, and some survivors fleeing to the area of the present Soboba Reservation.
Location: Ramona Bowl, 27400 S Girard St, Hemet, plaque located near restrooms

NO. 557 HEMET MAZE STONE - This pictograph, representing a maze, is an outstanding example of the work of prehistoric peoples. It, with 5.75 acres of land, was donated to Riverside County as a county park on April 16, 1956 by Mr. and Mrs. Rodger E. Miller.
Location: From State Hwy 74, go N 3.2 mi on California Ave to Maze Stone Park, Hemet

NO. 749 SAAHATPA - Chief Juan Antonio and his band of Cahuilla Indians helped white settlers in the San Bernardino area defend their property and livestock against outlaws during the 1840s and 1850s. In late 1851, Juan Antonio, his warriors and their families, settled at nearby Saahatpa. During the winter of 1862-63, a smallpox epidemic swept through Southern California killing many Native Americans, including Juan Antonio. Cahuilla tradition asserts that the U.S. Government sent Army blankets that were contaminated with smallpox. After this disaster, Saahatpa was abandoned.
Location: Brookside Rest Area, W-bound I-10, 3 mi W of junction of I-10 and Hwy 60

NO. 1009 RAMONA BOWL, SITE OF THE RAMONA PAGEANT - Within this valley was laid part of the scene, and here resided a number of the characters portrayed in Helen Hunt Jackson's historical novel, 'Ramona,' which depicted life and presented the status of the Indians on many great ranchos in early California beginning around the 1850s. The story, dramatized by the late Garnet Holme, was first presented on this site April 13, 1923, becoming an annual event.
Location: 27400 Ramona Bowl Rd, Hemet

Kern County

NO. 97 OAK CREEK PASS - In 1776, Father Francisco Garces used the Oak Creek Pass to return to the Mojave after exploring the San Joaquin Valley, as did Fremont in 1844-1845. Until the railroad was built through the Tehachapi Pass in 1876, Oak Creek Pass was the only route used through the Tehachapi Mountains.
Location: On Willow Pass Rd, 4.6 mi S of Tehachapi Blvd, 74 mi SE of Tehachapi

NO. 98 KEYSVILLE - From 1853 until 1870, Keysville was a center of both placer and quartz gold mining. On the knoll just below the townsite may still be seen the outlines of an earthworks fort, built to meet a possible Indian attack in 1863.
Location: On Black Gulch Rd, 2.0 mi S of State Hwy 155 (P.M. 70.0), 3.3 mi W of Lake IsabelIa

NO. 99 WALKER'S PASS - Discovered by Joseph R. Walker, American trailblazer, who left the San Joaquin Valley through this pass in 1834. This area was traversed by topographer Edward M. Kern, after whom the Kern River was named, while accompanying the Fremont expedition of 1845. After 1860 it became a mining freight route to Owens Valley.
Location: At summit on State Hwy 178 (P.M. 79.8), 8.4 mi NW of Freeman Jct (State Hwy 14)

NO. 100 HAVILAH - Gold deposits at Havilah were discovered in 1864. Havilah was the county seat between 1866, when Kern County was organized, and 1872, when the government was moved to Bakersfield. Havilah was an active mining center for more than 20 years, and there are still some operating mines in this vicinity.
Location: State plaque in front of Bodfish post office, NE corner of Miller St and Kern River Canyon Rd, Bodfish - private plaque S side of 1866 county courthouse, Caliente-Bodfish Rd (P.M. 279), Havilah

NO. 129 FORT TEJON -This military post was established by the United States Army on June 24, 1854, to suppress stock rustling and protect the Indians in the San Joaquin Valley. Camels for transportation were introduced here in 1858. As regimental headquarters of the First Dragoons, Fort Tejon was an important military, social, and political center - it was abandoned September 11, 1864.
Location: Fort Tejon State Historic Park, on Lebec Rd, 2.8 mi N of Lebec

NO. 130 WILLOW SPRINGS - Willow Springs was visited by Padre Garces in 1776 while following the old Horse Thief Trail (later known as Joe Walker Trail) - Fremont stopped here in 1844, and the famished Jayhawk Party of 1850 found water here while struggling from Death Valley to Los Angeles. Still later, Willow Springs was a stage station of the Los Angeles-Havilah and Inyo Stage Lines.
Location: From State Hwy 14, go 6.8 mi W on Rosamond Blvd, then N 0.7 mi on Tehachapi Willow Springs Rd, then 0.6 mi NW on Truman-Manly Rd, Rosamond

NO. 132 KERNVILLE - Called Whiskey Flat until 1864, Kernville was founded in 1860 when whiskey dealer Adam Hamilton moved shop here from more temperate Quartzburg, founded earlier that year. Both camps resulted from a discovery by 'Lovely' Rogers, who found the Big Blue Ledge while tracking a stray mule from the earlier camp of Keysville.
Location: Old Kernville Cemetery, Wofford Rd, 2.7 mi SE of Kernville

NO. 133 SEBASTIAN INDIAN RESERVATION - The Sebastian or Tejon Indian Reservation (headquarters ten miles east of here) was established in 1853 by General Edward Fitzgerald Beale as one of several California reservations. The number of Indians quartered here varied from 500 to 2,000. General Beale acquired title to this area under Mexican land grant of 1843. In 1864 the U.S. government transferred the Indians to other reservations.
Location: Grapevine, NE corner of Grapevine Rd and 'D' St, 70 mi S of Mettler

NO. 137 GORDON'S FERRY ON THE KERN RIVER - Gordon's Ferry was an overhead cable-type of ferry operated during the 1850s by Major Gordon. An adobe station house was located on the south bank of the Kern River, just a few yards to the west of this marker, which also served as a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail Route from 1856 to 1860.
Location: SE side of Kern River bridge, on China Loop, 1,000 ft S of Round Mountain Rd, Bakersfield

NO. 277 GARCES CIRCLE - This is the approximate site of the Indian rancheria visited by Franciscan friar Padre Francisco Garces on May 7, 1776. Padre Garces named this spot San Miguel de los Noches por el Santa Príncipe.
Location: Center intersection of Chester Ave and 30th St, Bakersfield

NO. 278 PLACE WHERE FRANCISCO GARCÉS CROSSED THE KERN RIVER - On May 1, 1776, Franciscan friar Francisco Garces crossed the Kern River one mile north of here. Searching for a shorter route from Sonora, Mexico to Monterey, California, he was the first known explorer to describe this river, which he named Río de San Felipe.
Location: State Hwy 178 (P.M. 10.9) at Rancheria Rd, 11.0 mi E of Bakersfield

NO. 283 TOP OF GRAPEVINE PASS, WHERE DON PEDRO FAGES PASSED IN 1772 - In 1772, Don Pedro Fages passed this site, traveling from San Diego to San Luis Obispo via Cajón Pass, Mojave Desert, Hughes Lake, Antelope Valley, Tejón Pass, Cañada de los Uvas (Grapevine Canyon), and Buena Vista Lake. He left the first written record of exploration in the south San Joaquin Valley.
Location: On Lebec Rd, 0.6 mi N of Lebec

NO. 291 FAGES-ZALVIDEA CROSSING - In 1772, Don Pedro Fages, first recorded non-Indian to visit the southern San Joaquin Valley, crossed this spot on his way from San Diego to San Luis Obispo. Near this point crossed Father Jose María de Zalvidea in 1806, while accompanying the Ruiz expedition in search of mission sites.
Location: On State Hwy 166 (P.M. 19.0), 5.5 mi W of Mettler

NO. 371 OUTERMOST POINT IN THE SOUTH SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY (VISITED BY PADRE GARCÉS IN 1776) - Padre Garces, first recorded non-Indian to visit this locality, came in April of 1776, seeking a new route from Mexico to California. His epic journey covered more than two thousand miles of uncharted wilderness, opening trails that later became highways and railroads.
Location: Courtyard of Saint Thomas the Apostle Church, 350 E Bear Mountain Blvd, Arvin

NO. 374 TULAMNIU INDIAN SITE - The old Yokuts village of Tulamniu was named Buena Vista by Spanish Commander Fages in 1772. Fr. Zalvidea again recorded the site in 1806. This village was occupied for several centuries, and in 1933-34 its site was excavated by the Smithsonian Institution.
Location: 300 ft SE of Block House #BV4, 1.1 mi N of Buena Vista pumping station, 8 mi E of Taft

NO. 457 INDIAN WELLS - After five days' travel from the Argus Range, the Manly-Jayhawker parties of 1849 found their first water at this Indian waterhole on the Joseph R. Walker Trail of 1843. During the 1860s, this was the site of a stage and freight station for traffic between Los Angeles and the Coso and Cerro Gordo Mines.
Location: Indian Wells Lodge, 4.9 mi N of Freeman Jct (Hwys 14 and 178) on Hwy 14 (P.M. 62.6)

NO. 476 DESERT SPRING - This spring was on an old Indian horse thief trail and later (1834) Joe Walker Trail. The famished Manly-Jayhawk Death Valley parties (1849-50) were revived here after coming from Indian Wells through Last Chance Canyon. This was also a station on the Nadeau Borax Freight Road.
Location: SE corner Pappas Ranch, on Pappas Rd, then walk 1/4 mi W toward trees, 0.5 mi S of Valley Rd, 3.7 mi E of Cantil post office

NO. 492 BUTTONWILLOW TREE - This lone tree, which gave the town of Buttonwillow its name, served as a landmark on an old trans-valley trail. An ancient Yokuts Indian meeting place, it later became the site of settlers' stock rodeos. Miller and Lux established their headquarters and store here about 1885.
Location: On Buttonwillow Dr, 0.5 mi N of State Hwy 58, Buttonwillow

NO. 508 TEHACHAPI LOOP - From this spot may be seen a portion of the world-renowned Loop completed in 1876 under the direction of William Hood, Southern Pacific railroad engineer. In gaining elevation around the central hill of the Loop, a 4,000-foot train will cross 77 feet above its rear cars in the tunnel below.
Location: On Old State Hwy, 3.2 mi E of Keene exit, 6.5 mi W of Tehachapi

NO. 631 GARCES BAPTISMAL SITE - Three miles north of this point was the site of the first recorded Christian baptism in the San Joaquin Valley. On May 23, 1776, Padre Francisco Garces, earliest non-Indian in this area, baptized an Indian boy whom he called Muchachito at a Yokuts Rancheria in Grizzly Gulch.
Location: On State Hwy 155 (P.M. 18.8), 77 mi W of Woody

NO. 643 OLD TOWN (TEHACHAPI) - The oldest settlement in Tehachapi Valley, known as 'Old Town,' was established here during the 1860s. Long an important station on the road between Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, the community began to decline when residents gradually moved to nearby Greenwich, later renamed Tehachapi, after completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876.
Location: NE corner of Old Town Rd and Woodford-Tehachapi Rd, 1.3 mi N of State Hwy 202, 2.5 mi W of Tehachapi .

NO. 652 20-MULE-TEAM BORAX TERMINUS - Just west of this point was the Southern Pacific terminus for the 20-mule-team borax wagons that operated between Death Valley and Mojave from 1884 to 1889. The route ran from the Harmony Borax Mining Company works, later acquired by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, to the railroad loading dock in Mojave over 165 miles of mountain and desert trail. A round trip required 20 days. The ore wagons, which hauled a payload of 24 tons, were designed by J. W. S. Perry, Borax Company superintendent in Death Valley, and built in Mojave at a cost of $900 each. New borax discoveries near Barstow ended the Mojave shipments in 1889.
Location: 16246 Sierra Hwy (Hwy 14), Mojave

NO. 660 POINT ON THE JEDEDIAH SMITH TRAIL - About February 1, 1827, Jedediah Strong Smith, first American to reach Mexican California overland, passed near this spot with his party of fur trappers. From San Gabriel Mission, the group was en route north to a land reported teeming with 'plenty of Beaver.' Smith and his men were trailblazers whose exploits soon led to the American conquest of California.
Location: SE corner of Old Bena and Tower Line Rds, 3.6 mi E of Edison

NO. 671 SITE OF THE TOWN OF GARLOCK - In 1896, Eugene Garlock constructed a stamp mill near this spot to crush gold ore from the Yellow Aster Mine on Rand Mountain. Known originally as Cow Wells by prospectors and freighters during the 1880s and early 1890s, the town of Garlock continued to thrive until 1898, when water was piped from here to Randsburg and the Kramer-Randsburg rail line was completed.
Location: 74 mi W of State Hwy 395 on Garlock Rd, 13.4 mi NE of Cantil post office

NO. 672 LAVERS CROSSING - In 1854, John C. Reid filed a squatter's claim on this spot - the same year Kern County's first school class was held here. In 1859, David Lavers, with his father and brother, John, built a hotel and stage barn on the old Bull Road. The crossing was the principal community in Linn's Valley until about 1870.
Location: NE corner of White River and Jack Ranch Rds, 1.1 mi W of Glennville

NO. 690 SITE OF THE LAST HOME OF ALEXIS GODEY - Near this site stood the home of Alexis Godey, frontiersman and scout, who lived here from 1883 until his death on January 19, 1889. Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1818, he acted as guide for John C. Fremont's expedition through the Kern area in 1843-44, and was honored for his services at the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846.
Location: 414-19th St W of Union Ave, Bakersfield

NO. 741 BEALVILLE - Edward Fitzgerald Beale, serving under Commodore Stockton in 1846, established his home here on Rancho le Libre in 1855. He also engaged in mining and became Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada, and Minister to Vienna.
Location: On Bealville Rd, 0.9 mi N of State Hwy 58, 1.3 mi S of Caliente

NO. 742 CAMPSITE OF EDWARD M. KERN - Near this spot at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Kern River, the Theodore Talbot party of Captain John C. Fremont's third expedition to the West camped for several weeks during December 1845 and January 1846. Fremont named the river in honor of Edward M. Kern, topographer for the expedition - Kern County was established in 1866.
Location: Entrance to Old IsabelIa Rd Recreation Area, on State Hwy 178, 2 mi N of the town of Lake IsabelIa

NO. 757 CALIENTE - Originally known as Allen's Camp after Gabriel Allen, who in the 1870s had a cabin and stock pasture near here, the settlement was named Caliente when railroad construction reached this point in April 1875. The town became a railroad terminal for about 16 months while a force of up to three thousand men, most of them Chinese, labored on the heavy railroad construction on the mountain.
Location: 2.3 mi N of Hwy 58 on Bealville Rd, Caliente

NO. 766 FREEMAN JUNCTION - Explorer Joseph R. Walker passed this junction of Indian trails in 1834 after discovering nearby Walker Pass. After their escape from Death Valley, '49er parties split here to go west and south to the California gold fields. Here the bandit Tiburcio Vasquez preyed on stages and freighters traveling between the Kern River mines and Los Angeles and the mines of Bodie and the Panamints.
Location: On State Hwy 178 (P.M. 88.0), 0.2 mi W of junction with State Hwy 14

NO. 938 RAND MINING DISTRICT - The Yellow Aster, or Rand, mine was discovered in April 1895 by Singleton, Burcham, and Mooers. The town of Randsburg quickly developed, followed by the supply town of Johannesburg in 1896. Both names were adopted from the profusion of minerals resembling those of the ranch mining district in South Africa. In 1907, Churchill discovered tungsten in Atolia, used in steel alloy during World War I. In June 1919, Williams and Nosser discovered the famous California Rand Silver Mine at Red Mountain.
Location: Kern Co Desert Museum, Butte Ave, Randsburg

NO. 1054 TOMO-KAHNI Winter Village in the Kawaiisu language, is a late prehistoric/protohistoric site affiliated with the Kawaiisu and is located in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains near Tehachapi, California. A number of features have been recorded at the site, including food processing areas with bedrock mortars, milling slicks, rock art panels on boulders and within shelters or caves, and concentrated deposits of artifacts. Tomo-Kahni State Historic Park became a unit of California State Parks in 1993. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the site, Tomo-Kahni is available to the public by tour only.
Location: Tours meet at 310 S. Green Street at East E Street, Tehachapi

Inyo County

NO. 443 VALLEY WELLS - In this area, several groups of midwestern emigrants who had escaped from hazards and privations in Death Valley in 1849 sought to secure water from Searles Lake. They turned northward and westward in despair when they discovered its salty nature, and with great difficulty crossed the Argus and other mountains to reach settlements of Central and Southern California.
Location: Trona Wildrose Rd at Valley Wells Rd, 5.5 mi NE of Trona

NO. 444 BENNETT-ARCANE LONG CAMP - Near this spot the Bennett-Arcane contingent of the Death Valley '49ers, emigrants from the Middle West seeking a shortcut to California gold fields, were stranded for a month and almost perished from starvation. William Lewis Manley and John Rogers, young members of the party, made a heroic journey on foot to San Fernando and, returning with supplies, led the party to the safety of San Francisquito Rancho near Newhall.
Location: Death Valley National Monument from State Hwy 190 (P.M. 111.8), go approx 16 mi S of intersection of Badwater Rd and Westside Rd, on Westside Rd

NO. 507 GRAVE OF 1872 EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS- On March 26, 1872, a major earthquake shook Owens Valley, nearly destroying the town of Lone Pine. About fourteen of its victims (the exact number is not known) were interred in a common grave, enclosed by this fence.
Location: 200 ft W of State Hwy 395 (P.M. 58. 7), 0.9 mi N of Lone Pine

NO. 537 COTTONWOOD CHARCOAL KILNS - In June 1873, on Cottonwood Creek directly west of this spot, Colonel Sherman Stevens built a sawmill and a flume that connected with the Los Angeles bullion road. The lumber was used for timbering in the mine and for buildings - the wood turned into charcoal in the kilns was hauled to Steven's Wharf on Owens Lake, where it was put on the steamer The Bessie Brady, and hauled across the lake. From there wagons took it up to Cerro Gordo Mine. Since all the wood available around the Cerro Gordo had been burned, this charcoal was necessary to continue production.
Location: 1.0 mi E of State Hwy 395 (P.M. 44.5), 70 mi N of Cartago

NO. 752.  FURNACE OF THE OWENS LAKE SILVER-LEAD COMPANY - The Owens Lake Silver-lead furnace and mill were built here by Colonel Sherman Stevens in 1869 and used until March 1874. James Brady assumed their operation in 1870 for the Silver-Lead Company and built the town of Swansea. During the next few years the output of this furnace and one at Cerro Gordo was around 150 bars of silver, each weighing 83 pounds, every 24 hours. 
Location:  300 ft W of State Hwy 136 (P.M. 9.5), 3.1 mi NW of Keeler

No. 773 OLD HARMONY BORAX WORKS - In 1881 Aaron Winters discovered borax on the marsh near this point. He later sold his holdings to W. T. Coleman of San Francisco, who built the Harmony Borax Works in 1882 and commissioned his superintendent, J. W. S. Perry, to design wagons and locate a suitable route to Mojave. The work of gathering the ore (called 'cottonball') was done by Chinese workmen. From this point, 20-mule teams transported the processed borax 165 miles to the railroad until 1889.
Location: Death Valley National Monument, on State Hwy 190 (P.M. 109.1), 1.4 mi N of Furnace Creek

NO. 796 FARLEY'S OLANCHA MILL SITE - In 1860, while working for the Silver Mountain Mining Company in the Coso Mountains, M. H. Farley conceived the idea of building a processing mill on a creek that flowed into Owens Lake. He explored and named Olancha Pass that year, and by December of 1862 had completed the first mill and furnace in the Owens River Valley, on Olancha Creek about one mile west of this marker.
Location: On State Hwy 395 (P.M. 34.1), at Fall Rd, 0.6 mi S of Olancha

NO. 811 BISHOP CREEK BATTLEGROUND - On April 6, 1862, a battle took place around this site between newly arrived citizens of the Owens River Valley and the original inhabitants of the land, the Paiute and Shoshone Indians. The reason for this battle is lost but brave men on both sides died here for a cause which they held inviolate.
Location: SE corner of the intersection of State Hwy 168 (P.M. 13.0) and Bishop Creek Rd, 5.2 mi SW of Bishop

NO. 826 OLD STOVEPIPE WELLS - This waterhole, the only one in the sand dune area of Death Valley, was at the junction of the two Indian trails. During the bonanza days of Rhyolite and Skidoo, it was the only known water source on the cross-valley road. When sand obscured the spot, a length of stovepipe was inserted as a marker.
Location: Death Valley National Monument, from State Hwy 190 (P.M. 92.1) go N 2.8 mi on (unpaved) Sand Dunes Access Rd, 6.1 mi E of Stovepipe Wells

NO. 848 EICHBAUM TOLL ROAD - In 1926, H. W. Eichbaum obtained a franchise for a toll road from Darwin Falls to Stovepipe Wells, the first maintained road into Death Valley from the west. It changed the area's economic base from mining to tourism and brought about the creation of Death Valley National Monument seven years later.
Location: Death Valley National Monument, 100 ft S of State Hwy 190 (P.M. 85.83), Stovepipe Wells

NO. 953 LAWS NARROW GAUGE RAILROAD STATION AND YARD - In 1883, the Carson & Colorado Railroad was built between Mound House (near Carson City, Nevada) through Laws to Keeler, California, a distance of 300 miles. Laws Station was named in honor of Mr. R. J. Laws, Assistant Superintendent of the railroad. Between 1883 and about 1915, this railroad provided the only dependable means of transportation in and out of Owens Valley. Train service was stopped on April 30, 1960.
Location: On Silver Canyon Rd (Inyo County Rd), on old town of Laws, 4 mi NE of Bishop