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Camp Cajon, 3355 Wagon Train Road, Phelan, CA (2026)

Camp Cajon is located on Wagon Train Road, south of Highway 138, and just east of the CHP truck scales on I-15.

09/26/2026

100 Years Ago –Traffic –September 1926
By G. E. Smith and Mark Landis

These monthly articles are a "deep dive" into the history around Camp Cajon, and the famous highways that passed through the area, such as Route 66 and National Old Trails Road.

September 1926 had about a dozen minor Camp Cajon mentions show up in the local papers; of which 7 were for the Meekers who ran ads that were apparently offering two “choice tested” cows for sale. The inquiries were to be made at the Meeker’s Camp Cajon store, that was just south of the camp on National Old Trails Road (NOTR, predecessor to Route 66) (photo 1). No sources have been found stating they owned these animals and they could have been selling them for others. We do know that the Meekers had a farm of sorts just north of Camp Cajon, so they may have been their own stock.

The news this month continued with more roadwork forecast for NOTR improvements. The Victor Valley News Herald (VVNH) reported it was the intention of the California Highway Commission to "…build a splendid highway between San Bernardino and the summit, the road from the summit to Victorville being considered one of the best pieces of road in the state." The paper said the State Highway Commission had issued plans to make "radical changes" to that portion of NOTR from the summit for two miles down toward Camp Cajon. This was to eliminate many of the sharp and dangerous curves, but also to widen the road to the recommended national standard of 32 ft. Interestingly, the road from 1916 was only 16 feet wide, so this was a dramatic doubling of the road’s width (photo 2 & 3). The new road was planned to cross and re-cross the current road several times to save time and increase safe driving speed. A total of $55,000 was to be budgeted for this work.

The main reason for this major change in the Cajon Pass can be seen in two other articles from the September 26 issues of San Bernardino Sun and the VVNH concerning the incoming traffic totals from the east. The articles reported that a record number of cars were coming into California, logged at the various state inspection stations for September 1926. A statewide total of 19,388 cars were counted, with 6,640 of them logged at Daggett (east of Barstow in the Mojave Desert), and the next highest total was 4,313 cars at Truckee, near Lake Tahoe. Fort Yuma, Arizona was third with 3,025 autos recorded. The southern route known as the old Kearney Route supplied 30% of the traffic coming into California from Arizona. The balance was spread over the rest of the state’s entrance points. The Sun’s report stated that in August 6,147 cars came into California at Daggett; 3,944 via the National Old Trails Road, 2,183 via the Arrowhead Trail, and 20 via Goffs/Las Vegas.

The State Inspection Station in Daggett (photo 4) was a California agricultural inspection facility. Its purpose was to screen incoming automobiles for fruits, vegetables, plants, and any other agricultural products that could carry pests or diseases deemed harmful to California’s crops. The view of the building dates to 1928-1930, when U.S. 66 was being realigned and paved along its current route.

Here’s the Sun’s report on the projected Cajon Pass roadway changes. In essence, this project had three goals:

1) Replace the Macadam Road with a modern asphalt surface for better durability
2) Expand the width of the road from 16 feet to 32 feet for better traffic flow and safety
3) “Straighten out” the existing road by moving it to areas with better grades and where curves could be eliminated or at least expanded to reduce their sharpness.

This initial project was to cover a two-mile stretch from the summit down to Alray by means of cleaving through some of the hills so as to have a straighter run down to the floor of the upper pass. The new road would not be paved for about a year to allow any filled-in ravine to pack/settle to keep the pavement from cracking if it did settle. Initially, the road would be graded to 32 feet wide but only paved to 20 feet wide.

There is an interesting twist seen in this article though. The last few sentences read:

“At the summit, the new roadway will extend directly through the site now occupied by the Summit Inn, some 30 feet to the west of the present highway. The Supervisors, in acquiring the title to the right-of-way, will submit a proposition to the Summit Inn proprietor, whose buildings are on a government lease, subject to revocation at any time by the government. The remaining course will not traverse improved property.”

To translate this paragraph, we have to get a point cleared up. The Summit Inn itself in 1926 did sit about 30 feet west of the macadam roadway (photo 5). However, the Riverside Daily Press report for Sept 15, reported that it was 300 ft west of the highway. That may be a simple added zero, but the road ended up getting placed about 360 ft west of where the Summit Inn was in 1926. This leads to the question of whether the new road was initially to follow atop the older road in front of the Summit Inn and then break west just past it. One could see issues with the owner losing his buildings to demolition and demanding compensation for them. On the other hand, if the road was always going to end up where it was (that fragment still exists as of 2026), the county wasn’t going to physically touch the existing Summit Inn structures. If cut off from the highway traffic, the business would suffer severely, and that would have been a major concern to the owner.

But why mention the distance the Inn was from the roadway if this was going to be a livelihood issue and not one of removal? Did complications in dealing with the owners over compensation for lost business at the Summit Inn end up rerouting the future US 66 alignment?

The owner, C. J. Whitlock, set up the Summit Inn on US Forest Service land via a special-use permit. The County Supervisors were intimating that whatever deal they were offering Whitlock, he was on government land with a lease that could be canceled at any time.

The September 30 issue of the Redlands Daily Facts carried a column of “Redlands Yesterday” giving news snippets for 5 years ago:

“Redlands Pythians went to Monrovia to plan for an outpost building at Camp Cajon.”

This of course was old news since Pythians of all stripes had been planning an outpost building at Camp Cajon since they attended the Elks Outpost dedication back on September 11, 1921. That Elks dedication had perhaps the biggest crowd ever to attend any event held at the camp. So, why wouldn’t they want to get some of that positive energy for themselves and their organization? However, the Elks took under a year to start collecting money, developing a design and then constructing their outpost. The Pythians were starting their sixth year with nothing tangible to show for their efforts except various newspaper columns.

And so here we are again, 4 years later, still finding the Arrowhead Development Company promoting their oil well venture (photo 6). Again, there were “favorable indications” that “paying quantities” of oil could be seen totaling “40 barrel a day.” We now hear that with such production potential looming on the horizon, the drilling of a second well would start soon.

Let’s get real here.

Back in July of 1922, a dramatic, full page ad ran in the Sun for the newly formed Arrowhead Development Company, urging readers to consider investing in the sinking of a test well in the upper Cajon Basin for oil exploration. It was a well-considered piece, stating that potential investors should carefully consider what the finding of oil would mean for the San Bernardino area, noting: “The City of Long Beach has lifted the burden of taxation off of the shoulders of its citizens through the revenues produced from oil wells on city property” as well as to the initial investors.

A partial list of 64 notable local men were listed as examples of those willing to take this chance. Among them were such players in the Camp Cajon story as:

T.W. Duckworth, J.B. Kavanaugh E.T. Ham, W.A. Shay, Harold D. Shaw, R.H. Mack, George M. Cooley, W.L. Gill and J.W. Curtis.

This was not a quick shill operation, it involved major players on the local scene combining their efforts to join the local oil boom.

The property under discussion for exploration had been around 2,500 acres, about 2-1/2 miles from Camp Cajon “…on the old road to the summit.” Apparently, from a 1921 map updated in 1924 in the San Bernardino County Archives, the “test” well was located near the Santa Fe siding at Dell, north near the old John Brown Toll road. (photo 7) A total of $20,000 was needed then to drill this test well down to 2,500 feet in order to see if there was oil “in paying quantities” within this basin. Stock costs were $.50 per share, par value of $1.00 and you could pay 10% down and 10% per month to finance your investment. No comissions, no overhead expenses, all subscription money was to go into sinking the test well.

The results were now open for your inspection. Four years of intermittent effort had produced a dry well, 1,555 feet deep, or put another way, over the course of 1,400 days (excluding weekends) they’d drilled 13.33 inches on average per day. Not impressive in the slightest.

And they expected readers (investors) to believe they were about to strike commercial quantities of oil now?

During this time, Autumn in Southern California meant harvesting the various fruits and nuts found in groves that filled the countryside. For the Wrightwood area, that primarily meant apples (photo 8).

Note the advertisement predicts that visitors/vacationers are expected to be partaking in harvesting crops as well. This was a standard approach seen across the southland at the time. Quite often high school kids were released from school for a day of light work.

There was big national news this month with the first serious attempt to fly nonstop from New York to Paris and claim the Orteig Prize. During this period, conquering such distances by air represented one of the great challenges facing aviation.

After the First World War, Raymond Orteig, a French-born New York hotelier, became determined to encourage further advances in aircraft performance. To that end, in 1919 he offered a $25,000 prize to the first aviator to fly nonstop between New York and Paris, in either direction.

Orteig's offer of a $25,000 purse spurred interest in developing aircraft capable of making the flight, but no one succeeded during the original five-year period. Orteig eventually extended the offer for another five years, and by 1926 several serious contenders were preparing to compete.

In September 1926, a team of aviators, engineers and entrepreneurs prepared a modified Sikorsky S-35 three-engine aircraft for a nonstop flight from New York to Paris to win the Orteig Prize (photo 9).

The S-35 was piloted by famous World War I French flying ace René Fonck, accompanied by U.S. Navy Lt. Lawrence W. Curtin as copilot, radio operator Charles Clavier and mechanic Jacob Islamoff. Heavily loaded with fuel for the Atlantic crossing, the aircraft failed during its takeoff run from Roosevelt Field on September 21, crashed beyond the end of the field and burst into flames. Fonck and Curtin escaped, but Clavier and Islamoff were killed in the fire.

The Orteig Prize would finally be won the following year. On May 20–21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew the single-engine Spirit of St. Louis nonstop from New York to Paris. His 33½-hour flight was the first solo nonstop crossing of the Atlantic and made Lindbergh an international celebrity.

You can see a video of the Sikorsky S-35 crash on Youtube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuLK9t0CGm4 )

09/13/2026

Here's an article by columnist Mark Landis on the challenges of the newly developing trucking industry and early road building. Early highways like National Old Trails Road and Route 66 used oiled surfaces and Macadam that broke down quickly under heavy truck usage. State and local government agencies began developing weight regulations to prevent damage to fragile early road surfaces.

https://www.sbsun.com/2026/09/07/early-trucking-industry-pushed-for-highway-regulations-in-southern-california/

09/07/2026

Here's our belated August, 1926 edition of Camp Cajon, 100-Years-Ago, by researcher Gary Smith and Mark Landis (we’ll try and catch up this month). These monthly articles are a "deep dive" into the history around Camp Cajon, and the famous highways that passed through the area, such as Route 66 and National Old Trails Road.

100 Years Ago – August 1926
By G. E. Smith and Mark Landis

August 1926 saw the number of minor mentions of Camp Cajon climb to 22 for the month, rivaling the frequency seen during the camp’s earlier years. To be fair, eight of those mentions came from an advertising piece promoting the Big Pines resort area, while four more were reminders of an upcoming “Watermelon Feed” to be held at Camp Cajon by the Fraternal Order of Eagles on August 20.
“Bring the Ladies” was one of the tag lines, apparently intended to assure everyone that this would be a wholesome affair where the men would behave themselves. However, the August 8 edition of the San Bernardino Sun reported that the sponsoring group, Eagles Aerie No. 506—still active as of 2026—had changed its plans and moved the event to Irvingdale.

The Colton Daily Journal of August 11 carried a short article on a meeting of the San Bernardino Ad Club held that day in Colton. William Bristol, founder of Camp Cajon was the guest speaker, discussing “The Rancher’s Viewpoint on Advertising” as well as his candidacy for the Fifth District seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. The newspaper described Bristol as “keen and witty” and reported that his remarks were enjoyed by those in attendance.

A San Bernardino Sun advertisement published August 30, 1926, may have been the only advertising Bristol himself did on behalf of his campaign (Photo 1). As he admitted in the article, his friends seem to have done most of the heavy lifting. From a modern perspective, Bristol’s candidacy almost comes across as a lark rather than a determined effort to win public office. He essentially acknowledged that his priority was completing construction of the Acorn Lodge, his sprawling new home in Wrightwood, rather than convincing voters that he was the best man for supervisor (Photo 2 & 3).

In the advertisement, Bristol invited his constituents to join him at his unfinished Acorn Lodge where he was serving a steak dinner and providing a tour of the infamous San Andreas Fault that slices through the Cajon Pass and Swarthout Valley, where Wrightwood is located (Photo 4, 5, 6, & 7).

No similar invitation was extended to constituents to visit Camp Cajon, although the camp was mentioned in passing as part of his past. This continued what had become a familiar pattern with Bristol: brief references to his former roles as rancher, author and poet, but little emphasis on the years he had devoted to Camp Cajon.

One interesting feature of the advertisement is its border design, which incorporates a traditional Southwestern Native American symbol. Long before its appropriation by N**i Germany, variations of this ancient symbol appeared in Native American art and traditions of the Southwest, including among the Hopi and Navajo.

Another Bristol article appeared in the Sun on August 1 under the headline “By-Pass Road Up Swarthout Now Planned.” Swarthout Canyon was the route early roads used to get from the Cajon Pass to the Wrightwood area. The article expanded on Bristol’s previous discussion of the proposed roadway and reported that plans were now moving forward toward their completion.

According to Bristol, $114,000 had already been spent on the new road. There were also plans to improve the older lower section that connects with the National Old Trails Road, predecessor to Route 66, near Blue Cut. Spoiler alert: as of 2026, that portion of the plan never happened, and that section of the road is still a rough dirt road.

Completion of the new all-weather road would make it considerably easier for motorists to reach Wrightwood and Big Pines. Bristol also pointed out that the route formed another link in the larger concept of allowing motorists traveling between Southern, Central and Northern California to bypass Los Angeles and its traffic—which, even then, was considered a good thing. The bypass road would become today’s Highway 138 (Photo 8 ).

Major news concerning improvements to National Old Trails Road appeared in the August 27 edition of the Victor Valley News-Herald. State highway crews had begun oiling the surface of the road between Victorville and Barstow, along with other sections of the route. Depending upon conditions, the work was expected to continue eastward from Barstow to Daggett.

Heavy oil was applied to the roadway from tank trucks and followed by light harrowing, which mixed the oil into the existing road surface. When properly mixed and applied, the resulting surface was expected to become firm, relatively smooth and durable—approaching the smoothness of asphalt.

The newspaper cautioned that this type of oil-treated roadway was not as strong or resistant to wear as standard asphalt or concrete pavement. Nevertheless, oiled roads did provide good service in some locations at considerably less cost. Much depended upon the quality of the underlying foundation. A poor or thin base could break apart quickly, producing cracks and potholes that became progressively worse under traffic.

For motorists accustomed to driving over loose gravel, the new surface represented a substantial improvement. The unanswered question was how well it would withstand the increasing traffic—and particularly the heavier vehicles—that were beginning to use the highway.

Photos 9 - 11 come from the grading contractor’s Final Report on Contract 476, dated July 8, 1926, covering sections D, E and F of California Legislative Route Number (LRN) 31, which later became Route 66. The first photograph shows the roadway at Station 40 before work began; the second shows the same location after grading and oiling. The location can also be identified on CS 3167, Sheet 4, dated August 9, 1926, approximately three-quarters of a mile north of Helendale.

E.Q. Sullivan of the California State Highway’s District VIII began significantly improving the surface of the desert roads in 1925, and now the same principals were being applied on a much larger and more important scale—to one of the principal transcontinental automobile routes in the United States.

As discussed in previous “100 Years Ago” articles, the process involved considerably more than simply spraying heavy oil—or, conversely, thin tar—over a smoothed dirt or sand roadway. Instead, the oil was sprayed onto the prepared road and then thoroughly mixed into the existing surface material. The result was a thicker, firmer and more durable roadway that required less maintenance and provided a much better surface for automobile travel.

It was not a true substitute for a fully paved asphalt or concrete highway. Automobile traffic was increasing rapidly, and truck traffic would eventually make modern paved highways a necessity. Sullivan’s oil-treated surfaces simply could not provide the strength or longevity of permanent pavement.

For the moment, the method represented an important intermediate step in transforming the National Old Trails Road across the Mojave Desert—from Needles westward to the summit of Cajon Pass—into a faster, more reliable automobile highway. At this point, passenger automobiles were the primary concern; heavy truck traffic had not yet become the dominant factor it later would on the desert highway.

For tourists, the improvement was dramatic. A journey from Needles to the Cajon Pass that had previously consumed nearly two days could now be accomplished as one very long day’s drive. That was a major achievement and a considerable credit to E. Q. Sullivan and the highway crews responsible for the work.

For Camp Cajon, however, there was another side to that progress.
The better the National Old Trails Road became, the less essential Camp Cajon was as an end-of-the-day stopping place for travelers coming off the desert. If motorists could make the journey from Needles to San Bernardino in a single day, many were naturally inclined to push through those final 20 or so miles of Cajon Pass and continue into the city.

Certainly not everyone did so. Camp Cajon still offered travelers a welcome place to stop, rest and enjoy the surroundings (Photo 12). But every mile of the National Old Trails Road that became smoother, faster and easier to drive reduced, by a small degree, the Camp’s importance as a necessary stopping point.

Improved roads were changing the very nature of automobile travel. Instead of planning a day around the limitations of the highway, motorists could travel farther and begin choosing their stops based upon convenience and accommodations. San Bernardino offered hotels and other services, while the roadside cabins and motor courts that would soon evolve into the modern motel were beginning to reshape where automobile travelers spent the night.

Ironically, the highway improvements that made Camp Cajon easier to reach were also helping make it easier to pass by.

Camp Cajon was gradually changing from a place travelers needed to stop into a place they had to choose to stop—and that distinction would become increasingly important as the automobile age moved forward.

09/01/2026

For all you railroad and trolley fans, the San Bernardino Historical & Pioneer Society is presenting a program on Thursday night, 9/3 at 7:00 pm, entitled "Hollywood's Trains & Trolleys" presented by film historian Marc Wanamaker.

Marc will talk about the trolley routes and rail history that connected Hollywood studios from Boyle Heights to the Pacific Palisades. His presentation covers over 75 years of movie making, from The Squaw Man (1913) to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), featuring never-before-seen production photographs.

The program (barring any unforeseen issues) will be available to view on zoom.

Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89751803018?pwd=aDZKcEliUVdYQnEzQStNNzhGK2p3Zz09

Passcode: 726418

Below is a link to Marc's website:
https://bisonarchives.com/about

08/11/2026

Here's our belated 100-Years Ago article for July, 2026:

100 YEARS AGO – JULY 1926
By G. E. Smith and Mark Landis

July 4, 1926, marked the United States’ sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of the announcement of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with the actual signing having occurred on July 2nd, 1776. John Adams, a primary contributor at the Second Continental Congress where the ratification and signing took place, felt sure that the country would forever celebrate the 2nd for what the delegates had done that day.

You may remember that Camp Cajon was officially opened on July 4th, 1919, so the date had a special place in the camp’s history. The new Camp Cajon Monument was also inaugurated on July 4th, 100 years later in 2019, and that’s when today’s revitalized camp began taking shape (Photo 1).

July 1926 was a relatively quiet news month for Camp Cajon, with only about a dozen mentions in local newspapers. Three were directional mentions to direct motorists to Wrightwood and the Los Angeles County parks located in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains
There was a notice in the July 21 issue of the San Bernardino Sun stating that Lodge 211, Highland Knights of Pythias held a “steak supper” at Camp Cajon, with steaks to be supplied. Guests were requested to bring linen and cutlery, and the event was to start at 7:00 pm. On July 25, the Sun carried a single line report about this picnic, stating that over 100 people had attended (Photo 2). There were no mentions of the Knight’s proposed castle-style outpost building at Camp Cajon that had been in the planning stages for several years.

However, a letter of complaint from the Knights gathering was printed in the Sun on August 1, on the editorial page. Written by F.C. Hambly, the letter lauded the camp in its first few paragraphs, then went on to say that most attendees (he estimated about 110) arrived after dark and so didn’t see that Camp Cajon was in a “…rotten and filthy condition.” The darkness had obscured things “…so what the eye didn’t see the heart didn’t grieve…” but he clearly wanted the Sun to use its influence to get things cleaned up. Hambly was a Highlands native, so he may have known Camp Cajon’s founder William Bristol personally, but no additional commentary from the Sun was supplied for this piece.

The July 12, 1926, issue of the Sun carried a story calling out the State of California for its lack of attention to fixing the pavement problems on NOTR (National Old Trails Road), predecessor to Route 66 (Photo 3). The paper pointed out that the volume of traffic on the road was running at a record level, 48% higher than the previous year.

It seems obvious that with such continuous increases in traffic, NOTR could no longer be considered merely a county road, or even a state highway, but instead ought to be treated as a “national highway.” The Sun felt that money was the key, and the editor urged the people of the state to vote for higher gas taxes or other government measures to provide those needed funds.

In a counter perspective, the July 15, issue of the Barstow Printer carried an article about the extensive work being done on NOTR. The article described what San Bernardino County was doing, how the state had set up Division VIII of the Highway Department to maintain/improve the road, where the improvements had been made, and which areas still had problems. The article didn’t say that NOTR was in great condition, but it was adequate to handle traffic, and just barely in some sections. More road contracts were expected by year’s end.

Transcontinental automobile travel was becoming a popular endeavor for adventurous tourists in the late 1920s, and NOTR was often promoted as the best option for traveling across the country. The Current Wave Newspaper of Eminence, Missouri carried an interesting article about the condition of the road, entitled; “What sort of roads are encountered in touring from New York to California?”

The author attempted to clear up frequently printed generalities, by sharing first-hand, reliable information from the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The article called out the distance from Los Angeles to New York City (the early beginning and end of NOTR) as 3,186 miles (Photo 4). The article stated; “the motorist will go nearly half way on pavement. This will be on various sorts, including brick, oil, and macadam, and will total 1,450 miles of the journey. Those preferring gravel surface road to pavement will find 1,007 miles of this type of highway, including light and heavy graveling. Dirt surface road included some sanded, totals 729 miles.”

Another interesting bit of information was the various road elevations of NOTR, beginning with the highest point at Raton Pass on the Colorado-New Mexico border at 7,888 feet (Photo 5). The later path of Route 66 dipped south, and avoided Raton Pass altogether.

The article mentioned the Grand Canyon at an impressive altitude of 7,150 feet. This is a strong indication that a side trip to the Grand Canyon was generally considered a necessary “extension” of a cross-country trip on NOTR. The Cajon Pass was mentioned as 4,250 feet, and the Cumberland summit in Maryland was mentioned as the highest point in the east at 2,825 feet (Photo 6).

As an incentive to potential tourists, the article stated that; “Transcontinental travel has increased so rapidly during the past few years that ample provision is made for the comfort of motorists. There are filling stations, garages, eating houses, hotels, tourist camps and similar conveniences at short intervals for the entire distance across the continent.”

According to the Grand Canyon Historical Society, visitor records were shattered in June 1926, when 23,602 people entered the National Park. Park records stated; "Of the total, 21, 528 were registered on the south rim and 2,073 on the north (Photo 7). Travel by rail showed a decrease." The increase in visitors was undoubtedly helped by the increase in traffic on NOTR, and the road from Williams, Arizona to the canyon was a branch line of NOTR.

In his book “Tales of a Pathfinder” published in 1920, Anton Westgard (called "the Pathfinder" for his pioneer surveyor activities in determining where highways needed to be set up), wrote about his first auto trip to the Grand Canyon back in 1913. At that time only the occasional motor vehicle ventured up to the edge of the south rim where the El Tovar Hotel was located. There were no provisions such as a garage nor was there a facility to supply gasoline onsite. Westgard wrote: “When I urged the manager to take steps to provide an up-to-date garage as motorists were sure to come in ever increasing numbers in my footsteps … he maintained that the management did not care for that kind of patronage, and anyway there would not be very many motorists braving the wilds of Arizona.”

By 1915, Westgard wrote about his return to the South Rim to find: “A large garage with modern equipment, which that summer had housed over twelve hundred cars. Furthermore, a large extension was being constructed to take care of the increasing tourist traffic arriving by car. And the management was mighty glad to see them coming too.”

The Grand Canyon Historical Society reported that up to 25,800 people visited the Canyon in just one day during the busy summer months in 2025!

The July 18, 1926, issue of the Sun carried an interesting article about a potential huge water project being routed through the Cajon Pass. According to the article, the City of Los Angeles was exploring routes for a new aqueduct from the Colorado River to the city, and early surveys had shown a preferred route through the San Gorgonio Pass, south of the San Bernardino Mountains. The new idea being floated would bring a canal through the high desert north of the San Bernardino Mountains, and then turn south through the Cajon Pass, traveling in part through a giant tunnel system (Photo 8).

According to the Sun, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power superintendent William Mullholland stated that no route will be chosen until the necessary bonds for the massive project had been secured.

The cities in the San Bernardino Valley were excited at the prospect of the Cajon Pass route since the aqueduct would be at an elevation high enough to supply gravity-fed water to the region. Ultimately, the Colorado River Aqueduct built by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) would be constructed along the southerly route and not go through the Cajon Pass. Construction of this project employed roughly 30,000 workers over its construction span between 1933 and 1941.

In 1961, the State of California began construction of the California State Water Project (originally known as the Feather River Project), and that aqueduct does route water through the Cajon Pass area.
After crossing the Mojave Desert, water from the Feather River project flows via the aqueduct through the Mojave Siphon Powerplant and into Silverwood Lake, which sits immediately adjacent to the Cajon Pass. From Silverwood Lake, the water is conveyed through a massive tunnel directly underneath the San Bernardino Mountains to reach the Devil Canyon Powerplant above San Bernadino. This eastern branch of the aqueduct project was completed in 1973.

Much of the work on the California State Water Project took place at the same time the new Interstate 15 freeway was being built in the Cajon Pass. The freeway fully bypassed Route 66 in the Cajon Pass in 1969. Imagine if the MWD had used the Cajon Pass route for their Colorado River Aqueduct, and later the Feather River Aqueduct was built through the same area!

Today, the Cajon Pass corridor carries an amazing amount of critical infrastructure. These include two distinct, heavy traffic transcontinental railroad lines, the I-15 Freeway, the Feather River Aqueduct, three major electrical transmission lines, transcontinental fiber optic cables, and 3 vital high-pressure natural gas transmission pipelines that connect Southern California to interstate supplies (Photo 9).

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