The sad remains of someone's home...

Photo by Scott Schwartz

All rights reserved.

January, 2018

This is Tonie Evelyn Seger's cabin, which is located near Burro-Schmidt Tunnel in the El Paso Mountains. Seger, whose first name was, in fact, "Evelyn", died in 2003 at the age of 95.  She lived on the site for over forty years, after moving from New England in the hopes that the dry desert climate would improve her husband's health.  After her husband died, Seger stayed on at the site, and would regale visitors (including your author) with tales of her life and of desert lore.

Once, this was Seger's home.  Since her death, however, vandals and souvenir hunters have all but gutted the cabins.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

The section of the road under contention, is the spot where the truck-scales are today. 

The Cajon Pass: A Little HIstory...

Lane’s response was simple:  Driggers had no right to collect tolls at the lower gate in the first place!  Lane reasoned that the lower segment of the road was nothing more than an improvement of an existing public road that had been open to the public for over two decades!

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

By this time, Brown had completely rebuilt portions of the road.  The problem was that other parts of the road had been ignored and were still in disrepair.  Naturally, quite a few road-users were unhappy about this state of affairs, most notably a Captain Lane and George Blake.  Lane and Blake publicly stated that they would not pay the toll if the road was not repaired by May 1, 1875.

True to his declaration, Lane refused to pay the toll, and Driggers (whom the reader will recall was now in charge of the road) filed a lawsuit against Lane.

In his suit, Driggers charged that Lane with forcing himself past the tollgate without paying on two occasions, and with driving his team around the gate on three others.  The total amount of the suit was $96.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

Despite the new-found potential for earning huge profits, Brown decided to lease the road to a San Bernardino man by the name of John J. Driggers.

Taking effect on May 1, 1875, the one-year lease would cost Driggers $125 per month, and it covered all of the structures near the lower tollgate.

In addition, Driggers was supposed to repair and maintain the road as necessary.  Naturally, the lease allowed Brown and his family members to use the road without charge, so long as the family caravans included no more than two freight wagons and one stage coach.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

His plans were ambitious, to say the least.  In the fall of 1874, Brown stated that he was going to move the road to a spot where the grade wasn’t so steep.  One wonders why he didn’t build the road with this in mind, in the first place.  Nonetheless, work proceeded, with blasting done in order break the hard rock composing much of the pass.

By February of 1875, the work was done.  Essentially, a new road had been built at the summit, and Brown was ecstatic.  Or, so it seemed.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

After an early breakfast, the anonymous traveler and the deputy continued on their way, the next morning.

The article-writer practically gushes about Brown’s road, stating that Brown deserved the community’s gratitude.

To those who were in the business of transporting goods, however, the road’s poor condition was still an issue.  By 1874, the use of Brown’s road had increased dramatically.  This was due, in large part, to the need for supplies in mining towns all over the south west.

Brown could hardly ignore this, and his revenues from the toll road had grown to the point where he finally decided to make substantial upgrades to the road.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

Fears then introduced the writer and the deputy to the other guests.  So, what kind of guests did you meet at a toll road station during the late 1800’s?  Well, the other guests included-not surprisingly-teamsters who were hauling goods.  One guest of note, though, was a soldier who’d been discharged from the Army, after being exonerated in the killing of two Indians.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

At about 3 PM, the travelers and their mules arrived at a station that was known as “The Upper Toll Gate.”  A transplanted Tennessean by the name of James Fears ran The Upper Toll Gate with his wife.  The couple-who were both fifty-one years old- lived at the station with two of their daughters (who were fourteen and twenty-three years old, respectively). 

Being living creatures, the traveler’s animals required feeding and watering, which Fears took care of upon the traveler’s arrival. 

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

The writer began his trip on August 8, 1871, departing San Bernardino at 9 AM.  Apparently on some sort of legal business, the writer was escorted by a sheriff’s deputy.  The two traveled in a wagon that was pulled by two mules, and their provisions consisted of sardines, oysters, crackers, and a bottle of rye.  The writer had been told that rye was good for snake bites.

Having traveled twelve miles, the pair stopped at Martin’s Ranch, which was run by Englishman George Martin.  The Ranch was located near present-day Devore, and the two mules were watered while the writer and the deputy relaxed.  They were back on the trail in twenty minutes. 

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

With complaints- many equally as impassioned as the foregoing-on the rise, and with the receipt of a petition from teamsters regarding the miserable condition of the road in 1873, the Board of Supervisors came to the conclusion that...the problem needed some attention.  Nonetheless, the Supervisors opted to do nothing at that time.

Inaction by the Supervisors did not phase some, who practically sang the road’s praises.  One member of this minority was an anonymous writer whose journey through the Cajon Pass was chronicled in a four-article series which ran in the San Bernardino Guardian.  

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

Given the problems that he was having with the road, it comes as no surprise that Brown decided to take a vacation during the spring of 1868.   Since he would be gone for a year, he needed someone to take care of the road during his absence, and he placed newspaper ad which announced that he was leasing the road to two men.  The two lessees, a Mr. McKenney and a Mr. Mathews appear to have had no major problems during the majority of their tenure, but March of 1869 saw heavy rains damage the road severely.  So bad was the flooding, that a party of men, who were on the road where it crosses Cajon Creek, lost their wagon, the items that were in the wagon, and their four horses – which had drowned.  The men themselves almost drowned, too!

Despite the seemingly impossible task of keeping the road in usable condition, sympathy for Brown’s headaches was scarce.  The outcry regarding the road’s poor condition actually grew louder as traffic along the toll road increased over the years. 

One person described the Brown Toll Road as a “narrow, deep and tortuous canyon, the roughest I have ever traversed on wheels; there was ten miles of this from the tollgate to Martin’s Ranch.”

This sandy outcropping in the Cajon Pass can eventually become a muddy mess, if it rains long enough.

Photo by Scott Schwartz.

All rights reserved, 

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

With the cost of the repairs exceeding revenue received from the tolls, Brown lobbied the San Bernardino Board of Supervisors for a rate-hike.  This was denied, despite a law which prohibited the Supervisors from regulating the toll in such a way that precluded dividend of at least three percent per month being earned from the road.  The reason for the Supervisors’ decision has been lost to the mists of history.

Brown received some illusory relief in the form of reduced tax assessments beginning in 1867.  By 1869, the tax had gone down by $400.   This relief was an illusion, because the tax was based upon the road’s value.  The declining tax reflected the road’s declining value due to all damage caused by the flooding. 

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

And, of course, the weather was also a continuing problem. 

December of 1867 saw Brown’s road rendered nearly impassable, again, due to a batch of storms which practically destroyed the road.

Through a letter to the editor that was published in the San Bernardino Guardian, Brown tried to assuage road-user’s fears by writing that he was making “steady, if not rapid” progress on the repairs.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

Indians continued to be a problem for those manning the upper toll house, as illustrated by the following incident:

One day, a toll-house worker saw a bird diving on something that was hidden in the bushes up on the hill.  Since this worker was always worried about Indian attacks, he naturally fired a shot into the spot that the bird was so attentively investigating.  Then, all was quiet.

Finally making his way to the spot after thinking about the incident overnight, the worker discovered the corpse of an Indian.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

For the most part, the lower toll-house and its staff escaped the attention of hostile Indians.  The only notable incident, was the theft of eight good horses.

It was a different story for the upper toll-house, however.  

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

But, even after second the toll-house was built, at least one clever cattleman found a way to circumvent the toll.  He simply took his wagons through the toll gate, and drove his cattle through a canyon, avoiding the $150 charge for the three thousand head of cattle that he was driving.

Given the ruggedness of the terrain, driving three thousand head of cattle around the toll-gate must have been quite a feat!   Image by Scott Schwartz.  All rights reserved. 

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

Perhaps not too shockingly, a number of cattlemen were actually bypassing the toll-house by taking a route that ran through the western valley.  There, these men would take Sanford’s road (the reader will recall that Sanford’s Road was used by those who paid “subscription” fees, hence, there was no toll-house) which merged with Brown’s road beyond the toll-house.  The ignored toll-house was located in the “upper narrows.”  The solution, of course, was to build a toll-house in the “lower narrows.”

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

W.F. Holcomb and a party of three others pursued the Indians, but abandoned the effort after reaching Tehachapi.

Only a year would pass before another incident took place.  It was May of 1863, when some horse thieves helped themselves to two of Brown’s mules and three horses (one of which belonged to a freight-hauler who was transporting wares to Holcomb Valley.)  Again, the perpetrators made it up the desert, and they were able to lose the Sheriff who was in pursuit.

Once the road was built, Brown’s main responsibilities were these:

·        Collect the tolls.  This was a toll-road, after all.

·        Repair the road, when necessary.

·        Watch for hostile Indians.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History- Brown's woes...

The toll-keeper’s name was David Noble Smith.  On the day in question, he and his hired helper, Larkin Reeder, were working on the grounds when Indians began shooting at them from the nearby hills.  Both men were able to run for cover, but not before Smith was seriously wounded.

The Cajon Pass: A Little History...

One issue was the toll house itself, which, sitting in the upper narrows, constituted a very tempting target for thieves and marauders. 

Brown, for his part, had seen evidence of Indian presence in the Cajon Pass.  Fearing for his family’s safety, he’d moved with them out of the area by the spring of 1862.  This was probably good timing on Brown’s part, because Indians attacked the toll keeper and the toll keeper’s assistant in May of that year.  

The attached video gives some idea of how easy it was for marauders to hide in this rugged country.

A resolute Brown re-built the road, but it cost him nearly all of his assets to do so.  Sadly, Brown’s woes didn’t end after the restoration of his toll road. 

A seemingly natural clearing in the Cleghorn Mountains, which tower over the east-side of the Cajon Pass.
Photo by Scott Schwartz.
All rights reserved.