Over The El Paso Mountains...

      El Paso Mountains:  Drone image.  The Sierra Nevada range can be seen in the distance.

Cajon Pass...

                                                     When the Cajon Pass was green...

El Paso Mountains...

         1/50th sec. @ f/13.  ISO 250.  Nikon D7200.

Horse Thievery In The Cajon Pass...

 

Gradually, the Cajon Pass became the route of choice for various trappers, prospectors, settlers, merchants…and horse thieves. 

 Indeed, the most famous horse thief was a Ute Indian who was known as Chief Walkara.  Born in Utah – in either 1808 or 1815 (accounts vary) Walkara was referred to by some as the “greatest” horse thief in history.

 Walkara’s heyday was the 1840’s and early 1850’s.  During those years, Walkara would raid the ranches in southern California and then drive the stolen horses up through the Cajon Pass. Walkara would also kidnap any Piute Indians (including women and children) encountered along the way.  These captives would then be sold to Spanish or Mexican merchants as slaves. 

 Walkara’s most famous raid was one in which three to five thousand stolen horses were herded through the Cajon Pass to the high desert.  According to some accounts, the dust kicked up by the horses could be seen for fifty miles! 

-Scott Schwartz "Before The Blacktop."

Parallels With The Past...

 The Alpha and the Omega of roads.  The old toll road is on the left as seen from my drone, while motorized vehicles move along the 15 Freeway.  Cajon Pass.

Cajon Pass...

 

The word “cajon” means “box,” in Spanish.  And, that word certainly describes some of the isolated canyons here.   “Cajon” also formed part of the name that was officially given to the area by Padre Joaquin Pascual Nuez in his 1819 diaries: ex-Caxon de San Gabriel de Amuscopiabit. “Amuscopiabit” was the name of the Native American settlement that was located in the area.

 

However, military governor Pedro Fages may have been the first white man to travel though the Cajon Pass.  The year was 1772, and Fages was chasing some Spanish Army deserters. 

Wagon ruts along the old toll road...

                                                           Cajon Pass.