Ridge Route, Old

Built in 1915. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.

From the record

“The Ridge Route, officially the Castaic-Tejon Route and colloquially known as the Grapevine, was a two-lane highway between Los Angeles County and Kern County, California, United States. Opened in 1915 and paved with concrete between 1917 and 1921, the road was the first paved highway directly linking the Los Angeles Basin with the San Joaquin Valley over the Tejon Pass and the rugged Sierra Pelona Mountains ridge south of Gorman.”
Wikipedia article Ridge Route, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1997 · category: Structure · built in 1915.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Along Old Ridge Rte., roughly bounded by Sandberg and Canton Canyon, Castaic, 93532
When was it listed? September 1997
Category. structure
Census division. Newhall
When was it built? 1915
National Register reference number. 97001113 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1903 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Ridge Route, Old, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering Ridge Route, Old, surveyed 1903

Fires near this property

421 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 421 fires within 5 miles of Ridge Route, Old between 1992 and 2020, burning about 164,808 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 17 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Equipment and vehicle use	227
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	133
Arson/incendiarism	17
Smoking	14
Debris and open burning	10
Recreation and ceremony	8
Natural	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Fireworks	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2015	Natural	1.0 acres	Angeles National Forest	LIEBRE
9 September 2003	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	WHITE
8 September 1998	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	CAT
7 September 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	ALAMO
6 September 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.7 acres	Angeles National Forest	BRAKE
6 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	BRIDGE
6 September 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Los Angeles County Fire Department	not named
6 September 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	BOB

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Ridge Route, Old: 1 unknown, 1 prospect, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Stone, Dimension, Lead, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Gillette	Gold, Silver	Past Producer
Lenard D. Rymer	Stone, Dimension	Unknown
Silver Mountain	Gold, Lead	Prospect

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Storms near this property

6 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Castaic, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 wildfire. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
March 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Castaic	-	The Whitaker Peak RAWS sensor reported a thunderstorm wind gust of 59 MPH).
September 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Castaic	-	Strong thunderstorm wind gusts were reported near Lake Castaic in Los Angeles county. Southern California Edison sensors (Castaic Lake and Castaic Recreational Area) reported wind gusts of 59 MPH.
July 2015	Flash Flood	Castaic	-	Strong thunderstorms developed near the burn scar of the Powerhouse Fire. Heavy rain from the thunderstorms generated significant mud and debris flows across Lake Hughes Road.
September 2002	Wildfire	Castaic	-	The Freeway Fire burned over 1,100 acres of land in the Angeles National Forest. The Freeway Fire closed down Interstate 5 for several hours, but no injuries or deaths were reported.
April 1999	Hail	Castaic	-	A severe thunderstorm produced one inch hail near the community of Castaic.
December 2004	Flash Flood	Castaic	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Los Angeles County

Maps showing this location

11 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1903 USGS Tejon quadrangle1:125000 - 7 printings
1932 USGS Beartrap Canyon quadrangle1:24000
1938 USGS Beartrap Canyon quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Liebre Mountain quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1981 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1995 USGS Liebre Mountain quadrangle1:24000

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 97001113 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Angeles County	All 616 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.