Ventura County Landmark No. 105: Freight Road

Across the county line in Los Angeles County, California State Parks operates the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, which covers an area rich in natural and cultural significance and where the Simi Hills meet the Santa Susana Mountains (California State Parks, 2016). According to California State Parks (2016), “the last Spanish governor of California, Pablo Vicente de Sola, requested laborers from Mission San Fernando to widen and improve the pass to accommodate carretas (ox-driven carts), as well as herds of sheep and cattle. In 1859, the State and local counties funded a contract with James P. Thompson to improve the existing oxcart route to accommodate stagecoaches and flat-bottomed mud wagons. It opened in 1861 as the Coast Stage Line, used by the Butterfield Overland Company to deliver mail between Los Angeles and San Francisco.”

Upon its completion, Stagecoach Road, also known as “Pass Road,” served for the next 14 years as the main commercial route between San Francisco and Los Angeles (Maki, 2010). The road descended from the mountain pass to Smith Road, running westwards through the Simi Valley, following the line of present-day Los Angeles Avenue, to Ventura (Maki, 2010).

According to Maki (2010), “Overland Stagecoach discontinued service over Stagecoach Road in 1874, but a local stage line and farmers continued to use the road to transport travelers and crops between the San Fernando Valley and Simi until circa 1898, when a freight road was completed west of the pass. Some farmers continued to use the Stagecoach Road, but most abandoned it in 1917 in favor of the newly completed Santa Susana Pass Road.”