Fork of the Road was the locale along the

Mojave River The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, ...

where the junction of the

Mojave Trail The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road (formerly the Mohave Trail), is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched ...

Mojave Road The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road (formerly the Mohave Trail), is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched f ...

and the Old Spanish Trail /

Mormon Road Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of ...

was located in

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

. The location of Fork of the Road was on the north side of the Mojave River, 18.75 miles southwest of Bitter Spring, about 14.5 miles east of

Grapevine ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...

, and 10.9 miles west of

Camp Cady Camp Cady (1860–1861, 1866–1871) was a U.S. Army Camp, on the Mojave Road near the Mojave River in the Mojave Desert, located about 20 miles east of modern-day Barstow, California in San Bernardino County, at an elevation of 1690 feet. ...

. The location was an oasis where the Mojave River came to the surface. There travelers could get water, camp, rest and graze their animals before or after crossing the desert.

Alcorn Ranch

By the fall of 1864, a man named Alcorn, from Kentucky and his wife from South Carolina, had started a ranch at Fork of the Road. From November 13, 1864, following an Indian attack on settlers along the Mojave River the Alcorn Ranch was the gathering place for defense of the settler families along the river between Point of Rocks and

. Mrs. Jane Rousseau who traveled with her husband, a doctor, in a wagon train from Salt Lake City to Southern California in late 1864, wrote that Alcorn had supplied them with feed for their horses when they had run out of it at Bitter Spring. They stopped at the Alcorn Ranch and her husband treated "a young man about to die, a son of Mr. Allcorn....", before moving on up the Mojave River.Richard D. and Kathryn L. Thompson, Pioneer of the Mojave: The Life and Times of Aaron G. Lane, Desert Knolls Press, Apple Valley, 1995

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fork of the Road Old Spanish Trail (trade route) Mormon Road Mojave Desert Trails and roads in the American Old West Historic trails and roads in California Geography of San Bernardino County, California History of Southern California Locale (geographic)