Fort Tejon in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

is a former

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon (''La Cañada de las Uvas'') between the

San Emigdio Mountains The San Emigdio Mountains are a part of the Transverse Ranges in Southern California, extending from Interstate 5 at Lebec and Gorman on the east to Highway 33–166 on the west. They link the Tehachapis and Temblor Range and form the southern ...

and

Tehachapi Mountains The Tehachapi Mountains (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately in southern Kern County and northwest ...

. It is in the area of

Tejon Pass The Tejon Pass , previously known as ''Portezuelo de Cortes'', ''Portezuela de Castac'', and Fort Tejon Pass is a mountain pass between the southwest end of the Tehachapi Mountains and northeastern San Emigdio Mountains, linking Southern Califor ...

along

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

Kern County, California Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County comprise ...

, the main route through the mountain ranges separating the Central Valley from the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary Structural basin, basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an wikt:anomalous, anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountai ...

and

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. The fort's location protected the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

from the south and west.

Purpose

The fort's mission was to suppress stock rustling and protect settlers from attacks by discontent

Californio Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

s (pre-statehood residents), and Native American tribes, including the

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...

and Mojave, and to monitor the less aggressive Emigdiano living nearby. The Emigdiano, who were closely related to the

Chumash Chumash may refer to: *Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism *Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California *Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California See also *Chumash traditional n ...

of the coastal and interior lands to the west, had several villages near Fort Tejon. After the earlier Spanish and Mexican colonial

Indian Reductions Reductions ( es, reducciones, also called ; , pl. ) were settlements created by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such re ...

, they were generally cooperative with the European-American settlers and the U.S. Army.

History

At the urging of

Edward Fitzgerald Beale Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale (February 4, 1822 – April 22, 1893) was a national figure in the 19th-century United States. He was a naval officer, military general, explorer, frontiersman, Indian affairs superintendent, California rancher, ...

, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California, the U.S. Army established Fort Tejon in 1854. Fort Tejon was the headquarters of the First U.S. Dragoons until those

Regular Army A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregulars, irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenary, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the ...

troops were transferred to the East in July 1861 soon after the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. The fort was re-occupied by California volunteer troops in 1863. Those units included Companies D, E and G of the 2nd California Volunteer Cavalry from July 6 to August 17, 1863; and Company B of the 2nd California Volunteer Infantry, which remained there until Fort Tejon was abandoned for good on September 11, 1864. The fort lay along the

Stockton - Los Angeles Road Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand * Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chir ...

. From 1858, it was a

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

station on the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

, which followed the same route as far as

Visalia Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...

. From 1858, Fort Tejon was the western terminus of the experimental

U.S. Camel Corps The United States Camel Corps was a mid-19th-century experiment by the United States Army in using camels as pack animals in the Southwestern United States. Although the camels proved to be hardy and well suited to travel through the region, th ...

, which used imported

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

s in an effort to carry supplies across arid regions in the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

. The soldiers found the camels hardy, but temperamental, and they spooked the horses used by the cavalry. The great earthquake of 1857, which became known as the

Fort Tejon earthquake The 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake occurred at about 8:20 a.m. (Pacific Time Zone, Pacific time) on January 9 in Central California, central and Southern California. One of the largest recorded earthquakes in the United States, with an estimate ...

, was centered nearly 100 miles away. The earthquake became associated with the fort by name because the area near the

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

was sparsely populated. The most reliable report of the event was issued from the fort, nearly distant.

Fort Tejon State Historic Park

The state historic park is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. In 1940, at the urging of local citizens, the

Tejon Ranch Company Tejon Ranch Company (), based in Lebec, California, is one of the largest private landowners in California. The company was incorporated in 1936 to organize the ownership of a large tract of land that was consolidated from four Mexican land gr ...

deeded to the State of California to established a state park. Its original historic buildings have been documented by the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

. Several buildings have been restored, and two are partially open to visitors. The restored barracks contain display cases of uniforms and a recreated troopers' quarters. The commanding officer's quarters have several restored and furnished rooms. Officers' quarters nearby are only stabilized in a state of

arrested decay Arrested decay is a term coined by the United States, U.S. State of California, to explain how it would preserve its Bodie, California, Bodie State Historic Park. A more common application of this concept is the preservation of war ruins as memoria ...

, with walls buttressed by masonry and lumber and tied together with reinforcing rods. A

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In m ...

building has been reconstructed and houses materials used in

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

life and Civil War reenactments. The sites of former buildings, planned for reconstruction, are marked by split rail fences along the outlines of their foundations. A park office, containing exhibits of dragoon life and restrooms, is at the east end of the parade ground near the parking lot by

. The park grounds include the original barracks, where the soldiers slept, and also the grave site of

Peter Lebeck Peter Lebeck (died October 17, 1837, also Lebec or Lebecque) was an early settler of Kern County, California, of whom little is known about. He was killed by a bear, probably a California grizzly, in 1837. The tree he was buried under is known ...

, which is indicated with a historical marker. The nearby town of Lebec is named after him. Fort Tejon is the site of frequent Civil War reenactments presented by the Fort Tejon Historical Association.Fort Tejon State Historic Park pamphlet, State of California, Department of Parks & Recreation, Sacramento, California, 1991. The park contains a number of natural features of interest, including centuries-old valley oaks and

California condor The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to nor ...

1857 Fort Tejon earthquake

The Fort Tejon earthquake occurred at about 8:20 AM (Pacific time) on January 9, 1857. It ruptured the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is Fault (geology)#Strike-slip fau ...

for a length of about , between Parkfield and

San Bernardino San Bernardino (; Spanish language, Spanish for Bernardino of Siena, "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a ...

. Displacement along the fault was as much as 9 meters (30 feet) in the Carrizo Plain but less along the

Palmdale Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On Aug ...

section of the fault, closest to Los Angeles. The amount of fault slip gives this earthquake a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

of 7.9, comparable to that of the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

. Based on the (uncertain) distribution of foreshocks for this earthquake, it is assumed that the beginning of the fault rupture (the epicenter) was in the area between Parkfield and Cholame, about 60 miles northwest. Nevertheless, it is usually called the "Fort Tejon" earthquake because this was the location of the greatest damage, most of the area being unpopulated at the time.

References

Image:Fort_Tejon_Restored_Barracks.JPG, East end of the restored barracks building. The unreconstructed kitchen/mess hall is outlined by split rail fence to the left. Image:Barracks_Interior_1.JPG, Barracks interior showing soldiers' quarters. Image:Barracks_Interior_2.JPG, The day room in the barracks. Image:Barracks_Interior_3.JPG, Uniform items on display in the day room. Image:Uniform_Display_in_Barracks.JPG, One of the several uniform displays in the barracks. Image:Dragoon_Display_in_Barracks.JPG, Model of Dragoon in the barracks. Image:Fort_Tejon_Barracks_from_CO_Qtrs.JPG, View of the barracks from the front porch of the commanding officer's quarters. The split rail fence at the near end of the barracks denotes the foundation outline of another barracks yet to be reconstructed. Image:Fort_Tejon_Quartermaster_Building.JPG, The quartermaster building. Image:Quartermaster_Building_interior.JPG, The interior of the quartermaster building showing materials used during Dragoon and Civil War reenactments staged at Fort Tejon. Image:Fort_Tejon_Commanding_Officers_Quarters.JPG, The restored commanding officer's quarters. Image:Fort_Tejon_CO_Quarters_Interior_1.JPG, A furnished room inside the commanding officer's quarters. Image:Fort_Tejon_CO_Quarters_Interior_2.JPG, The dining room inside the commanding officer's quarters. Image:Fort_Tejon_CO_Qtrs_Child_and_Servant_Bedroom.JPG, Bedroom for the children and servant on the second floor of the commanding officer's quarters. Image:Fort_Tejon_CO_Qtrs_Adult_Bedroom.JPG, Wolf rug in the adults' bedroom on the second floor of the commanding officer's quarters. Image:Fort_Tejon_CO_Qtrs_Roof_Reshingling.JPG, The roof of the commanding officer's quarters receiving new shingles, showing the detail of roof construction. Image:Fort_Tejon_Unrestored_Officers_Qtrs.JPG, Officers' quarters. This building has been stabilized but not restored, and is not open to the public. The interiors may be viewed through the wire fencing. Image:Wall_Stabilization_in_Officers_Qtrs.JPG, Detail showing the interior wall bracing needed to stabilize the structure of the officers' quarters. Image:Army_Camel_Corp_training.jpg, Army Camel Corp training Image:Hi_Jolly_tomb.jpg, Army Camel Corp monument

External links

Official Fort Tejon State Historic Park websiteThe Fort Tejon Historical Association
* * * * * * {{National Register of Historic Places Tejon Tejon California in the American Civil War Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass 1854 establishments in California California Historical Landmarks Tejon National Register of Historic Places in Kern County, California Tejon Formerly Used Defense Sites in California Buildings and structures in Kern County, California History of Kern County, California Tejon Stagecoach stops in the United States Butterfield Overland Mail in California San Emigdio Mountains Tehachapi Mountains Historic American Buildings Survey in California American Civil War on the National Register of Historic Places Tejon 1864 disestablishments in California