Mud Spring, formerly called ''Aquaje Lodoso'' (muddy watering place), is a
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
and historic site in the western
Antelope Valley
The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and the ...
, within northern
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...
,
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 ...
.
It is located the western
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...
at an elevation of , north of
Lake Hughes
Lake Hughes is an unincorporated community in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, northwest of Palmdale and north of the Santa Clarita Valley, in the Angeles National Forest. It is on the sag pond wat ...
and east of the
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 ...
.
History
El Camino Viejo
Aquaje Lodoso was an
aguaje, a watering place on the Spanish and Mexican
El Camino Viejo
El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles ( en, the Old Road to Los Angeles), also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail, was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta Cal ...
inland north–south route in colonial
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
. It was located between
Elizabeth Lake and
Cow Spring water sources.
It was also a watering place on the
Old Tejon Pass
The Old Tejon Pass (originally Tejon Pass) is a mountain pass in the Tehachapi Mountains linking Southern and Central California.
Geography
The pass is located in Kern County, California, to the northeast of the current Tejon Pass. It runs at t ...
road between the Antelope and San Joaquin Valleys in the 1840s and early 1850s until that road was replaced by the
Stockton–Los Angeles Road
The Stockton–Los Angeles Road, also known as the Millerton Road, Stockton–Mariposa Road, Stockton–Fort Miller Road or the Stockton–Visalia Road, was established about 1853 following the discovery of gold on the Kern River in Old Tulare Cou ...
, a new and easier road through
Fort 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 ...
.
Stockton - Los Angeles Road
The
Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division had a station operating at Mud Springs, on 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 ...
.
In 1860, a correspondent of the
Daily Alta California
The ''Alta California'' or ''Daily Alta California'' (often miswritten ''Alta Californian'' or ''Daily Alta Californian'') was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper.
''California Star''
The ''Daily Alta California'' descended from the first ...
wrote an account of his travel by
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 ...
to Los Angeles from San Francisco. He mentions that 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 ...
(1857-1861) had a station operating at Mud Springs in 1860.
[ List of Butterfield Overland Mail Stations, from the New York Times, October 14 1858, "Itinerary of the Route"](_blank)
/ref>
It was east from French John's Station, and north from Clayton's—Widow Smith's Station
Widow Smith's Station, also known as Major Gordon's Station and Clayton's Station, was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division from 1858 to 1861 in southern California.
Geography
The station was on the Stockton - Los An ...
near San Francisquito Pass in the Sierra Pelona Mountains
The Sierra Pelona, also known as the Sierra Pelona Ridge or the Sierra Pelona Mountains, is a mountain ridge in the Transverse Ranges in Southern California. Located in northwest Los Angeles County, the ridge is bordered on the north by the San An ...
. Notes of a Trip to Los Angeles No. 1, Daily Alta California, Volume 12, Number 3888, 5 October 1860 — Page 1
/ref>
See also
*Butterfield Overland Mail in California Butterfield may refer to:
* Butterfield (surname)
* Butterfield Market
Places
* Butterfield, Dublin, a suburb and townland of Dublin, Ireland
* Butterfield Green, Luton, England
United States
* Butterfield, Minnesota
* Butterfield, Missouri ...
References
Antelope Valley
Springs of California
Former settlements in Los Angeles County, California
El Camino Viejo
Butterfield Overland Mail in California
Stagecoach stops in the United States
{{LosAngelesCountyCA-geo-stub