Red Pass is a gap in the

Avawatz Mountains The Avawatz Mountains are located in San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert. Name There are several theories for the origin of the name Avawatz. It could be derived from the Mohave Indian term "Avi-Ahwat", or "red rock". Alter ...

, in

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the ...

. Red Pass, lies between the

Silurian Valley Silurian Valley is a valley in the Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California. The valley trends in a north–south direction, its mouth located just southeast of the south end of Death Valley at . Its head is at . The valley is drained ...

and the valley drained by an as yet unnamed tributary of Salt Creek, which drains much of the area of

Fort Irwin National Training Center Fort Irwin National Training Center (Fort Irwin NTC) is a major training area for the United States military in the Mojave Desert in northern San Bernardino County, California. Fort Irwin is at an average elevation of . It is located northeast o ...

, through Red Pass into the Silurian Valley and into the

Amargosa River The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, 185 miles (298 km) long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, int ...

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...

History

Red Pass was a pass for the Old Spanish Trail, where they passed through the Avawatz Mountains between the watering place at

Salt Spring A brine spring or salt spring is a saltwater spring. Brine springs are not necessarily associated with halite deposits in the immediate vicinity. They may occur at valley bottoms made of clay and gravel which became soggy with brine seeped downslo ...

and Bitter Spring.Edward Leo Lyman, Overland Journey from Utah to California: Wagon Travel from the City of Saints to the City of Angels, University of Nevada Press, 2008. From 1847, the Old Spanish Trail became a wagon road, later called the

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 S ...

pioneered by a party of Mormons led by

Jefferson Hunt Jefferson Hunt (January 20, 1803 – May 11, 1879) was a U.S. western pioneer, soldier, and politician. He was a captain in the Mormon Battalion, brigadier general in the California State Militia, a California State Assemblyman, and a representa ...

in 1847. From 1849 it became known by the Forty-Niners as the "Southern Route", of the

California Trail The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail f ...

, the winter route of the Forty-niners and later American immigrants to California. From 1855 after the route was modified and improvements made by the State of California and the Federal government, the winter trade route and freight wagon road between

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and

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 ...

, it was known as the Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road.

References

External links

Red Pass to Bitter Spring: Retracing an 1849 Journey, from cannundrum.blogspot.com Tuesday, May 12, 2009 accessed October 5, 2015
Contains recent photos and description of Red Pass. Old Spanish Trail (trade route) Mormon Road Landforms of San Bernardino County, California {{US-mil-hist-stub