Bouquet Canyon, also known as Hangman's Canyon and Dead Man's Canyon, is a canyon in

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

Description

Bouquet Canyon is one of many canyons branching from the

Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) is part of the upper watershed of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. The valley was part of the Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant. Located in Los Angeles County, its main population center is the ...

in Los Angeles County, whose streams feed the Santa Clara River. The canyon's main stream, Bouquet Creek, begins 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 ...

, near

Leona Valley Leona Valley (''Leona'', Spanish for "Lioness") is a census-designated place located in the geographic Leona Valley of northern Los Angeles County, California, in the transition between the Sierra Pelona Mountains and Mojave Desert, just west of ...

Bouquet Reservoir Bouquet Reservoir is an artificial lake in the Angeles National Forest of Los Angeles County, California about west from Palmdale. At elevation of in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, the reservoir capacity is and is formed by Bouquet Canyon Dam o ...

, formed by the earthen Bouquet Dam is situated along the creek, and forms part of the

Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley ...

system. The two-lane Bouquet Canyon Road follows the stream from Leona Valley to the Saugus neighborhood in the city of

Santa Clarita Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17th ...

, where it becomes a major thoroughfare.

Name origin

The name "Bouquet" is the name of the Californian historic ranch established upland from the crossing of Bouquet Canyon Road and 'Newhall' Ranch Road, and founded by a French ''vacher'' who landed in California off a Spanish ship. ''Buque'' is Spanish for "ship" and ''bouquet'' derives from the ranch's French origins. Bouquet Ranch is the only section of historic St. Francis ranch that was legally parceled off and continued under the terms of the Protocol of Querétaro, specified in the Californian Constitution, before agents of the Northeastern Establishment were sent West to take control of lands and cities in the wake 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 canyon is nicknamed the "Hangman's Canyon" or "Dead Man's Canyon", after an event in the

Castaic Range War The Castaic Range War, also known as the Jenkins-Chormicle Affair, was a range war that happened in Castaic, California from 1890 to 1916, between ranchers and farmers William Willoby Jenkins and William C. Chormicle who both staked claims on a p ...

where a young

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

was lynched.Boston, John. ''Santa Clarita Valley (Images of America)'' Arcadia Publishing; Probable first edition (April 8, 2009)''. pp. 32. .

Sources

Sierra Pelona Ridge Santa Clarita, California {{LosAngelesCountyCA-geo-stub