Castaic () (

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

* Pentateuch (dis ...

: ''Kaštiq'';

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Castéc'') is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in northwestern

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 18,937. Tens of thousands of motorists pass through Castaic daily as they drive to or from Los Angeles on

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, 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 thro ...

(the Golden State Freeway).

Castaic Lake Castaic Lake (Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Kaštiq'') is a reservoir formed by Castaic Dam on Castaic Creek, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains of northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, near the town of Castaic, California, C ...

is part of the California Water Project and is the site of a hydro-electric power plant. Castaic is northwest of

Los Angeles Union Station Los Angeles Union Station is the main railroad station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest passenger rail terminal in the Western United States. It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Sta ...

and northwest of the city of Santa Clarita. The Castaic Range War went on for decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries resulting in dozens of deaths before hostilities ceased in 1916.

Name

The name Castaic is derived from the

* Pentateuch (dis ...

word ''Kaštiq'', meaning "the eye".John R. Johnson, "The Trail to Kashtiq," ''The Journal of California Anthropology,'' vol 5, no 2, pp 188–198
SCVHistory.com
/ref> The Spanish and Mexicans later spelt the name in

as ''Castéc''. Castec is first mentioned on old boundary maps of Rancho San Francisco, as a canyon at the trailhead leading to the old Chumash camp at Castac Lake (Tejon Ranch), which is intermittently wet and briny. Early publications in English spelled it ''Casteque'' before the current spelling became standardized.The earliest English spelling was Casteque, an anglicization of Castéc, which in turn is the Spanish spelling of Chumash Kashtiq
UC Riverside, ''California Digital Newspaper Database''.
/ref>

History

The Córdova family of California were the first settlers in the area. Modern Castaic began in 1887 when Southern Pacific set up a railroad siding on the line between Piru and Saugus Station, naming it " Castaic Junction". Between January and April 1890, the Castec School District adopted the new spelling, "Castaic".

Range War

Between 1890 and 1916, the Castaic Range War was fought in Castaic country over ranch boundaries and grazing rights. It was the biggest range war in U.S. history. A feud started over Section 23, where the Stonegate subdivision is now. William Chormicle had legally bought the property, but William "Wirt" Jenkins was already storing grain on it and said he had filed for ownership. During a heated dispute, Chormicle and a friend shot and killed two of Jenkins's cowhands. They were acquitted in court.SCV History, "The Great Range War"
/ref> Jenkins, however, was the local justice of the peace, with friends of his own, and the feud quickly grew into war. Former Los Angeles Rangers (among whom Jenkins had fought) and other notables were drawn in. The war claimed dozens of lives and foiled a negotiator, a forest ranger whom President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

had sent in to quell it.

Cattle business

Castaic has the last traditional cattle roundup—with horses,

lariat A lasso or lazo ( or ), also called reata or la reata in Mexico, and in the United States riata or lariat (from Mexican Spanish lasso for roping cattle), is a loop of rope designed as a restraint to be thrown around a target and tightened when ...

s, and

branding Branding may refer to: Physical markings * Making a mark, typically by charring: ** Wood branding, permanently marking, by way of heat, typically of wood (also applied to plastic, cork, leather, etc.) ** Livestock branding, the marking of animals ...

irons—in Los Angeles County. It has been held by the Cordova family since 1834, when the family first settled here. Members of the Cordova family were scouts for the U.S. Army during the Mexican War in 1846 and helped identify bodies during the St. Francis Dam disaster in San Francisquito Canyon in 1928. Operations scaled back in 1967 when the government seized around , including the ancestral ranch-house, for the planned Castaic Lake and dam.

Geography

Seismology

The area is seismically active. On January 3, 2015, a pair of

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

s of magnitude 3.1 (location: , depth: ) and 4.2 (location: , depth: ), respectively, were reported about north of Castaic. 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. Determination The primary purpose of a ...

was from

Santa Clarita, California Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-most populous city in Los Angeles County, the 17th-most popul ...

Climate

This region experiences hot and dry summers, and cool, moderately rainy winters. During the months of June though September, the average high temperature ranges from the 90s F (30s C) to above . According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Castaic has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps. Map of Rancho San Francisco

Demographics

Castaic first appeared as a

census designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in the 2010 U.S. Census.

2020 census

The 2020 United States census reported that Castaic had a population of 18,937. The population density was . The racial makeup of Castaic was 55.2%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 3.3%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.1% Native American, 11.2% Asian, 0.2%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 12.3% from other races, and 16.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31.1% of the population. The census reported that 99.9% of the population lived in households, 0.1% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized. There were 6,054 households, out of which 39.2% included children under the age of 18, 64.7% were married-couple households, 5.5% were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 17.3% had a female householder with no partner present, and 12.5% had a male householder with no partner present. 14.7% of households were one person, and 5.5% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 3.13. There were 4,859

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(80.3% of all households). The age distribution was 23.5% under the age of 18, 9.6% aged 18 to 24, 23.9% aged 25 to 44, 31.3% aged 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 39.0years. For every 100 females, there were 99.8 males. There were 6,130 housing units at an average density of , of which 6,054 (98.8%) were occupied. Of these, 82.5% were owner-occupied, and 17.5% were occupied by renters. In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $132,153, and the

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

was $50,338. About 3.8% of families and 4.0% of the population were below the poverty line.

Education

Elementary and middle school students attend schools in the Castaic Union School District. High school students attend Castaic High School in the William S. Hart Union High School District. Castaic High School first opened in 2019.

Government and infrastructure

In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, Castaic is in , and in . In the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, Castaic is in . The

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

(LASD) operates the Santa Clarita Valley Station in Santa Clarita, serving Castaic. Station 149 of the

Los Angeles County Fire Department The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) provides firefighting and emergency medical services for the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, California, as well as 59 cities through Contract city, contracting, including the city of ...

serves the community. The Castaic Area Town Council meets monthly.

Notable people

* Stacey Koon, policeman * Troy Neiman, baseball player

In popular culture

* The community is featured by

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

in ''The Bench'', Episode 19.

References

External links

Castaic Area Town Council

How to Pronounce Castaic (crowd-sourced)
{{Authority control 1915 establishments in California Census-designated places in California Census-designated places in Los Angeles County, California Populated places established in 1915