Castaic Junction 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 ...

located in

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 ...

. It is located at the crossroads of

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 ...

and State Route 126 near the confluence of

Castaic Creek Castaic Creek (Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Kaštiq'') is a , accessed March 16, 2011 stream in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, in northeastern Los Angeles County, California. It is a tributary of the Santa Clara River (California), Santa Clar ...

and the Santa Clara River. Places in Castaic Junction carry a Valencia zip code (91355), and it is adjacent to the City of Santa Clarita.

Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Magic Mountain, formerly known and colloquially referred to as simply Magic Mountain, is a amusement park located in Valencia, California, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It opened on May 29, 1971, as a development of the Newha ...

theme park is just south of the junction.

History

Father Juan Crespí camped near what is now Castaic Junction in 1769, at which time there was a "thriving Indian village" on the site. Castaic Junction was the official southern end of the Ridge Route. The name dates to 1887, before highways were built, when a railroad siding was set up at the junction. A highway bridge at Castaic Junction was destroyed by the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928. The community had an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

− Moderne style train depot, serving the railroad line that ran along the Santa Clara River between Saugus and Piru. The depot was demolished around 1990. Just beyond the north end of the Magic Mountain parking lot is the site of the adobe ranch house for the historic Rancho San Francisco, a Mexican land grant that encompassed the

Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) is part of the upper watershed of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. The western portion of the valley was part of the Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant. Located in Los Angeles County. The valle ...

from Piru to Canyon Country. According to local legend, icon

James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He became one of the most influential figures in Hollywood in the 1950s, despite a career that lasted only five years. His impact on cinema and popular culture was p ...

ate his last meal at the Tip's Restaurant formerly at the crossroads of Highway 126 and The Old Road before he drove on north.

References

Unincorporated communities in Los Angeles County, California Santa Clarita, California Santa Clara River (California) Unincorporated communities in California {{LosAngelesCountyCA-geo-stub

History

See also

References