Grapevine 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 ...

Kern County, California Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County compris ...

, United States, at the southern end of the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

. The small village is directly adjacent to

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 consists mainly of

gas stations A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...

motels A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionarie ...

and other roadside services. At an elevation of , the community is located at the foot of a grade known as the Grapevine that lies in Grapevine Canyon through the

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 Calif ...

Etymology

The village and grade are named for the canyon the trail passed through, after the wild

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

s that grow along the original road. Its Spanish name is ''La Cañada de las Uvas'', that is, ''Grapevine Ravine.''

Geography

The ZIP Code is 93243, and the community is inside

area code 661 Area code 661 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in the U.S. state of California. The numbering plan area comprises the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley and the far northern part of the Los Angeles metrop ...

. A post office operated at Grapevine from 1923 to 1960. The community of Wheeler Ridge lies three miles north of Grapevine on Interstate 5, with Lebec nine miles south. Before the road was straightened and widened during 1933–34 by the three-lane Ridge Route Alternate (US 99), the Grapevine was infamous for its high accident rate. There are escape ramps branching off both sides of the downward part of the road for heavy trucks whose brakes fail on this five mile long, 6% grade, 1600-foot ascent - and now straight - grade. The Grapevine is subject to severe weather and closure to traffic in winter. The stretch of I-5 through the Grapevine and the Tejon Pass is sometimes closed by the

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is the principal state police agency for the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary jurisdiction, including patrol and Criminal investigation, investigations, over all California Controlled-access highw ...

, generally because of the icy conditions combined with the steep grade of the pass, and the high volume of traffic during the winter holidays. Occasionally, heavy rains will cause mud and rockslides, closing the freeway. The Highway Patrol is also concerned, especially with the large number of big-rigs that pass through, that just one accident in the icy or snowy conditions might force traffic to slow down or come to a complete stop, leaving hundreds of vehicles stalled at once. Whenever there is such a closure, traffic must either wait for it to reopen, or endure a slow multi-hour detour.''Grapevine Closures: It's for Our Own Good''
Jorge Barrientos; "

The Bakersfield Californian ''The Bakersfield Californian'' is a daily newspaper serving Bakersfield, California and surrounding Kern County in the state's San Joaquin Valley. History ''The Bakersfield Californian'' is the direct descendant of Kern County's first newspap ...

," December 20, 2008.

Landmark

The top of the Grapevine is registered as

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

#283, where Don Pedro Fages passed through in 1772 during his explorations through California.

Future development

The Tejon Ranch Company is planning further development in the area, which it identified as at "the northern base of the

grapevine, starting at the

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geography, geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an highland, upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low terrain, relief hill ...

in the southernmost portion of the

, extending parallel to the

Tejon Ranch Tejon Ranch Company (), based in Lebec, California, is one of the largest private landowners in California. The company was incorporated in 1936 to organize the ownership of a large tract of land that was consolidated from four Mexican land gr ...

Commerce Center along I-5". A company spokesman said the development would result in 12,000 to 14,000 homes and 5.1 million square feet of commercial development. In addition, the company has identified seven thousand additional acres for a development to be called Grapevine North.Patric Hedlund, "Tejon Ranch Positioned to Begin Building in Lebec, Gorman and Grapevine," ''The Mountain Enterprise,'' May 21, 2021, page 5

References

External links

*
The Mountain Enterprise
' - local newspaper serving readers of Grapevine and some other small communities.

Additional reading

Paul Duginski, "The Grapevine Is the Heart of California's Freeway System; It's Also Vulnerable," ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 28, 2019
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Kern County, California San Joaquin Valley Tehachapi Mountains Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass Unincorporated communities in California