Beale's Cut

Title: "Newhall Cut, San Fernando" (1907)

Source: Lippincott Collection, Water Resources Center Archives - University of California, Berkeley
Copyright Note: This image is NOT in the public domain and is protected by the copyright laws of the United States.
Used by permission of the University of California, Berkeley, Regents.

In 1854, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors gave William T.B. Sanford and George Carson a contract to build a new wagon road slightly to the west of the existing Old Road. They enlisted Gabe Allen and his group of 20 men to do the actual work. According to the Southern Californian of December 28, 1854, the depth of the cut was about 30 feet (see note on cut depth under the final photo on this page). In December of that year, Phineas Banning drove the first stage over the new San Fernando Pass. His "wild ride" became legendary, although not too successful.

By 1858, the pass needed improvement for the Butterfield Overland Mail stage. The L.A. Board of Supervisors awarded a contract to Gabe Allen to widen and lower the road over the summit. Allen's improvements were done that year. In 1858, the first Butterfield Overland Mail stage used the pass. On board was only passenger - Waterman L. Ormsby, a 21 year old special correspondent for the New York Herald. The firsthand account of his complete trip from St. Louis to San Francisco became a classic. He writes ("The Butterfield Overland Mail" by W.L. Ormsby, The Huntington Library, San Marino, Ca, 1942):

The road leads through the New Pass, where it strikes the old road from San Bernardino to the Tejon Pass of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The canyon road is rugged and difficult. About the center of the pass is, I believe, the steepest hill on the whole route. I should judge it to be a full 800 feet from the level of the road, which has to be ascended and descended in the space of a quarter of a mile. Perhaps my idea of the distance is not correct; but certainly it is a very steep hill, and our six horses found great difficulty in drawing our empty wagon up. The road takes some pretty sharp turns in the canyon, and a slight accident might precipitate a wagon load into a very uncomfortable abyss.

The pass still needed improvement. In 1861, a state legislative act gave a franchise to Charles Brinley, Andres Pico, and James Vineyard to, among other things, cut down the pass by at least 50 feet. They would also be able to collect tolls for a period not to exceed 20 years.

In the meantime, the winter of 1861-62 so greatly damaged the pass that wagons could not get through at all. In March, the road was repaired by soldiers under the command of Major Theodore Coult of the Fifth California Volunteer Infantry, who was headquartered at Camp Latham, California, at the time. Wagons carrying ammunition could not get to Fort Yuma, Arizona. (From Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Washington, D.C.,Government Printing Office, 1897.)

In 1862, Edward F. Beale took over the franchise from Brinley, Pico, and Vineyard. By April of 1863, Beale, probably using Chinese laborers (and certainly not troops from Ft. Tejon) finished the work required by the act. And it was not all done by hand.

Jose Jesus Lopez worked for Beale from 1874 until Beale's death. He knew Beale well and talked to him often. From "Saga of Rancho El Tejon" (see The Old Road page), Lopez recounts (pp. 195-197):

Understand, the cut was made by hand labor with pick and shovel and the use of powder. Even after the cut was made, it was a steep grade to climb with teams and loaded wagons. My father used to keep two span of oxen and a driver there to help pull rigs and wagons and the stages over it. Teamsters from the San Joaquin Valley, Tehachapi, and the Cummings Valleys had to have a lift through the cut, even after the telegraph line was built. Teamsters would telegraph my father when they would be at the cut, and he would have double yokes of oxen there to help them make the pull.

However, the L.A. Board of Supervisors were not willing to ratify the franchise without more work. Beale reluctently agreed and by 1864 the extra work was done and approved by the supervisors.

Beale had lowered by 50 feet according to a Bakersfield Californian magazine article by Bob Jones from the October 6, 1990, issue. (again, see the cut depth note at the bottom of this page). Beale began to collect tolls from travelors going through the cut. The toll would remain for 20 years.

"General" Beale was commissioned as a brigadier general in the California State Militia in 1856. In less than 3 months, he resigned his commission to run for the office of the sheriff of San Francisco County. He liked the title and for the rest of his life he was known as General Beale. This confused many people because he had spent 16 years in the navy.

After the Newhall railroad tunnel was completed in 1876, traffic through the cut steadily decreased. The road was more often called the "Newhall grade".

In 1902, car dealer Ralph Hamlin drove the first car (an "Autocar") through the cut accompanied by the new owner. The grade was so steep, gasoline would not flow to the carburetor and he had to climb up in reverse. Both men had to leap out of the car to block the wheels with rocks each time the engine stalled.

In 1904 the cut was again deepened by a few feet and the approaches to the cut were improved for autos.

As more and more autos used the cut, it was clear that some other way to cross the mountain was needed. By 1907, a tunnel bypassing the cut was planned by the county.

On May 26th, 1916, the Ebell Club of San Fernando placed a bronze plaque on a stone cairn at the pass. It read simply "Fremont Pass 1847". The plaque is long gone but the stone cairn still exists (see below). The Ebell Club is a woman's social club that is still active today.

In the Pasadena Star-News of 8/12/1965 Russ Leadabrand wrote in his "Off the Beaten Path" column: "I have heard that Beale's Cut, that historic narrow slot in the hills there, will go the way of all freeway obstacles and will be bulldozed away." Luckily, that did not occur.

On 5/11/1992, Beale's Cut Stagecoach Pass was listed as California State Historical Landmark Plaque #1006. The description reads:

Beale's Cut is the only physical and cultural feature of its kind in the entire Los Angeles Basin. At the time of its construction in 1862, the actual creation and maintenance of the Cut was considered a significant technological and physical feat consisting of breaching the former impassable geographic barrier of the San Gabriel and Santa Susana Mountain ranges. General Edward F. Beale is attributed with the construction of a toll road across the mountains. Beale's Cut was also used as a favorite film-making location by pioneer film maker, David Wark Griffith, and others.

There is no evidence that a plaque was set up near the pass. In the Pasadena Star-News of 11/21/1957, Russ Leadabrand writes of the pass in his "Outdoors this Week" column - "A stone cairn and bronze plaque mark the spot. The plaque reads: Fremont Pass 1847." This is the old 1916 plaque. Then in the Star-News of 8/12/1965, Russ Leadabrand writes in his "Off the Beaten Path" column: "...there are three plaques marking Beale's Cut." Also, Ralph Conrad writes of the pass in the Valley News of 6/6/1967. He states that "a short distance after leaving Interstate 5 heading north, a turnout contains several historical markers." This proves to me that the other two plaques were erected between 1957 and 1965. Unfortunately, I do not know what the plaque on the middle marker said.

More information and photos on Beale's Cut can be found on the Santa Clarita Valley History in Photos website.

Note: Beale's cut is on private property.

Phineas Banning of the "wild ride" fame. From "A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs, Biographical, Volume II", Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, Ca, 1915

Edward F. Beale from "A Pioneer in the Path of Empire" by Stephen Bonsal, The Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1912

1872 photo of north entrance to cut (looking south)

Photo used by permission of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society

1872 photo of south entrance to cut (looking north)

Photo used by permission of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society

Title: "Fremont Pass" (6-17-1907)
Over the years, this pass has been called Fremont Pass, Newhall Pass, and San Fernando Pass. Photo was taken by J. B. Lippincott, assistant chief engineer of Los Angeles Aqueduct project.

Source: Lippincott Collection, Water Resources Center Archives - University of California, Berkeley
Copyright Note: This image is NOT in the public domain and is protected by the copyright laws of the United States.
Used by permission of the University of California, Berkeley, Regents.

Beale's Cut toll house

Photo used by permission of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society

Approximate site of toll house about 1/4 mile south of Beale's cut on Sierra Highway (5/2010). The original road has been lowered and widened making duplication of the old photo impossible.