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Vasquez Canyon Road (Los Angeles County)

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Vasquez Canyon Road is a four-mile rural cutoff corridor in Los Angeles County near the city limit of Santa Clarita.  This corridor was originally developed as a connection between Sierra Highway (then US Route 6) and Bouquet Canyon Road during the late 1930s.  Los Angeles County would modernize, surface and realign the cutoff during the 1970s.  Vasquez Canyon Road is named after infamous Gold Rush era bandit Tiburcio Vásquez who was known to have several hideouts in the Santa Clarita area.




Part 1; the history of Vasquez Canyon Road

Vasquez Canyon Road is named after infamous Gold Rush era bandit Tiburcio Vásquez.  Tiburcio Vásquez was born on April 11, 1835, in Monterey of what was then the capital of Mexican Alta California.  Vásquez was part of a middle-class family with connections to the 1776 De Anza Expedition.  

Following California becoming a U.S. state Tiburcio Vásquez would turn to crime.  Vásquez was a protégé of Anastacio Garcia and was present when the latter murdered Monterey constable William Hardmount in 1854.  Vásquez's criminality would become increasingly infamous through the next two decades through his involvement in numerous violent shootouts.  During the 1870s he would relocate along with his gang to Southern California and was known to have numerous hideouts within what is now Santa Clarita.  He would ultimately be apprehended by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's posse on May 14, 1874, and would be later hanged in San Jose on March 19, 1875.  

Vazquez Canyon Road was developed by Los Angeles County as a cutoff between Sierra Highway (then US Route 6) and Bouquet Canyon Road during the late 1930s.  The roadway first appears on the 1940 United States Geological Survey map of San Fernando.  Despite being named "Vasquez Canyon Road" the actual roadway skirts just south of the namesake canyon.  


Vasquez Canyon Road appears modernized, surfaced and realigned southward on the 1979 United States Geological Survey map of Los Angeles.  The original alignment closer to Vasquez Canyon appears on maps now as Far Hills Road and Lost Creek Road.  


In 2015 a landslide occurred near the western terminus of Vasquez Canyon Road.  These photos of the damaged roadway were taken by Roy Hooper.  The damaged section of Vasquez Canyon Road was ultimately cleared and reopened to traffic during 2016. 











Part 2; a drive on Vasquez Canyon Road

Westbound Vasquez Canyon Road begins at Sierra Highway near the Santa Clarita city limit.  


Vasquez Canyon Road crosses over Cruzan Mesa and emerges into Bouquet Canyon.  










Vasquez Canyon Road terminates at Bouquet Canyon Road.





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