What is the Ridge Route?
 
The Ridge Route Highway is that section of road that winds over the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountains between Castaic Junction on the south (where I-5 junctions with Hwy.126 to Ventura) and extends to the bottom of Grapevine Grade on the north where I-5 enters the great San Joaquin Valley.
 
The "Grapevine" is the 6 1/2 mile segment of the Ridge Route that extends from Fort Tejon to the bottom of Grapevine Grade.  Many people erroneously believe that the "Grapevine" got its name because the original 1915 highway had a series of "switchbacks" which allowed early vehicles to gain elevation as they climbed the grade heading from Bakersfield toward Los Angeles.  The serpentine path resembled a giant grapevine.  Although this observation was true, the name actually came from the fact that early Wagoner's had to hack their way through thick patches of Cimarron grapevines that inhabited "La Canada de Las Uvas," Canyon of the Grapes.  Traveling the grade today, look for patches of what appears to be ivy on both sides of the canyon near the truck run-a-way escape ramps.  What you see are descendant vines which date back to the 1800s.
 
The news media Incorrectly refers to the entire Ridge Route as the Grapevine.
 
There have been (3) Ridge Route highways.  The 1915 highway which is the focus of this web site; the 1933 three-lane Ridge Alternate Highway identified as Highway 99 (in 1947 converted to a 4-lane expressway); and today's 8-lane I-5 freeway completed in 1970.  The Ridge Alternate was severed with the construction of Pyramid Dam.

Stories on Ridge Route's History:

• Drive the High Country
  By Paul Lasley of Westways Magazine
  Relive history on California's Original Ridge Route
• Touring the Ridge Route a journey into the past
  by Janet Van Vleet of The Bakersfield Californian
• Small museum looms large in pioneer history
  by Janet Van Vleet of The Bakersfield Californian
  Tucked into a single room at the end of a strip mall, The Ridge Route Communities Museum & Historical Society might just get overlooked by most people.
• "Ridge Route's Scholar",
  by Bob Pool of the Los Angeles TImes.
  Contains a detailed discription of The Ridge Route's history.
• "The long and winding road",
  by Andy Kehe of the Bakersfield Californian.
  Brief history of Ridge Route and a profile of Harrison Scott.
• "The Long Road to Preservation" ,
  by Harrison Irving Scott for the Californian Historian.
  Gives a brief discription of Scott's first encounter with the historic Ridge Route.