Today in SCV history, May 19, 1851 the Los Angeles Court of Sessions declared the road that ran through Rancho San Francisco, now most of modern Santa Clarita Valley, was now a public highway. 

Commerce, being based on transportation back in the 1850s, meant there was an increased need for roads and highways, leading the first California State Legislature of 1850 to determine that more roadways should be opened for popular use. 

“All roads shall be considered public highways, which are now used as such and have been declared such by Order of the Court of Sessions or Board of Supervisors within their respective counties,” declared the First Legislature in 1850. 

On May 19, 1851, one of these roads made public was the main thoroughfare through the modern-day Santa Clarita Valley. 

The road from Pueblo de Los Angeles ran north through ex-Mission San Fernando (current day San Fernando Valley), up through Rancho San Francisco (Santa Clarita Valley), through Cañada Des Alamos (San Francisquito Canyon), and ultimately leading to Rabbit Lake (present day Elizabeth Lake) on the north side of the Sierra Pelona Mountains.

The Records of Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors show more expenditures in order to create transportation to get through the Rancho San Francisco area than any other roadway in the County’s first decade.

Later on May 7, 1861, the California State Assembly authorized a 20-year contract to build a turnpike road from ex-Mission San Fernando to the Arroyo de Santa Clara in Los Angeles County that cut through the Newhall Pass.

Later that same year, Edward Beale, federal Surveyor General of California, took control of the San Fernando Pass and expanded it for transportation passage. This was used until the opening of the Newhall Tunnel in 1910, which was later demolished and made into Sierra Highway. 

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