Editing Newhall Pass (section)

===Beale's Cut===
[[Image:Beale's Cut 1872.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Beale's Cut in 1872]]
{{Main|Beale's Cut Stagecoach Pass}}
The steep pass was made easier to cross when a deep slot-like road was cut through the "San Fernando Mountain" by Charles H. Brindley, [[Andrés Pico]], and [[James Russell Vineyard|James R. Vineyard]]. In return for helping tame the most daunting obstacle along the [[Fort Tejon]] Road, the main inland route from Los Angeles to the north, the State of California awarded them a twenty-year contract to maintain the turnpike and collect tolls.<ref>{{cite web|title=Daily Alta California, 4 March 1862|url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&cl=search&d=DAC18620304.2.4&srpos=8&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-IN-%22san+fernando+mountain%22----|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|access-date=2013-05-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ripley: The San Fernando Pass|url=http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/ripley13.htm|publisher=Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society|access-date=2013-05-31}}</ref> [[Butterfield Overland Mail]], a stagecoach that operated mail between St. Louis, Missouri, and San Francisco, began using it directly.

In 1861, a landowner and surveyor named [[Edward Fitzgerald Beale|Edward Beale]] was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as the federal Surveyor General of California and Nevada. Beale challenged General Pico's loyalty to the new president and in 1863, Beale was awarded the right to collect the toll in the pass.  Beale maintained rights to the cut for the next twenty years and so it became known as "Beale's Cut."<ref>{{cite web|title=Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures|url=http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/bealescut.htm|publisher=Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society|access-date=2008-11-15}}</ref>

Beale's Cut was eventually deepened to {{convert|90|ft|m|1}}.  It lasted as a transportation passage in the neighborhood of present-day Newhall Pass until construction of the Newhall Tunnel was completed in 1910.

Beale's Cut appeared in many silent western movies. The location became a favorite of movie producers like [[John Ford]] and [[D. W. Griffith]]. In Ford's 1923 film ''[[Three Jumps Ahead]]'', American cowboy star [[Tom Mix]] is filmed jumping over the pass, although it has been widely debated among film historians whether Mix himself made the jump, with any of a number of stuntmen claiming credit for it while some experts believe the jump was achieved purely through special effects.<ref>{{cite web|title=Beale's Cut|url=http://www.moviesites.org/beales.htm|website=moviesites.org|access-date=2008-11-15}}</ref> John Ford used the location in at least four films over a twenty-year period beginning as early as 1917.

[[File:Beales Cut.JPG|thumb|Beale's Cut in 2003]]Still in existence today, it is no longer passable by automobiles. It suffered a partial collapse during the Northridge Earthquake, on January 17, 1994, and now is about {{convert|30|ft|m|1}} deep. It is visible from the [[Sierra Highway]] about one mile north from the intersection of The Old Road and Sierra Highway, just after the first bridge under SR 14. It lies between Sierra Highway and the new freeway, about a quarter mile to the northeast of a stone marker. Beale's Cut is difficult to find today because it is fenced off and not close enough to the Sierra Highway to be easily seen.