Editing Tejon Pass (section)

===Old Tejon Pass===
{{Main|Old Tejon Pass}}
In 1806, Father Jose Maria Zalvidea, diarist for the expedition of First Lieutenant Francisco Ruiz into the San Joaquin Valley, named the canyon, creek, and pass which had been discovered in 1776 by the explorer priest, Father [[Francisco Garces]]. He recorded the name as "Tejon" (badger)—after a dead [[American badger|badger]] found at the canyon's mouth. This original Tejon Pass (later called "Old Tejon Pass"), is situated 15 miles to the northeast of what is now Tejon Pass. The old pass goes through the Tehachapi Mountains, at the top of the divide between [[Tejon Creek|Tejon Creek Canyon]] in the San Joaquin Valley and [[Cottonwood Creek (Kern County)|Cottonwood Creek Canyon]] in [[Antelope Valley]].<ref>[http://www.californiahistorian.com/articles/ridge-route.html ''The Ridge Route: the Long Road to Preservation''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211222737/http://www.californiahistorian.com/articles/ridge-route.html |date=2012-02-11 }}; Scott, Harrison Irving; "The California Historian," www.californiahistorian.com website, accessed November 14, 2011; Quote: "The name Tejon originated during an expedition in 1806 from the Santa Barbara Mission into the San Joaquin Valley led by Lieutenant Francis Ruiz. His diarist, Father Jose Maria Zalvidea, first recorded the word ''tejon'' to designate the area... the name Tejon formerly belonged to this other pass 15 miles further east."</ref>

Before 1854, the main route of travel into the San Joaquin Valley had come directly north from [[Elizabeth Lake (Los Angeles County, California)|Elizabeth Lake]] (originally ''Laguna de Chico Lopez'') across the Antelope Valley, over this original Tejon Pass, and down into Tejon Canyon, and then proceeded west along Tejon Creek—into the lands of the [[Rancho Tejon]], that had been granted in 1843. This route to the pass diverted from the El Camino Viejo at Elisabeth Lake, and from 1849 to before 1854 it was the main road connecting the southern part of the state to the trail along the eastern side of the San Joaquin Valley to the goldfields to the north.<ref name="rolls">[http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/kern/history/1934/whererol/founding270nms.txt ''Where Rolls the Kern: a History of Kern County, California''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606143159/http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/kern/history/1934/whererol/founding270nms.txt |date=2012-06-06 }}; Herbert G. Comfort; Enterprise Press; Moorpark, Ca; 1934; (#255); Chapter IV, "The Founding of Fort Tejon; pp. 21-52. "Before 1854, the main line of travel into the valley was straight North from Elizabeth Lake across Antelope Valley, entering the San Joaquin by way of the original Tejon Pass, at the head of Tejon Creek, above the present headquarters of Tejon Rancho. The establishment of the Fort Diverted this general travel to the West almost 29 miles to the present Tejon Pass, then known as Fort Tejon Pass. As the Tejon Creek Pass was abandoned, the name Tejon Pass came to be used solely for
the pass leading into Canada de las Uvas."</ref>