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39-779: The canyon cuts through the Sierra Pelona Mountains , which are central part of the Transverse Ranges system of California . At the San Francisquito Canyon head is the San Francisquito Pass , which the early routes between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley crossed. The canyon grows wider as it approaches the Santa Clarita Valley . The middle and upper portions of this canyon fall within

78-542: A scientific observation of the valley in 1844. After Fremont's visit the 49ers crossed the valley via the Old Tejon Pass into the San Joaquin Valley on their way to the gold fields. Later, a better wagon road, the Stockton – Los Angeles Road route to Tejon Pass , followed in 1854. Stagecoach lines across the southern foothills came through the valley along this wagon road, and were the preferred method for travelers before

117-622: A small extension west of I-5. The Tejon Pass separates the Sierra Pelonas, the San Emigdios , the Tehachapis , and the Topatopa Mountains near Gorman and Lebec . Within the Sierra Pelonas lie the rural areas of Neenach , Three Points , Lake Hughes , Elizabeth Lake , Acton , Agua Dulce and Green Valley . The cities of Santa Clarita , Palmdale , and Lancaster are located at

156-433: A two-lane road named after the canyon itself connects Santa Clarita to the mountain communities of Green Valley and Elizabeth Lake . It roughly parallels the river's course between San Francisquito Pass and its southern terminus in the northern Santa Clarita Valley . [REDACTED] Media related to San Francisquito Canyon at Wikimedia Commons Sierra Pelona Mountains The Sierra Pelona , also known as

195-543: Is bounded by the Garlock and San Andreas fault systems. Precipitation in the surrounding mountain ranges contributes to groundwater recharge . The Antelope Valley is home to a wide range of plants and animals. This includes hundreds of plants such as the California juniper , Joshua tree , California scrub oak , creosote , and wildflowers, notably the California poppy . Winter brings much-needed rain, which slowly penetrates

234-625: Is located in northern Los Angeles County, California , United States, and the southeast portion of California's Kern County , and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert . It is situated between the Tehachapi , Sierra Pelona , and the San Gabriel Mountains . The valley was named for the pronghorns that roamed there until they were all eliminated in the 1880s, mostly by hunting, or resettled in other areas. The principal cities in

273-719: Is located near Boron . Also, several private and home-school high schools arein the area, most notably: The Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra is a professional ensemble that performs four concerts each year at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center. It is an auxiliary of Antelope Valley College, and performs regularly with the Antelope Valley College Civic Orchestra. Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park has been featured in films such as The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972) and The Stone Killer (1973). Mackenna's Gold (1964)

312-613: The Angeles National Forest . San Francisquito Canyon was the site of placer mining for gold by Spanish missionaries from the San Fernando and San Buenaventura Missions , and later by Mexican Californios . Their activity stopped in 1848, when the gold discovery at Sutter's Mill started the California Gold Rush . Placer mining later occurred in the canyon into at least the late 19th century. Between 1924 and 1926,

351-592: The Philippines were the most common foreign places of birth in 2000 in Northwest Antelope Valley. Mexico and El Salvador were the most common foreign places of birth in the northwest. German and English were the most common ancestries in the northeast. German and Irish were the most common ancestries in Southeast Antelope Valley. Mexico and Colombia were the common foreign places of birth in

390-630: The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in northern California has caused and causes adverse environmental and social effects in the delta: "Over decades, [the] competing uses for water supply and habitat have jeopardized the Delta's ability to meet either need. All stakeholders agree the estuary is in trouble and requires long-term solutions to ensure reliable, quality water supplies and a healthy ecosystem." The Antelope Valley's population growth and development place considerable stress on

429-616: The San Gabriel Mountains , which are divided by the wide Soledad Canyon formation. The mountains are flanked to the south by the Santa Clarita Valley and separated from the Antelope Valley and the Mojave Desert to the north by the San Andreas Fault . Toward the southeast lie Vasquez Rocks , thrust up by the fault. Toward the west lies Interstate 5 , Pyramid Lake , and the Los Padres National Forest . The range has

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468-589: The Santa Clara River and numerous minor watercourses and washes drain the ridge: Castaic Creek , San Francisquito Creek , and Bouquet Creek . Three sag ponds nestle within the narrow valley that divides the mountains from the Antelope Valley: Hughes Lake , Munz Lakes , and Elizabeth Lake . The Native population of California in the Sierra Pelona and Santa Susana Mountains included

507-628: The Sierra Pelona Ridge or the Sierra Pelona Mountains , is a mountain ridge in the Transverse Ranges in Southern California . Located in northwest Los Angeles County , the ridge is bordered on the north by the San Andreas Fault and lies within and is surrounded by the Angeles National Forest and a tiny section in the Los Padres National Forest The Sierra Pelona Mountains lie northwest of

546-648: The Tataviam and Serrano people. They traded with the Tongva and Chumash to the south and west, until the Spanish colonization of the Americas relocated them from their homelands. The San Francisquito Canyon , which runs north-south through the mountains, served as a major wagon route between the Antelope and San Fernando Valleys. This corridor summited at San Francisquito Pass and

585-602: The 1770s, during the colonization of North America . Father Francisco Garcés , a Spanish Franciscan friar, is believed to have traveled the west end of the valley in 1776. The Spanish established El Camino Viejo through the western part of the valley between Los Angeles and the missions of the San Francisco Bay in the 1780s. By 1808, the Spanish had moved the native people out of the valley and into missions. Jedediah Smith came through in 1827, and John C. Fremont made

624-609: The 20th century and remains the second-greatest loss of life in California's history, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The ruins of this disaster can still be seen today. Since 1820, San Francisquito Canyon and San Francisquito Pass were part of the original route of the El Camino Viejo , an alternate land route to the El Camino Real for reaching northern Spanish and Mexican colonial Alta California . From 1854,

663-566: The Antelope Valley are Palmdale and Lancaster . The Antelope Valley comprises the western tip of the Mojave Desert , opening up to the Victor Valley and the Great Basin to the east. Lying north of the San Gabriel Mountains , southeast of the Tehachapis , and east of the Sierra Pelona Mountains , this desert ecosystem spans around 2,200 sq mi (5,698 km ). The valley

702-520: The Antelope Valley depends mainly on pumping of groundwater from the valley's aquifers and on importing additional water from the California Aqueduct . Long-term groundwater pumping has lowered the water table , thereby increasing pumping lifts, reducing well efficiency, and causing land subsidence . While aqueducts supply additional water that meets increasing human demand for agricultural, industrial, and domestic uses, diversion of water from

741-673: The Ridge Route Alternate ( US 99 ) in 1930, itself superseded by Interstate 5 completed in 1971. The rapid development of Southern California throughout the 20th century saw construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and five separate reservoirs to supply water to the region: Castaic Lake , Bouquet Reservoir , Drinkwater Reservoir, Pyramid Lake and Dry Canyon Reservoir and the St. Francis Reservoir , both now drained and destroyed. Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley

780-402: The area's dry ground, bringing up native grasses and wildflowers. Poppy season depends completely on the precipitation, but a good bloom can be killed off by the unusual weather in the late winter and early spring. The Antelope Valley gets its name from its history of pronghorn grazing in large numbers. In 1882-85, the valley lost 30,000 head of antelope, almost half of the species for which it

819-460: The base of the mountains. The climate of the mountains is a Mediterranean climate . Summers are mostly dry except for occasional thunderstorms, and winters comparatively cold and wet. Snowfall is infrequent due to the relatively low elevations of mountains within this ridge, with only the few tallest peaks regularly receiving snowfall during the winter. Mainly the ridge falls under the California montane chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, excepting

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858-477: The canyon was the site of the construction of the St. Francis Dam . The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began filling a reservoir in the San Francisquito Canyon in 1926. At 11:57   pm on March 12, 1928, the dam catastrophically failed, and the resulting flood took the lives of at least 431 people. The collapse of the St. Francis Dam is considered to be one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of

897-531: The coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876. The rail service linking the valley to the Central Valley and Los Angeles started its first large influx of white settlers, and farms and towns soon sprouted on the valley floor. The aircraft (now called aerospace) industry took hold in the valley at Plant 42 in 1952. Edwards AFB, then called Muroc Army Air Field, was established in 1933. The area

936-500: The early 1900s caused a scarcity in bunch grass , their main food source. Now, the sighting of a pronghorn is rare, although a small number remain in the western portion of the valley. Common game species in the Antelope Valley include mule deer and mountain quail . Other common species in the Antelope Valley include the golden-mantled ground squirrel , Beechey ground squirrel , red-tailed hawk , Cooper's hawk , Stellar's jay , leopard frog , and rattlesnake . Human water use in

975-421: The early 1980s to around three times its former level. Major retail has followed the population influx, centered on Palmdale's Antelope Valley Mall . The Lancaster—Palmdale urbanized area is home to 372,287 people. Some long-term residents living far out in the desert have been cited by Los Angeles County's nuisance abatement teams for code violations, forcing residents to either make improvements or move. One of

1014-472: The lake beds offer a vast landing area. Although NASA later built a landing strip at Kennedy Space Center , Edwards was retained as the backup in case of bad weather at Cape Canaveral . NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center is a tenant organization at Edwards AFB. The center is best known for the X-15 experimental rocket ship program. It has been the home of NASA's high-performance aircraft research since it

1053-587: The local and regional water systems. According to David Leighton of the United States Geological Survey : "A deliberate management effort will be required to meet future water demand in the Antelope Valley without incurring significant economic and environmental costs associated with overuse of the ground-water resource." The first peoples of the Antelope Valley include the Kawaiisu , Kitanemuk , Serrano , and Tataviam . Europeans first entered in

1092-600: The manufacturing and integration and testing of new military aviation equipment. With the size of the industry there, Antelope Valley has been nicknamed the Aerospace Valley. The valley's first main industry as a part of the United States was agriculture . Historically known in the region for its extensive alfalfa fields and fruit crops, farmers now are growing a wider variety of crops, such as carrots, onions, lettuce, and potatoes. As housing tracts continue to build in

1131-472: The middle of the valley, the farm operations are found farther to the west and east sides than in earlier decades. The northern reaches of Antelope Valley are part of the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area , the largest wind resource area in California. The valley also has numerous solar farms , some of which are among the largest in the United States . The world's largest open-pit borax mine

1170-562: The newly dedicated Mojave Air and Space Port . The spaceport is famous as the base of operations for Scaled Composites , the company that designed SpaceShipOne and won the X-Prize . Much of the work done at these facilities is performed in coordination with Edwards Air Force Base and the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (see above), from the creation and testing of proof-of-concept X-planes, to Space Shuttle operations, to

1209-463: The northeastern flank's gradual slope into the Antelope Valley near Palmdale where the ecology transitions to that of the Mojave Desert . The mountains are primarily covered in short grasses, scrub oak trees, yucca , and other chaparral shrubs. The ridge is prone to wildfires in the summer and fall, especially when the Santa Ana winds blow in from the Antelope Valley. Three major tributaries of

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1248-480: The properties is a church building that was used as a filming location for Kill Bill . The code enforcers have arrived on some of their visits in SWAT -team formats. Hispanics and Whites make up the majority of the population. Spanish and Tagalog are the most common foreign languages spoken in the Antelope Valley. According to Mapping L.A. , German and English were the most common ancestries and Mexico and

1287-487: The southeast. Edwards Air Force Base lies east of Rosamond , 37 miles (60 km) northeast of Palmdale . Edwards AFB's dry lakebeds are the lowest geographic elevation in the valley. Significant numbers of U.S. military test flights are performed there, and it has been the site of many important aeronautical accomplishments, including the first flight to break the sound barrier , accomplished by Chuck Yeager. NASA Space Shuttles originally landed at Edwards because

1326-664: The wagon route of the Stockton - Los Angeles Road followed its course as did the Butterfield Overland Mail in California from 1858 to 1861. This Tejon Pass Route and the Tehachapi or Midway Route (first followed by the Southern Pacific Railroad), remained the major north–south wagon and later automobile routes to the San Joaquin Valley until the construction of the more direct Ridge Route in 1915. Today,

1365-655: Was also partly filmed in Antelope Valley. The video to the R.E.M. song " Man on the Moon " was shot in Antelope Valley in October 1992. Major hospitals include: The Antelope Valley was formerly served by a county hospital, High Desert Hospital, which was converted into an urgent care clinic in 2003 due to the county's budget problems. As a result, indigent patients with serious but non-life-threatening medical conditions must seek treatment at Olive View – UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, which

1404-638: Was founded for the X-1 program. The Space Shuttle orbiter was serviced there when it landed at Edwards. U. S. Air Force Plant 42 in northeast Palmdale is home to Lockheed Martin , Boeing , Northrop Grumman , and BAE Systems , among other aerospace-related companies. Notable projects assembled and/or designed there include the Space Shuttle orbiters , B-1 Lancer bombers, B-2 Spirit bombers, F-117 Nighthawk fighters, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters , and Lockheed L-1011 Tristar passenger jets. This region also houses

1443-410: Was named. Unusually heavy snows in both the mountains and the valley floor drove the antelope toward their normal feeding grounds in the eastern part of the valley. Since they would not cross the railroad tracks , many of them starved to death. The remainder of these pronghorns were hunted for their hides by settlers. Once abundant, they either died off or migrated into the Central Valley . A drought in

1482-471: Was once under Mexican rule and was named after the large herds of antelope. In recent decades, the valley has become a bedroom community to the Greater Los Angeles area . Major housing-tract development and population growth took off beginning in 1983, which has increased the population of Palmdale around 12 times its former size as of 2006. Neighboring Lancaster has increased its population since

1521-406: Was part of the El Camino Viejo - an alternate land route to the El Camino Real for reaching northern Spanish and Mexican colonial Alta California - as well as the Butterfield Overland Mail route. The Ridge Route , a landmark two-lane highway that connected Los Angeles to the rest of California, was built along the western flank of the ridge and was completed in 1915. It was later bypassed by

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