RIDGE ROUTE RECOGNIZED.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

CASTAIC - The first mountain highway built by the state - a road that many believe saved California from being split into two states - has become the second highway to be dedicated a historical highway.

About 40 people, including members of historical groups, gathered on a vacant private lot on the corner of Ridge Route and Castaic Road on Sunday to unveil the plaque that designates the road a historical highway. The plaque will eventually be placed along the road.

``If we hadn't built that road, there would have been a north and south California, considering the tremendous barriers,'' said Jack Kelley, who conducts tours along Ridge Route. ``You'd have to go clear around.''

Teams of horses pulling wagons were common along the 48-mile dirt Ridge Route that was built by the state in 1914 to link Los Angeles and Bakersfield.

Since 1917, when the road was paved, there were no more animals on Ridge Route and for two decades it was the most direct way from Castaic north to State Highway 138, near Quail Lake.

In 1922, at least 2,280 cars would use the road with a 15 mph limit each day - a significant number considering there were 100,000 cars in the country, Kelley explained.

Campgrounds, restaurants and lodges like the Half-Way Inn and Sandberg's Lodge offered respite for the travel-weary, who at the time drove in cars with no open windows along the road with 697 curves.

``In the summer they were burning, and in the winter they were frozen,'' Kelley said.

In many cases, the cars would go two or three miles before overheating and breaking down.

``And with the 697 curves, they would have lost their lunch or dinner by the time they got to Gorman,'' Kelley said. The 697 curves made 110 full circles from Castaic to the bottom of the Grapevine.

Clarkson ``Saltlake'' Rose brought an old newspaper clipping to the dedication to demonstrate the difficulties of getting to Bakersfield before Ridge Route was built.

The article was about his grandfather, Delos B. Rose, who drove his Elmore model Forty in 1908 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield in seven hours and 18 minutes - a record at a time when Ridge Route was not around.

Without Ridge Route, people would have to access the coast or the Mojave Desert to get north, adding at least 58 miles to the trip.

For more than a generation now, the Golden State Freeway has been the most convenient way through the Tehachapi Mountains.

To put the highway on a historic register was an eight-year crusade by Harrison Scott, who happened upon the road when, during a trip north along the freeway, his son asked him how early cars handled the steep climb out of Castaic before the Golden State Freeway.

Scott exited Templin Highway and found Ridge Route.

``It's a prime example of early engineering and has to be saved for the younger generation,'' Scott said.

As a result of his work, a 17.6-mile stretch of the Ridge Route through the Angeles National Forest won a spot on the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 25, 1997.

After the ordeal he went through to get the highway on the national register - including all the paperwork, phone calls and governmental red tape - Scott is unsure if he would have embarked on the journey if he had known what it would entail.

``I'm tired,'' he said, laughing, about finally getting the plaque for the road. ``If I had to do it again, I wouldn't.''

Now, Ridge Route, which serves primarily as a fire road for the Forest Service, and the Redwood Highway are the two roads recognized in the historic register in California.

The historical designation will make it difficult for anybody to alter the road, and if it must be repaired, it has to be repaired the way it was built in 1914.

Tere Tucker, who will display the plaque on her property until it is moved, said she agreed to Scott's request after he called and gave her a 1 1/2-hour lecture on the road's history.

``It's exciting to be a part of history,'' Tucker said. ``It seemed like the right thing to do.''

For more information on the Ridge Route tours, go to www.ridgeroute.com.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Harrison Scott, who led the campaign to have Ridge Route designated a historical landmark, speaks next to a statue during Sunday's dedication ceremony in Castaic.

(2 -- color) no caption (The Ridge Route plaque)

(3) History buffs Clarkson ``Saltlake'' Rose, left, and Scott Ewing share a laugh during the dedication ceremony designating 87-year-old Ridge Route a historical highway.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer