Old Baja California Central Route

Hi Lance,
It is good fun to have a another history-map fan here!

I have the Nelson Expedition map linked on Viva Baja, as well as El Camino Real maps.

https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/3...



El Camino Real maps: http://www.vivabaja.com/HGREAL.html

This one from 1954, shows Mission Santa María and Santa Catarina:



[Edited on 9-18-2021 by David K]

Not that I can recall??
There is a foot trail between the two and that trail has been shown on some maps as a road... LOL!

The bulldozed road from Santa Ynez to Santa María and two miles beyond was the work of Fred Hampe of Rancho Santa Ynez, in the late 1950s and for the next 10-12 years.

The goal was to connect the ranch with Punta Final on the gulf, as the ranch owned it as well. The mission was a potential major attraction along the road.

In 1973, the government built the Transpeninsular Highway from San Quintín to San Ignacio, greatly reducing the travel time between Santa Ynez and Punta Final, but not the distance.

At some point, Fred bulldozed the La Turquesa grade (El Pedregoso to the turquoise mine and on to the route of Hwy. 5). This cut the distance by 20 miles, but the grade was steep and the arroyo was subject to flash floods.

It took some great effort, but with the help of Nomads including TW, Roy 'The Squarecircle' was able to get his LR3 Land Rover across arroyo and up the grade, in 2008. It will appear on the Benchmark Atlas map (not my addition).

1922 Cataviña area +

Thanks to Lance for the link!

Quote: Originally posted by Lance S.

Some cool stuff here. Briefly discusses the coastal and central routes on pages 436 and 437. Might mention the water hole/ranch called La Sierrita up by San Fernando on the 1922 map posted earlier in the thread. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510022994597 [Edited on 10-29-2021 by Lance S.]

What a neat find... from 1856, all in Spanish, but a road log and water hole location of sorts for El Camino Real from La Paz north (what I glanced at)... Baja California begins on book page #427 (p.423) and ends on #441 (p.437).

Here is the Tinaja de Yubay description, Calamajué follows: