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Santa Fe in Grapevine Canyon?

An 1890 Plan to Enter Northern California via Fort Tejon
By Jack W.Kelly

he many stories about Santa Fe's on February 26, 1895. Construction south ation and by June, 1898 the 80.40 miles to
efforts to achieve access to the Pa- from Stockton commenced later that year Bakersfield had accomplished the creation
T cific Ocean and Southern Pacific's and over 25 miles of track were in place of a competing railroad through the valley.
strident efforts to deny Santa Fe that ac- by December. By August 1896 the 123.44 The investors and shippers who owned
cess have been told with so many different miles to Fresno were completed; by June, the SF&SJV Railway were not, and did not
interpretations that, depending upon ones 1897 30.20 miles to Hanford were in oper- wish to be, railroad operators. Their rail-
bias or loyalties, one may reach conflicting
conclusions. However, there seems to be
little disagreement about Southern Pacific's
stranglehold on the San Joaquin Valley and
the efforts of its captive customers to relieve
themselves from "The Octopus," which
held them captive.
The recent (197 4) and perhaps most
complete analysis of the Santa Fe is History
of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
Company by Keith L. Bryant, Jr. Mr. Bry-
ant, a history professor, was given access to
the files and corporate records of the Santa
Fe. Beginning on page 173 he describes
the frustrations of these captive customers
and their decision to form The San Fran-
cisco Traffic Association in about 1891. By
1893 The Association had decided that the
only way to free San Francisco and the San
Joaquin Valley from the monopoly of the
Southern Pacific was to build an indepen-
dent railroad from San Francisco Bay down
through the valley to a connection with the
Santa Fe. The result was that these ship-
pers, along with investors, formed The San
Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railway

If the 1890 plans had come to pass, Santa Fe would have entered
northern California through rugged Grapevine Canyon. These
views of the steep ascent of US 99, the old Ridge Route, date
from 1934, left, looking north toward Bakersfield, and 1948,
above, deep in the canyon near Fort Tejon, where the road was
already carrying a heavy density of traffic. Today, ·an average of
71,000 vehicles pass through the canyon daily, of which a little
over 28%, or 19,950, are trucks. -California Department of Trans-

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