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Kern County Californian stated that "Last that time and certainly the Southern Pacific Tejon Route. Maybe further studies did not
Sunday the engineer in charge of the rail- wanted to build along the 32nd parallel confirm the conclusions of Henry Minot.
road surveys in this county received orders line and establish themselves with a second Anyway, the decision was one for President
to stop work and pay off his employees. At transcontinental railroad. Then perhaps Te- Ripley, not Manvel, and the rest is history.
that time he had three parties in the field, hachapi would provide both a block to the Santa Fe extended the line from Stock-
one at the head of Antelope Valley, one in Santa Fe and achieve their other objectives, ton to Ferry Point (Richmond) in 1900 and
the Canada de Las Uvas (Grapevine Can- whatever they may have been. Perhaps oth- to Oakland in 1904.
yon) two miles this side of Fort Tejon and ers have answered or may answer these in- As a footnote, in the early 1960s the
one at Roses Station (near the mouth of teresting questions. original contract for trackage rights from
Grapevine Canyon)." However, in the late 1890s, Santa Fe Mojave to Kern Junction was to expire and
There is much more to Mr. Minot's had to connect the Needles - Mojave line, SP sought to extract much higher compen-
report, most of which refers to surveys which they had previously acquired from sation. Santa Fe once more looked for an
from Bakersfield to the San Francisco Bay 2 Southern Pacific, with Bakersfield and they alternate route while at the same time ask-
but until acquiring this report I had never chose a contract with Southern Pacific for ing the Interstate Commerce Commission
learned of the Fort Tejon Route. Is it reason- trackage rights over Tehachapi. There can to participate in establishing an equitable
able to assume that Southern Pacific knew be much speculation why Santa Fe made rental. The ICC reduced the SP proposal to
of this route, which would enable them to this choice when they seemingly had an- a rent Santa Fe felt was fair.
have a shorter railroad to the Los Ange- other option. Certainly the rapid expansion
les basin and instead built over Tehachapi of the Santa Fe system in the 1890s had
2. It would be interesting to determine what,
primarily to block Santa Fe? Or was their absorbed large amounts of capital and the
if any, of Minot's 1890 surveys were utilized in
motivation to utilize Tehachapi as an easier financial panic of 1893 coupled with this the construction of the S.F & S.J. V. Railway
access to the Mojave Desert and thence on expansion caused Santa Fe to reorganize through the valley, but since no surveyor's notes
toward Yuma? It is doubtful that the poten- and refinance its debts. Perhaps Southern or maps are in the report we must wait until
tial of the Los Angeles basin was evident at Pacific created other obstacles for the Fort more information becomes extant.

Directors J. D. Spreckels, Robt. Watt, Capt. Payson, Leon. Sloss, Chief Engineer WB. Storey and Chief Counsel E.F. Preston inspect the first eight
miles of San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley track, November 8, 1895. Within three years, these men were in serious negotiations with the Santa Fe
and on December 9, 1898, the sale of the SF&SJV to the Santa Fe was consummated for $2,462,300.00. In the end, Santa Fe chose to connect its
new purchase with the main system by means of a joint-track arrangement with rival Southern Pacific over the existing line between Bakersfield and
Mojave over Tehachapi Pass. From time to time in succeeding years, the old plan for an entirely Santa Fe line via Fort Tejon and Grapevine Canyon
was reexamined, but to date, nothing has ever come to pass from these efforts. -Santa Fe photo, jack W Kelly collection

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