🚀 go-pugleaf

On 4 Feb 2004 11:38:08 -0800, ksoa650@yahoo.com (Karen O'Mara) wrote:

>mccomb@medieval.org (Todd Michel McComb) wrote in message news:<bvnd1d$1qh6$1@machaut.medieval.org>...
>> The Grapevine, which is a mountain pass just north of Los Angeles,
>> is indeed spectacular, but that's a very short portion of the drive.
>> The rest of I-5 is as dreary as a highway can possibly be.
>
>Grapevine is the name of a town at the base of the mountains, in the
>southern part of the central valley. I don't think the naming of the
>town had anything to do with the road, did it? But, since the road
>curves up like a grapevine, a lot of people call it The Grapevine. I
>don't think Southern Californians refer to this stretch of road as The
>Grapevine, though... am curious to know what others say out there.

Amazon.com finds the term Grapevine in the book California Place
Names, on Page 62:

"GRAPEVINE CANYON [Kern Co.]. A translation of the name given by Pedro
Fages in 1772: Caj�n de las Uvas, "canyon of ..."

With that snippet in hand, googling on:  "pedro fages" grapevine

finds 

<http://www.ridgeroute.com/story3-d.htm>

"The first white man through this area was a Spanish officer and
acting governor of Alta California in 1772, Don Pedro Fages. He
noticed an abundance of Cimarron grapes growing wild in the area north
of what is now Gorman. He named the place Canada de Las Uvas, or
Grapevine Canyon.  Grapevines were so prevalent the wagoneers and
soldiers had to hack their way through. Wild grapes still grow on the
sides of I-5 in the pass.

   Another association of the name Grapevine was established during
early highway construction. The engineers had to abandon the original
wagon road up the canyon from the valley floor when Grapevine Creek
overflowed during a  torrential cloudburst in 1914. The highway
alignment was rebuilt on the east side of the hill with a series of
switchback loops to gain elevation. Thus the appearance of a
grapevine."

jc