Elizabeth Lake is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

(CDP) and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

on Elizabeth Lake (lake), in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 1,756.

Geography

The community of Elizabeth Lake borders the

Lake Hughes Lake Hughes is an unincorporated community in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, northwest of Palmdale and north of the Santa Clarita Valley, in the Angeles National Forest. It is on the sag pond wate ...

, sharing the same ZIP Code (93532). It is located in the northern Sierra Pelona Mountains, at the edge of the western

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and ...

and

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

. The community is at an elevation of and surrounded by the

Angeles National Forest The Angeles National Forest (ANF) of the U.S. Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains and Sierra Pelona Mountains, primarily within Los Angeles County in southern California. The ANF manages a majority of the San Gabriel Mountai ...

. Elizabeth Lake and Hughes Lake are in canyons along the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal) ...

. Both lakes dry up periodically depending on rainfall cycles. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

, the CDP has a total area of , over 95% of which is land.

History

Known then as "La Laguna de Chico Lopez", Elizabeth Lake was a watering locale on Spanish colonial and Mexican

El Camino Viejo El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles ( en, the Old Road to Los Angeles), also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail, was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta Cali ...

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

and the Gold Rush era

Stockton–Los Angeles Road The Stockton–Los Angeles Road, also known as the Millerton Road, Stockton–Mariposa Road, Stockton–Fort Miller Road or the Stockton–Visalia Road, was established about 1853 following the discovery of gold on the Kern River in Old Tulare Cou ...

. From 1858 to 1861 it was between the

Widow Smith's Station Widow Smith's Station, also known as Major Gordon's Station and Clayton's Station, was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division from 1858 to 1861 in southern California. Geography The station was on the Stockton - Los An ...

and Mud Spring stage stops of the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

. The lake area was to the west of

Rancho La Liebre Rancho La Liebre was a Mexican land grant in present-day Kern County, California and Los Angeles County, given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to José María Flores. Liebre means "Hare" in Spanish and the rancho was named as such because of the a ...

, an 1846 Mexican land grant now part of

Tejon Ranch Tejon Ranch Company (), based in Lebec, California, is one of the largest private landowners in California. The company was incorporated in 1936 to organize the ownership of a large tract of land that was consolidated from four Mexican land gr ...

. In 1907

William Mulholland William Mulholland (September 11, 1855 – July 22, 1935) was an Irish American self-taught civil engineer who was responsible for building the infrastructure to provide a water supply that allowed Los Angeles to grow into the largest city in ...

, superintendent of the

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021-2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day to more ...

, started work on the Elizabeth Lake Tunnel for transporting water in the

Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valle ...

from Owens Valley to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. The tunnel is under the valley floor. The tunnel was driven from both ends. The north portal is at Fairmont Reservoir and the south in Bear Canyon (now Portal Canyon) northwest of Green Valley. This tunnel was driven through solid rock and met in the center within 1½ inches in line and 5/8 inches in depth. Work was around the clock and averaged about per day. The Elizabeth Lake tunnel was the largest single construction project on the Los Angeles Aqueduct and set speed records in its day.

Demographics

At the 2010 census Elizabeth Lake had a population of 1,756. The population density was . The racial makeup of Elizabeth Lake was 1,591 (90.6%) White (81.2% Non-Hispanic White), 21 (1.2%) African American, 9 (0.5%) Native American, 23 (1.3%) Asian, 1 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 47 (2.7%) from other races, and 64 (3.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 231 people (13.2%). The whole population lived in households, no one lived in non-institutionalized group quarters and no one was institutionalized. There were 674 households, 223 (33.1%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 399 (59.2%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 54 (8.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 36 (5.3%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 26 (3.9%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 7 (1.0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 151 households (22.4%) were one person and 38 (5.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.61. There were 489 families (72.6% of households); the average family size was 3.05. The age distribution was 403 people (22.9%) under the age of 18, 155 people (8.8%) aged 18 to 24, 407 people (23.2%) aged 25 to 44, 643 people (36.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 148 people (8.4%) who were 65 or older. The median age was 42.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 109.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 108.8 males. There were 745 housing units at an average density of 113.9 per square mile, of the occupied units 561 (83.2%) were owner-occupied and 113 (16.8%) were rented. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.8%. 1,466 people (83.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 290 people (16.5%) lived in rental housing units. According to the 2010 United States Census, Elizabeth Lake had a median household income of $67,614, with 6.0% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

References

External links

Lakes Community CenterHughes Elizabeth Lakes Union School
{{authority control Census-designated places in Los Angeles County, California Populated places in the Mojave Desert Sierra Pelona Ridge Angeles National Forest Census-designated places in California

Geography

History

Demographics

See also

References

External links