Mud Spring, formerly called ''Aquaje Lodoso'' (muddy watering place), is a
spring and historic site in the western
Antelope Valley
The Antelope Valley is a valley primarily located in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, Kern County, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated ...
, within northern
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...
, southern California.
It is located the western
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
at an elevation of , north of
Lake Hughes and east of the
Tehachapi Mountains
The Tehachapi Mountains (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately in southern Kern County and northwe ...
.
History
El Camino Viejo
Aquaje Lodoso was an
aguaje, a watering place on the Spanish and Mexican
El Camino Viejo inland north–south route in colonial
Alta California
Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva 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 was made a separat ...
. It was located between
Elizabeth Lake and
Cow Spring water sources.
It was also a watering place on the
Old Tejon Pass road between the Antelope and San Joaquin Valleys in the 1840s and early 1850s until that road was replaced by the
Stockton–Los Angeles Road, a new and easier road through
Fort Tejon Pass.
Stockton - Los Angeles Road
The
Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division had a station operating at Mud Springs, on the
Stockton - Los Angeles Road.
In 1860, a correspondent of the
Daily Alta California wrote an account of his travel by
stagecoach
A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
to Los Angeles from San Francisco. He mentions that the
Butterfield Overland Mail
Butterfield Overland Mail (officially 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 in ...
(1857-1861) had a station operating at Mud Springs in 1860.
[ List of Butterfield Overland Mail Stations, from the New York Times, October 14 1858, "Itinerary of the Route"](_blank)
/ref>
It was east from French John's Station, and north from Clayton's— Widow Smith's Station near San Francisquito Pass in the Sierra Pelona Mountains
The Sierra Pelona, also known as the Sierra Pelona Ridge or the Sierra Pelona Mountains and originally known as the Liebre Mountains, is a mountain ridge in the Transverse Ranges in Southern California. Located in northwest Los Angeles County, t ...
.
Another account of the Butterfield Stage reports, "Mud Springs, a camping place and the site of a stage station from 1861 to 1871, operated by a Mr. Clancy, was located just east of where the Santa Fé railroad crosses Ciénega Avenue, southeast of San Dimas. From Mud Springs to Los Angeles the stages and freight teams usually went by way of El Monte."
See also
* Butterfield Overland Mail in California
References
Antelope Valley
Springs of Los Angeles County, California
Former settlements in Los Angeles County, California
El Camino Viejo
Butterfield Overland Mail in California
Stagecoach stops in the United States
{{LosAngelesCountyCA-geo-stub