Box Canyon, Anza Borrego State Park: In the Footsteps of California Emigrants

N 30° 0.875’ W 116° 26.555’

In the early days of California statehood, there was an enormous emigration to the Golden State.  But getting to California wasn’t easy.  The northern routes through the Sierra Nevada were closed during the winter months and it was a long and dangerous voyage by sea around Cape Horn or over the Isthmus of Panama.  That left what would become known as the Southern Emigrant Trail, a single trail from the Gila River in the Arizona territory to Southern California.  From the Mexican War in 1846 until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, there was a steady stream of soldiers, gold-seekers, emigrants, cattle, and stagecoaches along this historic trail through the desert.

Looking south from the Campbell grade you can still see
the old coach road crossing Vallecito Valley. Photo: B. Perry

Many trails from the east converged along the Gila River to form the start of the Southern Emigrant Trail.  At Yuma, the travelers crossed the Colorado River by ferry.  Beyond Pilot Knob, the trail dipped into Mexico to avoid the Algodones sand dunes.  It made its way west along a series of intermittent waterholes as it crossed 90 miles of bleak, featureless desert.  Parched and exhausted, the travelers arrived at Carrizo Creek, the first dependable source of water since Yuma.  The trail then went up the Carrizo Valley to Vallecito, where springs provided water and, later, a stage station provided shelter.  From Vallecito, the trail climbed over the Campbell Grade into Mason Valley.    At the northern end of Mason Valley, the trail entered Box Canyon, a tight squeeze for most wagon-bound traffic.  Travelers agreed this was the worst stretch of whole trail.  Twenty-foot vertical walls of rock lined a gap barely wide enough for a coach.  From Box Canyon, it was a gentle climb through Blair Valley and San Felipe Valley to Warner’s Ranch.  The trail forked just beyond Warner’s Ranch.  A right turn took travelers north through Temecula to Los Angeles while a left turn took them down the valleys to San Diego where a ship could take them north to San Francisco.

Kearny's "Army of the West" came down this hill in
San Pasqual on the morning of Dec. 6, 1946.
Photo: B. Perry 

During the Mexican War in 1846, General Stephen Watts Kearny marched his “Army of the West” across the desert on the trail to secure San Diego.  A band of Californios attacked Kearny’s troops at the Battle of San Pasqual, stranding them atop Mule Hill, near modern Escondido.  The famous scout Kit Carson and two others slipped through enemy lines, made it to San Diego, and brought back reinforcements to rescue Kearny and his men.

The 500-man Mormon Battalion, under the command of Army Lt. Col. Philip Cooke, was dispatched across the southern trail to reinforce Kearny’s troops.  By the time they reached Carrizo Creek, they had abandoned all but five of their wagons.  At Vallecito, they received news that the war was over.   Upon entering Box Canyon, they found their wagons would not fit through the tight passage.  Having lost their picks and shovels crossing the Colorado River, the men used hand tools to cut a passage through the rock so the wagons could pass.  The first wagon was dismantled and carried through.  The second carried over the narrowest spots.  The last three rolled through when the trail was wide enough.  The Mormon Battalion’s wagons were the first to come across the desert to Southern California.

After the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento in 1848, thousands of 49er’s headed for the goldfields to make their fortunes.  About a third of them came by way of the Southern Emigrant Trail.  Lorenzo D. Aldrich was one such gold-seeker.  His “A Journal of the Overland Route to California & the Gold Mines” chronicles his journey on a daily basis.  On Nov. 24^th 1849, he wrote about his passage through Box Canyon: “After proceeding over a sandy track, in the afternoon, having made about four miles, we entered a ravine, or canyon, in the mountains which was so narrow that it would barely admit our wagon, - traveling in this manner for a considerable time, the rocks impending over our heads in many instances for several feet, we emerged about sundown on the open mountain, in order to ascend which we were obliged, all hands, to put our shoulders alternately at the wheel, and sometimes it required our united efforts to start the team when it once became stationary.  This is the spot where Col. Cook cut through the rock to make a way for his teams and repacked his wagons.  It is the most hideous road I ever saw.  We made today about ten miles.”  Lorenzo Aldrich made it to San Diego where he caught a ship to San Francisco.  He died from an illness he contracted during his return trip via Panama a year later.

The San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line
had two routes from Vallecito to San Diego.
(California State Parks)

James E. Birch’s San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line was the nation’s first transcontinental mail line. It operated along the Southern Emigrant Trail from 1857 to 1861.  Passengers and the mail travelled by celerity coach (or mud wagon) drawn by mules from San Antonio to Yuma.  After crossing the Colorado River, they transferred to mules for the 100-mile trip across the desert.  From Vallecitos, passengers and the mail went up Oriflamme Canyon by mule, through the Cuyamacas, and down through Descanso, El Cajon, and Mission Gorge to San Diego.  Coaches made the trip to San Diego via Warner’s Ranch, Santa Isabella, Santa Maria (Ramona, CA), San Pasqual, and Los Peñasquitos.  The 1500-mile line was known as the “Jackass Mail” thanks to the use of mules.  Before the first mail run was complete, Birch was drowned when the steamer Central America sank off Cape Hatteras in Sept. 1857.

The restored Vallecito Stage Station is now a State Park.
Photo: B. Perry

A year later, in 1858, John Butterfield started a mail service which ran 2,700 miles from St. Louis to San Francisco in 25 days or less.  Coach stations were built at all the desert watering holes to provide shelter and fresh horses.  For most of the route, the Butterfield Overland Mail Line used the Concord coaches that we know from the movies.  But mud wagons were used for the pull through the desert from Yuma to Warner’s Ranch.  The coming of the Civil War in 1861 ended the Butterfield Line but many of the stations lived on.  It’s still possible to find evident of a few of the Butterfield Stage Stations.  After years of decay, the Vallecito Station has been restored and is now a State Park.  The station at Oak Grove is still standing although it is in private hands.  The Warner Ranch station is being restored. The stations at Carrizo Creek, Palm Spring, and San Felipe are long gone.  The Indian Wells station was washed away in 1903 when the Colorado River was accidently diverted down the New River into the Salton Sink.

In the 20^th century, railroads and highways provided new routes in and out of Southern California.  Agriculture came to the Imperial Valley transforming the bleak landscape seen by Lorenzo Aldrich.  In the 1920’s, a new “Imperial Highway” was designated along the old trail from Los Angeles to the Imperial Valley although it wasn’t until 1961 that the entire route was paved.

The old road cuts above... bypass this dead end!
Photos: B. Perry

I recently drove down that highway to find Box Canyon where all those folks, wagons, and cattle passed between the tall, vertical rock walls.  There’s a monument on the side of the highway commemorating Box Canyon’s place in history.  It’s a short walk from the monument to an overlook where you can see the road cut by the men of the Mormon Battalion. Another road cut is just above the first, apparently made for the stage lines.  Why did they have to cut these? Why not just follow the dry creek bed instead?  I climbed down into the canyon to the two parallel roads and then followed them south to where they joined the creek bed.  Then I followed the creek bed upstream back towards the overlook – and I got my answer.  It’s a dead end.  There’s a 15-foot dry waterfall down a wall of solid rock.  No wonder they had to go around!  Back at the point where the roads left the creek bed, the canyon turns sharply west.  I followed the creek bed into the canyon and got a sense of why Box Canyon was such an obstacle for the emigrants.  After about a quarter mile, the sides of the canyon are only about 10 feet apart and quite high.  In many places, the cliff faces have been hacked back to widen the gap.  I could only imagine what it must have looked like when Col. Cooke was here.  I stopped and listened.  In the silence, I could hear the footsteps of thousands, the groaning of the wagons, and the oaths of the men.  When I exited the canyon on the west end, I turned around and retraced my steps, taking a picture every 100 feet or so.  Here is the result:

Aldrich, Lorenzo D., A Journal of the Overland Route to California and the Gold Mines.  Dawson’s Book Shop, Loas Angeles, CA. 1950.

Brigandi, Phil. The Southern Emigrant Trail.  The Branding Iron, Los Angeles Corral of The Westerners, Number 256, Fall 2009.

Sweet, Ellen L.  and Lynne Newell.  Historic Stage Routes of San Diego County. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC. 2011.