Freeman Junction

Everything had to come through here. The road west over Walker Pass ran to the Kern River mines, the road south to Los Angeles, and the desert camps fed freight into the same fork. Bedrock mortars by the spring show how long it had been used, and Death Valley survivors divided here in 1850 because this is where the roads divide. Freeman Raymond, a forty-niner himself, put a stage station on it. In February 1874 Tiburcio Vásquez robbed freight crews here, having watched from Robbers Roost above. The station, the town and the plaque are all gone.

What the plaque says

FREEMAN JUNCTION IN 1834 EXPLORER JOSEPH R. WALKER PASSED THIS JUNCTION OF INDIAN TRAILS AFTER DISCOVERING NEARBY WALKER PASS. DEATH VALLEY 49ER PARTIES HERE DIVERGED WEST AND SOUTH AFTER THEIR ESCAPE FROM DEATH VALLEY ENROUTE TO THE CALIFORNIA GOLD FIELDS. LATER THIS BECAME A JUNCTION POINT WHERE THE BANDIT TIBURCIO VASQUEZ PREYED ON STAGES AND FREIGHTERS TRAVELING BETWEEN THE KERN RIVER MINES AND LOS ANGELES AND THE MINES OF BODIE AND THE PANAMINTS. CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 766 PLAQUE PLACED BY THE CALIFORNIA STATE PARK COMMISSION IN COOPERATION WITH THE DEATH VALLEY 49ERS, INC. AND THE KERN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NOVEMBER 9, 1961.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Indian Wells — 5.0 mi
• Walker's Pass — 7.9 mi
• Garlock — 15 mi
• Desert Spring — 21 mi