Beales’s Cut

Nice piece of history. The land needs some cleaning. The hike to it is uphill, but is short enough. The felt like we were trespassing, but I read online that it’s open to the public. There won’t be any signs for it. Park on Sierra by these areas on my pics, then walk a little downhill towards the right. You will see a road that’s going uphill to your right. It looks like it’ll end, but keep going until you see 2 roads meeting. DO NOT go here when it’s dark or hot unless you take extra precaution. There are quite a few areas with broken glass & I heard snakes come around when it’s hot.

Long before the 14 freeway existed, the only way to travel north past the Santa Susana and San Gabriel Mountains to central and northern California was through a narrow 70 foot tall pass called Beale’s Cut (also known as both the San Fernando Pass and the Newhall Pass).
Completed in 1859, this pass was used up to 1910 until it was abandoned after the Newhall Tunnel was built located ¼ mile to the west of the site. Through the years the site has been used for a number of western movies. William S Hart supposedly jumped his horse across the gap.
The land around Beale’s Cut was used by a refinery until the 1980’s. The land currently remains vacant. You can still see various concrete foundations and pipes from the oil refinery. In the spring of 1998 a massive landslide filled in nearly half of the cut.
This site was designated as California Registered Historic Landmark No. 1006 on May 11, 1992. A marker base and plaque for this historical landmark was unfortunately never erected.
The entrance to the site is located 1 mile south of Eternal Valley Cemetery. You’ll see a metal fence on the east side of the road. From there you walk up the hill for another 1,000 ft.