Freeman Junction

Freeman Junction is a California Historical Landmark in Kern County.

Kern County · U.S. Highway 6 and State Highway 178 · location approximate

Directions to the area ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

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 en route to the California goldfields. Later this became a junction point where the bandit Tiburcio Vásquez preyed on stages and freighters traveling between the Kern River Mines and Los Angeles and the mines of Bodie and the Panamints.

1971 register text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people; the state's landmark listings still carry most of this wording, and the California Office of Historic Preservation maintains the program's current texts.

Many of these plaques have since been recast or their texts revised. The California Historical Landmarks program and its current texts are maintained by the California Office of Historic Preservation. California Office of Historic Preservation ↗

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Marker data: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California Historical Landmarks (1971)

Freeman Junction

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