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34-411: The route of El Camino Viejo à Los Angeles (Old Road to Los Angeles), the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Alta California, ran through Niles Canyon. In addition, the canyon, then known as Alameda Cañon, was located in three different Mexican land grants - Rancho Arroyo de la Alameda , Rancho Ex-Mission San José , and Rancho Valle de San Jose . It was later named Cañada Molina Vallejo for

68-738: A collective term for Alta California and the Baja California peninsula . Originally a single, vast entity within the Spanish Empire , administration was split into Baja California ( Lower California ) and Alta California ( Upper California ) following the Mexican War of Independence . As a part of the Mexican–American War (1846–48), the Conquest of California saw the vast Alta California territory ceded from Mexico to

102-514: A new visitador , José de Gálvez , was dispatched from Spain with authority to organize and expand the fledgling province. The more ambitious province name, Las Californias , was established by a joint dispatch to the King from Viceroy de Croix and visitador José de Gálvez, dated January 28, 1768. Gálvez sought to make a distinction between the Antigua ('old') area of established settlement and

136-614: A picnic day-tripper destination around 1900, the name Niles Canyon replaced Alameda Cañon. Essanay Film Manufacturing Company , an early motion picture company, had a studio and back lot located in Niles from 1912–1916 at the canyon's western mouth. The canyon was featured in many early films, some by Broncho Billy and it was here that Charlie Chaplin filmed one of his most iconic movies, The Tramp . The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum has exhibits, screenings, and events remembering its heritage. The abandoned Sunol Aqueduct runs through

170-530: A shorter route through Benicia . The Southern Pacific tracks in Niles Canyon are on the north side of the canyon. Southern Pacific, being the first railroad in the canyon, chose the best route. Therefore, when the Western Pacific tracks were laid through the canyon in 1905 to 1908, they were left with a more difficult challenge. This forced Western Pacific engineers to bore two tunnels and construct

204-545: A steel bridge to lay their tracks. When driving the longer of the two tunnels, two gangs of excavators worked on it, one driving the tunnel from the east end and the other from the west end. The excavators drove about 100 feet (30 m) per month. El Camino Viejo El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles (English: the Old Road to Los Angeles ), also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail ,

238-764: Is now abandoned, except for the portion from Sunol to Niles Station operated by the heritage railway known as the Niles Canyon Railway . This line was the original westernmost section of the First transcontinental railroad from Sacramento to San Francisco Bay (by way of Stockton and the Altamont Pass ). It was completed in September 1869 by the Western Pacific Railroad (1862–1870) , but lost its transcontinental traffic in 1879 to

272-734: The California Gold Rush a shortcut developed at the northern end of El Camino Viejo, as part of the Oakland to Stockton Road used by stagecoaches and teamsters. It ran from Oakland , east through the Castro Valley and Rancho San Ramon , to the San Joaquin Valley and Stockton . Arroyo de Panoche Grande ( northern junction of El Camino Viejo with its Eastern Route ) The Californias The Californias ( Spanish : Las Californias ), occasionally known as

306-693: The Mission San José , the road was turned northward from there, crossing Arroyo de San Leandro and Arroyo de San Lorenzo to the anchorage in what is now the Oakland Estuary . There cargos could be ferried across to the Mission and Presidio of San Francisco or to other places on the bay more quickly and in more quantity than carriage by road. This route along the unsettled frontier of Spanish colonial Las Californias—Alta California (1769–1822) came to be favored by those who wished to avoid

340-490: The Nueva ('new') unexplored areas to the north. At that time, almost the only explored and settled areas of the province were around the former Jesuit missions but, once exploration and settlement of the northern frontier began in earnest, the geographical designations Alta ('upper') and Baja ('lower') gained favor. The single province was divided in 1804, into Alta California province and Baja California province. By

374-745: The San Emigdio Mountains to the San Joaquin Valley , where it followed a route along the eastern slopes of the Coast Ranges between aguaje (watering places) and arroyos . It passed west out of the valley, over the Diablo Range at Corral Hollow Pass into the Livermore Valley , to end at the Oakland Estuary on the eastern San Francisco Bay . The route of El Camino Viejo was well established by

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408-824: The Three Californias or the Two Californias , are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico , consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur . Historically, the term Californias was used to define the vast northwestern region of Spanish America , as the Province of the Californias ( Spanish : Provincia de las Californias ), and later as

442-532: The 1820s, and the route was in use by Spanish colonial "carretas" ( ox carts ) as early as 1780, as a more direct route than El Camino Real to the recently established Mission Santa Clara de Asís and Mission San Francisco de Asís . At that time the Bay Area section ran from the mouth of Arroyo Las Positas southwest across the mouth of the Arroyo Mocho and Arroyo Valle to Arroyo de la Laguna (later

476-413: The 1840s began establishing inland Mexican land grant ranchos along the route. Californio mesteñeros (wild horse catchers) also moved into the San Joaquin Valley to catch the mesteños (mustangs) that now roamed in the thousands, and held them in temporary corrals before herding them to the Bay Area, to Southern California , or to Sonora and other territories of northern Mexico for sale. With

510-606: The 29th State of Mexico as Baja California . 1984 . Baja California Sur became a Mexican state. The Baja California Peninsula is bordered on three sides by water, the Pacific Ocean (south and west) and Gulf of California (east); while Alta California had the Pacific Ocean on the west and deserts on the east. A northern boundary was established by the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. That boundary line remains

544-570: The 31st of the United States. 1853 . The Gadsden Purchase transferred addition territory from Mexico to the United States. 1853 . William Walker led a force that attempted to capture the Baja California Territory and Sonora to create an independent Republic of Sonora . Walker was defeated by Mexican forces led by Antonio Meléndrez . 1864 . Nevada became the 36th of the United States. 1876 . Colorado became

578-504: The 38th of the United States. 1890 . Wyoming became the 44th of the United States. 1896 . Utah became the 45th of the United States. 1912 . New Mexico became the 47th of the United States. 1912 . Arizona became the 48th of the United States. 1931 . Baja California Territory was divided into the Territory of Baja California Norte and the Territory of Baja California Sur . 1952 . The Territory of Baja California Norte became

612-560: The Contract & Finance Co., a subsidiary of Central Pacific, still in ownership of the later town of Niles. The railroad through Alameda Cañon to Pleasanton was completed August 15, 1869 and to Laddsville on August 18, 1869. The first through train from Sacramento to Alameda Terminal (the first terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad ) ran through Alameda Cañon on September 6, 1869. As Niles became known as

646-729: The U.S. remained under military authority, pending creation of civilian government through territorial designation and/or statehood. Baja California in Mexico was established as the Baja California Territory after the War. It was split by the Congress into Northern and Southern territories. Seven new U.S. states were created entirely or partly from land formerly included in The Californias. 1850 . California became

680-704: The United States. The populated coastal region of the territory was admitted into the Union in 1850 as the State of California , while the vast, sparsely populated interior region would only later gain statehood as Nevada , Utah , and parts of New Mexico , Arizona , Wyoming , and Colorado . Today, Californias is a collective term to refer to the American and Mexican states bearing the name California , which share geography, history, cultures, and strong economic ties. There has been understandable confusion about use of

714-613: The canyon. The aqueduct, built in the 1920s, formerly provided half the water supply to San Francisco before it was replaced by the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct . The Union Pacific Railroad (formerly Western Pacific Railroad ) has an active mainline on the south side of the canyon, the Oakland Subdivision . The Altamont Corridor Express runs along this line on weekdays and Saturdays. The former Southern Pacific route from Oakland to Tracy via Niles Canyon

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748-470: The division but demoted the former provinces to territories, due to populations too small for statehood. In 1836, the designation Las Californias was revived, reuniting Alta and Baja California into a single departamento ( department ) as part of the conservative government reforms codified in the Siete Leyes (Seven Laws). The Seven Laws were repealed in 1847, during the Mexican–American War , and

782-538: The eyes of the Spanish authorities that were along the more settled coastal route of El Camino Real. Settlements like Las Juntas and Rancho Centinela (est. 1810), and later Poso de Chane and others began to grow up along the route of El Camino Viejo. Later Californio vaqueros made "El Camino Viejo" a well-known trail that connected Rancho San Antonio with the Pueblo de Los Ángeles . The vaqueros ran cattle and in

816-547: The lands of Rancho Valle de San Jose ) and following it south down to its confluence with Arroyo de la Alameda (later location of Sunol ). It then crossed the hills to the south via Mission Pass to the coastal plain and on until it reached Mission Santa Clara and the El Camino Real. The Los Angeles Area section left the El Camino Real in the San Fernando Valley , Later, after the 1797 foundation of

850-711: The northern boundary of the U.S. states of California, Nevada, and the western part of Utah. Inland regions were mostly unexplored by the Spanish, leaving them generally outside the control of the colonial authorities. Mountain ranges of the Peninsular Ranges , eastern Transverse Ranges , and the Sierra Nevada , along with the arid Colorado Desert , Mojave Desert , and Great Basin Desert in their eastern rain shadows , served as natural barriers to Spanish settlement. The eastern border of upper Las Californias

884-540: The nucleus of Loreto , first permanent settlement and first administrative center of the province. The Jesuits went on to found a total of 18 missions in the lower two-thirds of the Baja California Peninsula . In 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from the missions, and Franciscans were brought in to take over. Gaspar de Portolá was appointed governor to supervise the transition. At the same time,

918-413: The plural Californias by Spanish colonial authorities. California historian Theodore Hittell offered the following explanation: In very early times, while the country was supposed to be an island or rather several islands, it was commonly known by the plural appellation of "Las Californias" (The Californias). Afterwards, when its peninsular character was ascertained, it was called simply California; but

952-490: The same time the old plural name of The Californias was revived, but with a more definite signification than before. The first attempted Spanish occupation of California was by the Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino , in 1683. His Misión San Bruno failed, however, and it was not until 1697 that Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó was successfully established by another Jesuit, Juan María de Salvatierra . The mission became

986-514: The split of the two Californias was restored. Following Mexico's defeat in the war, most of the former Alta California territory was ceded on 2 February 1848 to the United States, under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . The new Mexico–United States border was established slightly to the north of the previous Alta-Baja border, and the terms Las Californias and Alta California were no longer formally used. The areas acquired by

1020-416: The territory so designated was unlimited in extent. When the expeditions for the settlement of San Diego and Monterey marched, it was understood that they were going, not out of California, but into a new part of it. The peninsula then began to be generally spoken of as Antigua or Old California and the unlimited remainder as Nueva or New California, subsequently more commonly called Alta or Upper California. At

1054-590: The time of the 1804 split, the Alta province had expanded to include coastal areas as far north as what is now the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California . Expansion came through exploration and colonization expeditions led by Portolá (1769), his successor Pedro Fages (1770), Juan Bautista de Anza (1774–76), the Franciscan missionaries and others. Independent Mexico retained

Niles Canyon - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-556: The town of Niles , named after the Niles Station, which was built after the first transcontinental railroad was completed through the canyon by Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870) in the Summer of 1869. The station was named after Central Pacific Railroad attorney Addison C. Niles , later a California Supreme Court judge. The Thompson & West map shows that the area was still known as Niles or Vallejo Mills in 1878 with

1122-462: The two-story adobe grist mill built in the early 1840s on the Rancho Arroyo de la Alameda near the mouth of the canyon by its owner José de Jesús Vallejo , elder brother of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo . The locality became known as Vallejo's Mill and later as Vallejo's Mills when Vallejo built a second wooden three story mill next to the original adobe mill in 1856. The area later became

1156-501: Was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta California (1822–1848), present day California . It became a well established inland route, and an alternative to the coastal El Camino Real trail used since the 1770s in the period. It ran from San Pedro Bay and the Pueblo de Los Ángeles , over the Transverse Ranges through Tejon Pass and down through

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