San Marcos Pass

Infobox Mountain Pass
Name = San Marcos Pass
Photo =
Caption = San Marcos Pass
Elevation = 2,225 ft. / 678 m
Location = California, USA
Range = Santa Ynez Mountains
Coordinates = coord|34|32|45|N|119|52|27|W|type:pass
Topographic

Traversed by = State Route 154

San Marcos Pass (el. 2,225 ft. / 678 m) is a mountain pass in the Santa Ynez Mountains in California.

It is traversed by State Route 154. The pass connects Los Olivos and the Santa Ynez Valley with Santa Barbara, California. The road has been designated as a daylight-headlight highway by the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans because of frequent accidents, particularly around the exit for Lake Cachuma.

Geography

The pass is one of three passages across the steep Santa Ynez Mountains, and the nearest to Santa Barbara. The community near Painted Cave SP is four miles east of San Marcos Pass via East Camino Cielo Road, which intersects with SR 154 right at the summit.

Battle of Fremont's Pass

No shots were fired during this "battle", which consisted solely of John C. Fremont's California Battalion crossing of the mountains via San Marcos Pass on the night of December 24, 1846. At that time the Pass was only a path, and a rough one at that. It was a rainy night, and while Fremont's battalion had lost 150 horses and mules from sliding down the muddy slopes during the crossing, the exhausted men were able to reach the Goleta Valley foothills by the next morning, where they camped for two days. On December 27, 1846, they entered into Santa Barbara, pulled down the Mexican flag, and ran up the Stars and Stripes at the Thompson Adobe (now 809-811 State Street). No force defended the town: all local men had gone to Los Angeles earlier that week to join the forces under Generals Flores and Andres Pico. They surrendered to the Americans on January 13, 1847, a little more than two weeks later, on the Cahuenga Plain near Los Angeles. [Tompkins, p. 33-35]

A local Army National Guard center is named after Fremont, in recognition of his capturing Santa Barbara and making it part of the United States.

The local legend of Fremont's Cannon derives from this battle.

There is a California Historical marker located at the site which references the participation of William Benjamin Foxen in leading Fremont through the pass avoiding confrontation with the Mexican forces protecting Santa Barbara.

ee also

*State Route 154
*Santa Ynez Valley
*Camino Cielo
*Santa Barbara, California

References

* [http://www.virtual-santabarbara.com/attractions/Attraction.php?id=11 Santa Barbara :: Restaurants, Hotels, Central Coast Wineries and more] defunct as of May 1, 2007. [http://web.archive.org/web/20060207003850/http://www.virtual-santabarbara.com/ copy] on archive.org dated 07 February 2006, retrieved 1 May 2007.
*Tompkins, Walker A. "Santa Barbara, Past and Present". Tecolote Books, Casa de la Guerra, Santa Barbara. 1975.

External links

* [http://www.calgold.com/roadtrip/Default.asp?Series=100&Show=406 Huell Howser Roadtrip #108]
* [http://www.rain.org/~ekummel/eksmp.html Report by Ewan J. Kummel] , Copyright 1996, Released under GFDL in 2005
*Archive.org copy of [http://web.archive.org/web/20050526202902/www.virtual-santabarbara.com/attractions/Attraction.php?id=11 San Marcos Pass - Santa Barbara, CA 93101 - Attractions @ Virtual-SantaBarbara.com] dated 26 May 2005 retrieved 1 May 2007.