Highway 395 promoted as Three Flags Highway

Historians work to revive 'Mother Road of the West'

Natasha Lindstrom
Victor Valley Daily Press

It's not nearly as famous as Route 66, but Highway 395 — sometimes called the "Mother Road of the West" — carries its own historical weight.

In the 1930s, Southern Californians dubbed the thoroughfare the Three Flags Highway for linking Mexico, the United States and Canada.

During World War II, Highway 395 provided military convoys with a safe alternative to coastal roads deemed vulnerable to attack.

Even today, the Three Flags Highway offers a scenic ride isolated from the heavy traffic clogging routes through Los Angeles.

The Historic Route 395 Association in Southern California is now trying to revive the Three Flags name as part of an effort to preserve the vintage motor courts, gas stations, restaurants and signs that still dot the old route, which once stretched from the San Diego Bay near the California-Mexico border to the Canadian border in Washington state.

“For the High Desert, it allowed the tourist industry to come up through the Cajon Pass and to explore the Eastern Sierras,” said Jeffrey Harmon, founding member of the 395 association, “and it also provided the only north-to-south route for commercial traffic on the eastern side of the Sierras.”

In June 2008, the California Legislature unanimously approved designating Highway 395 as a historic route from San Diego to the Oregon state line. But legislators left it up to cities and community organizations to pay for putting up historic markers and promoting the designation.

“Everything south of Hesperia has been reassigned to either city streets or completely disappeared all together,” Harmon said. “That history is important to preserve.”

Tracing the thorough fare’s pre-1948 route, the association has already installed about 100 signs in Riverside and San Diego counties, slowly making its way toward San Bernardino County and the Cajon Pass. The group is giving talks at community events to spread the word and accepting donations to put up more signs, which cost about $70 each.

“We’re doing what we can to get people to slow down, get off that interstate, just take a drive on Highway 395,” he said. “It’s just such a beautiful route.”

Meanwhile, locals continue to wait on a Highway 395 realignment that’s been in talks for decades and other improvements to make it safer to travel the local stretch of the 395.

Highway linking Antelope Valley to Victorville moving forward

By Jason Pesick
InsideSoCal.com








The office of San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who represents much of the High Desert, announced last week that a firm will be selected next month to build a 50-mile freeway linking Palmdale in the Antelope Valley in Los Angeles County to Victorville.

Mitzelfelt has supported the project, claiming it will lead to the creation of thousands of jobs and easing traffic congestion in Southern California.

Mitzelfelt also maintains hiring a private firm to work on a public project will serve as a new model for infrastructure projects. This position is similar to that of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has applauded public-private partnerships for infrastructure and environmental cleanup.

"This public-private partnership will create a major new route for freight movement that will benefit the entire region in terms of jobs, air quality and traffic congestion," Mitzelfelt said in a statement.

High Desert fastest growing region in county

RYAN ORR Staff Writer
Victorville Daily Press







SAN BERNARDINO — The Victor Valley is the fastest growing area in San Bernardino County and is expected to retain that title for some time.

For residents of the Victor Valley, that means an ever-changing community. However, with the rapid increase in population, it may change the 1st District more than some expect.

If the supervisorial districts were redrawn right now, 40,000 residents would have to be cut out of the 1st District and added to another, said 1st District Brad Mitzelfelt.

The districts will be redrawn after the 2010 census, when that number will probably be much larger.

That means that there are some communities currently in the 1st District — which includes the entire Victor Valley — that won’t be in two years.

The purpose is to make the district equal, so that each one comprises roughly one-fifth of the county’s population.

“The foreclosure increase is a temporary setback,” said Mitzelfelt. “We will be the fastest growing area in the community for the foreseeable future because we have the most land.”

Mitzelfelt would not speculate on which communities may be excluded when the districts are redrawn. After the 2000 census, Joshua Tree was cut out of the 1st District and Wrightwood, where Mitzelfelt resides, was added.

Despite the 2000 redistricting evening out the populations in each district, the California Department of Finance estimated in 2007 the 1st District had 445,530 residents. That’s 67,000 residents more than the county’s 5th District.

San Bernardino County’s charter calls for having five districts, which leaves out the possibility of adding a sixth.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were three well-organized yet unsuccessful drives to make the High Desert into its own county.

The motivation then, for what would have been called Mojave County, was not population growth, but keeping tax dollars in Victor Valley communities, said Dick Pearson, who was involved in the movement.

Mitzelfelt said that currently the High Desert benefits from being part of San Bernardino County.

“If we became our own small county, I think there would be more attention paid to our local problems. However, there would be a lot less money to solve those problems,” said Mitzelfelt, who added that some time in the future it could be more of a benefit to form another county.

The much anticipated High Desert government center will be like having a county seat in the Victor Valley, Mitzelfelt said.

The 55,000-square-foot center slated for Hesperia will house the majority of county agencies that Victor Valley residents now have to drive to San Bernardino for.

That, combined with the growth of the Southern California Logistics Airport and the jobs it will create, is proof that the Victor Valley will continue to be the fastest growing area in San Bernardino County.

High Desert Corridor project seeks engineering bids

FROM STAFF REPORTS
Daily Press

Planners for the High Desert Corridor, which one day will link the Victor Valley and Palmdale, are now seeking bids from engineering firms to outline how the project can be financed and built.

The expressway would improve travel safety, spur economic growth across the High Desert and divert truck traffic from Southern California freeways and High Desert highways, proponents say.

“The High Desert Corridor is a giant step closer to becoming a reality,” said 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. “It is my goal to have this highway built within 10 years, but it can’t happen soon enough.”

The corridor, also known as the E220, will be a crucial element for creating an “inland port” complex.

It will connect to a separate project currently spearheaded by the city of Victorville that will link Interstate 15 to Highway 395, including a connection with Southern California Logistics Airport and, in a later extension, to Highway 18 through Apple Valley.

BNSF Railway Company is developing a large railroad yard complex at Southern California Logistics Airport, the former George Air Force Base.

Multi-modal freight distribution centers such as SCLA are vital to lessening dependency on the Los Angeles basin for goods movement and keeping pace with the global economy.