Angeles Crest Highway - History

History

Construction for Angeles Crest Highway began in 1929. It was originally intended to be a fire access road. In 1941 construction stopped because of World War II. In 1946, after the war, construction resumed; the completed highway eventually opened in 1956. The road was constructed by prison labor staying at Camp 37. Camp 37 has since been razed. Division of Highways (now known as CalTrans) staff lived at a site called Cedar Springs. The staff is now located at Chilao Flats. The children attended Chilao Mountain School, a one room school. The school has been closed for several years.

Roads in the San Gabriel Mountains have a high number of single-vehicle auto and motorcycle accidents. As an example, in the predawn hours of December 8, 2004, a van plunged off the side of Angeles Forest Highway at about 1-mile (1.6 km) north of its junction with the Angeles Crest Highway, killing 3 of the 10 people in the van. The van was a carpool carrying workers of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from the Antelope Valley to work in Pasadena. It was determined upon investigation by the CHP that the driver fell asleep at the wheel of the van. The Angeles Crest Highway and Angeles Forest Highway have figured in various murders, not as scenes of the murder but as drop off points for the dead victims, including Linda Sobek, a model kidnapped and found dead in the area in 1995.

The motion picture Donnie Darko, released in 2001, was partially filmed on Angeles Crest Highway. In the opening scene with Donnie waking up in the middle of the road, next to his bike, the camera zooms in on Donnie, then loops around and shows a view of the valley seen from Angeles Crest Highway. The highway is also used later in the movie for other scenes. The Angeles Crest Highway is also used extensively in the motion picture The Love Bug for racing scenes, as well as in the sequel film Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, where the highway doubles for "The French Alps".