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This measure would designate Highway Route 67 in the County of San Diego as Historic Highway Route 67, and would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

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WHEREAS, Highway Route 67 originally followed an ancient Kumeyaay Native American trail through the eastern part of the County of San Diego to the Laguna Mountains that provided an efficient system of communication and trade among the Kumeyaay villages that existed along that route; and

WHEREAS, This route was later catalogued by Spanish explorers, the regional owners of Mexican ranchos, and the United States military, who followed it up and over Mission Valleys eastern rim and down into the El Cajon Valley; and

WHEREAS, By 1872, the Julian road, as Highway Route 67 was known back then, was used for stagecoaches; and

WHEREAS, The road was realigned in 1885 in what was known as the Bernardo District onto private property, where it passed through farms and was buttressed with granite the greater part of the way, continuing through vineyards towards the town of Ramona; and

WHEREAS, Not until 1876, when new commercial buildings, collectively known as Knoxs Corners, were built in El Cajon Valley by former Maine resident, Amaziah Knox, did the direction of the old trail begin to change in that area, with new roadways laid out in a traditional American grid pattern that would cover and eventually erase the original route; and

WHEREAS, At the turn of the 20th Century, the historic road that became Highway Route 67 also served as a railroad corridor for the San Diego, Cuyamaca, and Eastern Railroad from the City of San Diego through the City of El Cajon to the town of Foster, northeast of the town of Lakeside; and

WHEREAS, This rail line was built in the 1880s to accommodate the states second gold rush and carried miners and goods from todays San Diego Gaslamp District to and through Lemon Grove, La Mesa, and El Cajon Valley to Lakesides end-of-the-line Foster station; and

WHEREAS, In 1896, a stagecoach line connected the terminus of the railroad line in the town of Foster to the town of Julian, and transported San Diego newspapers to the town of Ramona by 2:30 p.m. each day; and

WHEREAS, In 1926, the County of San Diego declared the Julian road a county boulevard, meaning that vehicles were required to stop before entering the highway, and the road that became Highway Route 67 was added to the state highway system in 1933, from the City of El Cajon to near the unincorporated community of Santa Ysabel; and

WHEREAS, Highway Route 67 begins today in the City of El Cajon at the interchange with Interstate 8 near the Chase Avenue exit and runs north for approximately 24 miles to an intersection with California Highway 78 in the unincorporated community of Ramona, starting as the San Vicente Freeway before becoming an undivided highway in Lakeside; and

WHEREAS, Highway Route 67 is a significant transportation corridor with abundant natural, cultural, historic, and scenic qualities; and

WHEREAS, It is therefore appropriate to recognize Highway Route 67 for its historical and cultural importance in the development of California; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates Highway Route 67 in the County of San Diego as Historic Highway Route 67; and be it further

Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with signing requirements for the state highway system showing the special Historic Highway Route 67 designation, and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources for that cost, to facilitate the erection of those signs at appropriate locations on Historic Highway Route 67; and be it further

Resolved, That the designation of Historic Highway Route 67 pursuant to this resolution shall have no impact upon the future planning or development of adjacent private and public properties; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author for appropriate distribution.