The old route variously known as the Sonora, Colorado River, or Southern Emigrant Trail, and later as the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, passed through Box Canyon just east of here. On January 19, 1847, the Mormon Battalion, under the command of Lt-Col. Philip St G Cooke, used hand tools to hew a passage through the rocky walls of the narrow gorge for their wagons and opened the first road into Southern California.