Forks of the Road was the junction of two major travel routes, the Old Spanish or Salt Lake Trail and the Ancient Mojave River Trail, in the area of the Mojave River three miles north. In the 1830s and 1840s, the Old Spanish Trail carried regular trade caravans from Santa Fe to Los Angeles through Cajon Pass. The founding of Salt Lake City in 1847 and Mormon San Bernardino in 1851 brought renewed traffic, along with limited numbers of 49ers during the Gold Rush. The Mohave River Trail was an ancient trade route between Native American tribes of the Colorado River and the California coast. In 1849, it became the basis for a military road linking Fort Mojave in Arizona with Drum Barracks in Los Angeles, now commonly known as the Mojave Road. Rather than a single specific spot, Forks of the Road was a large braided network of individual tracks.
