In the 1850s, a toll gate, fine hotel, and stables stood near this spot. Jedediah Smith was reputed to have been the first white man to cross over or near Sonora Pass in 1827. A portion of the road was built by the Tuolumne County Water Co. in 1852, surveyed to Bridgeport in Mono County in 1860, and completed in 1864, when a six-horse team took three weeks to make the round trip from Sonora to Bridgeport.