The Long and Winding Road: A Historical Archaeology of the Roosevelt Highway and Malibu Road Wars, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties

Summary

This is an abstract from the "City and Country in the American West:Post-1848 Historical Archaeologies of Denver and Los Angeles" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A crowning achievement of road construction in the 1920s was the completion of the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Highway (later designated Pacific Coast Highway) though Malibu in 1928. A wagon road along the beach, only accessible twice a day during low tide, had long been used by travelers. When the Rindge family purchased Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit in 1887, they objected to trespassers over their land and attempted to close the route. High fences were built along the ranch boundaries and line-riders, armed to the teeth, rode the ranch boundaries to keep out surveying parties. For years May Knight Rindge fought the Southern Pacific Railroad and the county and Federal governments in court to prevent the building of a public road or railroad across her land. The booming population of Southern California motorists, however, created a rising demand for a coastal access, and Mrs. Rindge finally lost her suit. When construction of the road began in 1926, it proved nearly as challenging as the lawsuits for its acquisition. This presentation will discuss the history of the Roosevelt Highway and Malibu Road Wars and highlight remaining segments of the original highway within State Parks along the coast from Topanga to Point Mugu.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• City and Country in the American West:Post-1848 Historical Archaeologies of Denver and Los Angeles

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53008