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Vasquez Rocks
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Vasquez Rocks
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| Location: | Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California |
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| Nearest city: | Agua Dulce, California |
| NRHP Reference#: | 72000228 |
| Added to NRHP: | June 22, 1972 |
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a 905-acre (3 km²) park located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is in the Agua Dulce vicinity between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles and seen easily by motorists driving the Antelope Valley Freeway (CA 14).
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These rock formations were formed by action of the San Andreas Fault.[1] In 1873 and 1874 Tiburcio Vásquez, one of California's most notorious bandits, used these rocks to elude capture by law enforcement. His name has since been associated with this geologic feature.
The land and rock formations were acquired by the Los Angeles County government in the 1970s.
Vasquez Rocks was added to the National Register of Historic Places (site #72000228) in 1972 due to its significance as a prehistoric site for the Shoshone and Tataviam peoples.[2]
In 1935, Universal Pictures assigned Stanley Bergerman as executive producer on the film Werewolf of London. Bergerman suggested the Vasquez Rocks as the location for what was supposed to be Tibet. Since then, Vasquez Rocks have been used innumerable times in motion pictures, various television series and in moving and still photography advertisements, and continue to be used in them today. The triangular rock summit can be clearly seen in, for example, an Outer Limits episode called "The Zanti Misfits", in "Arena", an original series Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk rolls a boulder onto an alien of reptiloid origin called a Gorn, and throughout a Bonanza episode called "Between Heaven and Earth". The prominent rock formation has been nicknamed "Kirk's Rock" due to being featured in several Star Trek episodes, each time representing a different planet.[3] The Vasquez Rocks were also used prominently throughout all three seasons of the science-fiction television series Roswell as something of an important location for the main characters and their story. The area is also featured as the location of the Command Center for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers throughout Power Rangers Turbo. Also featured in the movie Paul, and in the 2009 "South by Southwest" episode of NCIS.
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