The site is located in the present day Newhall section of Santa Clarita, in Los Angeles County, California.

The wagon road connected Los Angeles and the Gold Rush locations in the Sierras, and was part of the inland route to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

It was a regular stop for several early California stagecoach lines, and accommodated travelers during the 1853 Kern River gold rush.

The Lyon brothers owned the adobe and ranch land around it, where they farmed, raised sheep, and ran the watering place stop.

Having to draw some thick blackstrap from a keg, he used a pitcher to catch the treacle; and as the liquid ran very slowly, our sociable host sat down to talk a bit, and soon forgot all about what he had started to do.