Saga of the Bells Comes Full Circle

So it was fitting that their descendants in the California Federation of Women's Clubs and the Native Daughters of the Golden West on Tuesday helped ring in the El Camino Real bell's second century.

Members of the two groups helped state officials unveil a replica of the 85-pound cast-iron bell that pioneering women's organizations erected Aug. 15, 1906, in downtown Los Angeles as the state's first road marker.

Eventually, 450 of the decorative bells lined the route of the state's first "highway," which began as a meandering dirt path linking the missions.

Decades later, though, most of the bells had disappeared from the sides of "the King's Highway," as the route was known. Some were victims of road-widening projects, crashing cars and thieves. Others were simply replaced by the numbered signs that came to label state roadways.

It was a sign of nostalgia 10 years ago when California Department of Transportation leaders began mapping plans to restore the vintage bell markers along the original El Camino Real route, which largely follows U.S. 101.

Since then, the state has installed 555 new bells at about two-mile intervals along El Camino Real between San Diego and Sonoma, with women's clubs and other organizations placing hundreds more at other locations.

Each has been cast from the original molds made 100 years ago by women's club member Mrs. Armitage C.E. Forbes, the mastermind of the civic coalition that created the original highway markers.

A hands-on leader, Forbes herself poured molten metal into the bell-shaped forms in a corner of a foundry owned by her husband. She eventually created a business entity, California Bell Co., to manufacture them. Bearing the legend "El Camino Real" and the dates "1769 & 1906," each marker also had a small sign on its post showing the distance to the next town or mission.

As women's club members installed the bells, the California State Automobile Assn. and the Automobile Club of Southern California took over their maintenance. The state's Division of Highways assumed responsibility in 1933.

It's not surprising that Forbes and other women were highway pioneers, said Tammy Guensler, a resident of Carmichael, near Sacramento, who is president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs.