Designated as part of the commemorative route of
El Camino Real, the steep slope or grade was called the "cuesta del conejo" (slope of the rabbit). Early European settlers in the Conejo Valley, known as the
Norwegian Colony, needed a safe way to move bales of hay and sacks of wheat and barley to the
Hueneme Wharf on the Oxnard Plain. After several mishaps while hauling crops down here and at the Potrero grade, they decided to construct a new route into the
Santa Rosa Valley. The
Norwegian Grade was carved out of a steep canyon hillside by members of the community and their hired help between 1900 and 1911. Land for the highway was originally part of the
Rancho El Conejo, with contributions from
Adolfo Camarillo. A road was in place by no later than 1929, as a re-alignment had been done then. Further widening and reduction of
blind curves occurred in the 1930s.
Caltrans worked on the current grade setup, when the highway was brought to
freeway standards in the 1950s. Portions of the original highway continue to receive use as side roads. By 2017, the
National Park Service has recorded a dozen
mountain lions struck and killed by motorists on this section of freeway since 2002 when they began the study. Brother and sister, P-32 and P-33, crossed the freeway in 2015 and became the first
Santa Monica Mountains pumas with a
tracking collar to cross a freeway in six years. A young male mountain lion, P-55, left the Santa Monica Mountains in 2017 by crossing the freeway on the grade during the night. The animals was wearing a tracking collar used by the National Park researchers studying the mountain lions in the
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The proposed
Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is intended to primarily benefit the mountain lion population indigenous to the Santa Monica Mountains, which has declined due to the Ventura Freeway acting as a barrier in the
wildlife corridor between the
Simi Hills to the north and the Santa Monica Mountains to the south. The
Ventura County Transportation Commission,
Caltrans, and the
National Park Service, with support from the
National Wildlife Federation, are considering building another wildlife crossing here to connect the natural habitat on both sides of the freeway. The
Hill Fire temporarily closed the freeway on November 8, 2018, as
Santa Ana winds pushed the fire to the south towards
Newbury Park and
California State University Channel Islands. The fire was contained with minimal damage on November 16. The
Woolsey Fire started the same day, closed the freeway near
Oak Park, grew to over , destroyed an estimated 616 structures, and killed three people. ==See also==