Castaic’s etymology is a little ambiguous. Most agree it was a Chumash word, spelled by modern linguists as “kashtuk” or “kashtiq”. (The Chumash had no written language.) Others say it’s Tataviam in origin. Numerous translations have been suggested: “the eye”, “my eyes”, “our eye”, “in his eyes” – even “the face”. All refer to Castac Lake, a small body of water located some 25 miles north of here, near the town of Lebec. Adding confusion, Spanish explorers employed a variety of spellings: a 1791 account noted the native village of “Castec” next to said lake, Father José María de Zalvidea’s 1806 journal called the village “Casteque”, and so on. Then came Rancho Castac, an 1843 land grant with the lake marking its southern boundary. Here at this end of the Grapevine, the rancho’s name was borrowed by a local gold mine in 1874, after which folks started talking about Castac Canyon, Castac Creek, and so forth. The community of Castaic – with the added “i” – originated as a Southern Pacific railroad station, named by January 1st, 1888 along the Saugus-Santa Barbara route.
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