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Unincorporated community in California, United States

Gorman is an unincorporated community in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located in Peace Valley south of the Tejon Pass, which links Southern California with the San Joaquin Valley and Northern California. Due to this location, the area has served as a historic travel stop dating back to the indigenous peoples of California. Tens of thousands of motorists travel through Gorman daily on the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) since the highway's completion in the mid 20th Century.

Gorman is in size.

Gorman is "one of the oldest continuously used trail and roadside rest stops in California," as the Native Americans of California "would have stopped there when it was the Tataviam village of Kulshra'jek" explains Mountain Communities historian Bonnie Ketterl Kane. The Spanish and Mexican colonial El Camino Viejo passed through the area en route to Old Tejon Pass. The route of the Stockton–Los Angeles Road went through Tejon Pass after 1852.

The Gorman area was part of Rancho Los Alamos y Agua Caliente, an 1846 Mexican land grant. The first American settler in the area was a man named Charles Johnson, after 1853. After Johnson's death, his widow, Soledad Girado ran the place, which by 1855 had become known as Rancho la Viuda (Widow's Station).

In January 2006, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected a bid by 32 of the area's 75 property owners to give up Gorman so it could be annexed to Kern County. Reasons cited for the proposal included red tape and zoning regulations restricting development in Los Angeles County. However, Los Angeles County and opponents of the proposal did not want to lose sales and occupancy tax revenue the county collected annually from Gorman businesses. Deputy Sheriff Arthur E. Pelino, the then resident deputy of Gorman, was shot and killed at his Gorman office with his own firearm by a suspect he was processing in 1978. The County of Los Angeles sends a bookmobile to Gorman every Tuesday.

Accounts differ as to the origin of Gorman Elementary School, although the pioneer Ralphs family certainly played a role in its founding. According to researcher Harrison Irving Scott, the first school in the area appears to have been the one room Manzana School, a mile south of Gorman, where in 1925 there were only four pupils — the Ralphs brothers, Glenn, Harry, Albert and Dewey. After it was torn down, the children went to Quail Lake School in another one room schoolhouse. Gorman Elementary School was built by the federal government's Works Progress Administration in 1939. There is no accessible record of the first teacher, but Martha Forth was the second; she taught in 1941–1943.

In January 2008, Ruth Ralphs was honored for 33 years of service to the Gorman School District. Ralphs was secretary treasurer of James L. Ralphs Inc. and vice president of Tri Foods, which owned Carl's Jr. in Gorman. A native of Townsville, Queensland, Australia, she died at the age of 90 on December 30, 2010. "During many of those 33 years, Ruth also managed Ralphs' family enterprises (such as gas stations, motels, a cafe, grazing rights and an antenna) while serving as postmistress of the Gorman Post Office," the local newspaper, the Mountain Enterprise, reported.

Gorman is part of the Antelope Valley Community College District, whose Antelope Valley College campus is 45.6 mile (73 km) away via Highway 138 and West Avenue I.

Seventy four thousand people pass through Gorman daily via the Interstate 5 freeway, but residents have a choice of local roads to avoid the freeway. Peace Valley Road parallels the freeway on the west, north of the town, for travel to Frazier Park and Lebec, and Gorman Post Road on the east, south of town, is a direct route to State Route 138. Kern Transit provides bus service from Gorman to Lebec, Frazier Park, Lake of the Woods, Pinon Pines, and Pine Mountain Club. It offers a dial a ride service all year. Connections can be made in Frazier Park or Lebec to scheduled service to Grapevine, Santa Clarita, and Bakersfield and further connection there to Greyhound Lines and Amtrak.