CurtesyFlush
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Fontana, CA
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Re: A So Cal place name primer
Here's a couple of quick So Cal plant facts:
Eucalyptus: Not native. Were brought here from Australia in the 19th century in hopes of being able to use the extremely fast growing tree for railroad tie wood. Problem was, they massively split after a certain amount of time under the sun. The trees in the community of Lake Forest in South Orange County are the remnants of the sprawling forests planted by the entrepreneur responsible for this wooden boondoggle. Hence the name we long time locals call the place: Fake Forest.
Mustard Plants: Not native. The seas of springtime yellow that cover our hills and fields were originally sown Johnny Appleseed style by the first Spanish Catholic Fathers, such as Junipero Serra, as they trekked their way up the state founding missions. The swaths of brilliant yellow that marked their path, now known as El Camino Real, were the forerunner of today's ubiquitous mustard growths.
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TwoFrogs
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| Redlands = Deadlands
Hometown for this NoCal transplant for the last 25 years. Redlands, named for the local very reddish clay soil, was regarded as the "Palm Springs" of the L.A. aristocracy in the 20s and 30s. "Deadlands" has been the common teen name for the place for, like, forever. 
Interesting point about eucalyptus, Jack.
said by CurtesyFlush  :Eucalyptus: Not native. Were brought here from Australia in the 19th century in hopes of being able to use the extremely fast growing tree for railroad tie wood. Problem was, they massively split after a certain amount of time under the sun. The tree was also planted extensively in Northern California, to the extent that many really considered it a weed. Extensive old, dense growth of eucalyptus in Oakland contributed to the rapid spread of a devastating fire in the hills in 1970 (or '71, I disremember the exact year), when many of the trees had been killed during a freeze the previous winter.
We're going to have to designate you the official BBR SoCal historian, Cap'n.
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seagreen
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2 edits | said by TwoFrogs :Extensive old, dense growth of eucalyptus in Oakland contributed to the rapid spread of a devastating fire in the hills in 1970 (or '71, I disremember the exact year), when many of the trees had been killed during a freeze the previous winter. The fire was in '91 and you're correct about the eucalyptus being a major contributor to the severity of the fire. The other major contributor was the Santa Ana winds blowing at the time. If it had been a nice foggy, fall day there would have been little damage. In northern California the eucalyptus seem to have been planted as windbreaks. 
coxta brought up Pasadena. Does Pasadena mean something in Spanish? |
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CurtesyFlush
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Fontana, CA | Pasadena is Chippewa for "Crown of the Valley". Chippewa because the founders were from the mid-west.
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TwoFrogs
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| reply to seagreen
said by seagreen :The fire was in '91 and you're correct about the eucalyptus being a major contributor to the severity of the fire. I was actually thinking of an earlier fire, pretty severe but not nearly as devastating as the '91 fire. The 1970 (or '71) fire was intentionally set off of Fish Ranch Road on the east side of the Berkeley hills. I meant to differentiate the earlier fire from the more recent catastrophe but forgot. Your point about the later fire is well-taken; as far as I am concerned all of the eucalyptus, living or dead, should have been cut to the ground after the earlier fire.
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Great Movie Posters:
When You're Six Tons -- And They Call You Killer -- It's Hard To Make Friends...
-- "Namu, the Killer Whale" (1966)
You Got to Know When to Fold'em |
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seagreen
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out there | I was thinking it was the '91 fire because you mentioned the freeze before. The "freeze" I was thinking of was the '98 Winter Solstice Freeze so I was completely off in my dates.  |
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Fat City
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Freedonia
| The Bay Area winter freeze of '90-'91 was the worst I'd ever seen. Temps were in the mid-teens for nearly a week---very unusual for the SF Bay. It wiped out most of the eucalyptus in the hills, but they've recovered since then. After the thaw, people discovered all the water pipes that had burst; the plumbers had a helluva year, I think more than a few of 'em retired in '91 on their windfall. |
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Bloominite
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said by CurtesyFlush :Eucalyptus: Not native. Were brought here from Australia in the 19th century in hopes of being able to use the extremely fast growing tree for railroad tie wood. Problem was, they massively split after a certain amount of time under the sun. The trees in the community of Lake Forest in South Orange County are the remnants of the sprawling forests planted by the entrepreneur responsible for this wooden boondoggle. Hence the name we long time locals call the place: Fake Forest. The euc was widely considered to be Nature's ultimate gift to mankind and promoted heavily by the California Dept of Forestry during the 1870s-1880s and into the early 19th century as a cash crop. It was rumoured to do everything from curing malaria and vinescale on grape vines to making a great base for perfume. It was a great source of potash for industry and believed to both prevent and remove scale from boilers (an important consderation in the era when steam was king).
Have you ever been up the 101 to San Luis Obispo? The largest euc grove I ever saw was on the Nipomo Mesa. stretching from Santa MAria to Arroyo Grande and must've been home to tens of thousands of the trees. I can't vouch for the truth of the following, but it was said to have been planted by a disgraced member of the Polish royal family who had been banished to the US after some affair that stood to embarrass his family. The way the local story went, he planned on making hardwood furniture with the cut wood. And as someone else mentioned, euc splits when it dries. When I lived up there during the 60s , the Mesa was home to every kind of shady and illegal activity you can imagine from cockfights to murder and everything in-between thanks to the cloak of invisibilty provide by the huge, dense grove. I loved exploring it when I was a kid as it offered a blank slate to a kid's overactive imagination. It was definitely not a place to be after the sun set as it became blacker than any other place I've ever been outside of a cave.
»wwwlibrary.csustan.edu/bsantos/section1.htm
»wwwlibrary.csustan.edu/bsantos/section2.htm
»www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/···ptus.htm |
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CurtesyFlush
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Fontana, CA
| I've been waiting for you to pop in. Figured you'd have some history of the I.E., as I'm merely a transplant from South OC.
I know the forest you refer to up north. Used to live in SLO and took the 101 route between there and LA many times.
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Bloominite
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| said by CurtesyFlush :I've been waiting for you to pop in. Figured you'd have some history of the I.E., as I'm merely a transplant from South OC. I know the forest you refer to up north. Used to live in SLO and took the 101 route between there and LA many times. I haven't been north of Santa Maria on the 101 since about 1991, but would be very surprised if much of that grove is still intact and free of development. When did you live in SLO? |
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CurtesyFlush
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Fontana, CA
1 edit | said by Bloominite :When did you live in SLO? 60 - 65.
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Bloominite
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| said by CurtesyFlush :said by Bloominite :When did you live in SLO? 60 - 65. Remember the dinosaur in Shell Beach? Did your family ever go down to Santa MAria to shop at a big White Front style store called AFCO? My stepdad and his brother owned that store and its sister stores in Visalia and Fresno. |
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CurtesyFlush
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Fontana, CA
| I don't know. My dad was all over that area as he was the manager of the Security Title and Insurance Co office in SLO.
I recall Pea Soup Anderson coming by the house for supper a number of times, toting a few cases of pea soup each time. Also Karl Birkholm, the owner of Birkholm Bakery in Solvang, and the producer of those famous Danish cookies. We used to spend weekends at his ranch. He'd always bring tubs of those cookies for us, man no wonder I'm a sweetaholic nowadays.
We maintained dual residences in SLO and Capistrano. I'd go to school part time up there, then another part of the year down here.
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Bloominite
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| said by CurtesyFlush :I don't know. My dad was all over that area as he was the manager of the Security Title and Insurance Co office in SLO. I recall Pea Soup Anderson coming by the house for supper a number of times, toting a few cases of pea soup each time. Also Karl Birkholm, the owner of Birkholm Bakery in Solvang, and the producer of those famous Danish cookies. We used to spend weekends at his ranch. He'd always bring tubs of those cookies for us, man no wonder I'm a sweetaholic nowadays. We maintained dual residences in SLO and Capistrano. I'd go to school part time up there, then another part of the year down here. No shit, your dad worked for Security Title? My stepdad worked for Security Title in their San Bernardino office when he and my mom got married, then quit to go into business for himself in early 1962 just before we moved to Shell beach and then Santa Maria. His brother was an attorney with offices in Santa Maria and SLO and they were partners in lots of real estate investments all over Santa Barbara and SLO counties. His brother's practice dealt mainly with real estate so there's a good chance he and/or my stepdad knew your dad.
I remember Birkholm's well and used to make pastry runs from Bloomington to Solvang several times a year when they still ran the bakery. Did you ever make it to the candy shop in SLO's Chinatown where they made the roadapple candy?
You know what was my favorite place in that area back then? The Suey Ranch. That place was amazing and huge. It was owned by the Newhall Land and Farming Co and my stepdad was some kind of descendant of Henry Newhall. His mom made some calls and arranged for him to have access to most of the 40,000 acres of the ranch that straddled the 166. It was pretty cool, we'd stop by the ranch house and get a pass that allowed us to roam all over some of the most beautiful unspoiled coastal mountain land in the entire state. I'd give anything to be able to explore that ranch now. The last time I was on the ranch was the summer of '69, just before I moved back down here. There had been lots of rain that year that filled up the Twitchell Resevoir and made the ranch prettier than I'd ever seen it before or since. |
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CurtesyFlush
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1 edit | Yes he was. The office was on Chorro near Higuera, or on Higuera near Chorro. Before that he managed the BofA branch at Melrose and Irving in Hollywood, and the branch at Crenshaw and Stocker near Inglewood.
I remember that candy store well. I sure do like SLO. But, I like my high desert better.
EDIT: Is the Suey Ranch still in operation?
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Bloominite
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1 edit | said by CurtesyFlush :I remember that candy store well. I sure do like SLO. But, I like my high desert better. EDIT: Is the Suey Ranch still in operation? The last I heard, it was being sold a few years ago. I don't know if the sale was completed, but I do know they are beginning to develop the extreme southwestern edge that is below the dam and along the Santa Maria River. There was a move afoot to have SLO county relinquish their claim to the area so that SB county could annex it and provide services. SLO just refused that move a few weeks ago.
EDIT: Here's a .pdf with info on the annexation proposal:
»www.co.slo.ca.us/Board_of_Superv···/c-1.pdf
And according to this .pdf, it looks like Newhall sold the entire ranch to a Heber D. Perrett back in 2000. I'd like to have Heber Perrett's cash. Anyone who could buy that ranch is definitely rolling in it (or at least able to put together some pretty impressive financing). |
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Anon1980
@HITCHCOCK.ORG | I know Heber D. Perrett too well, and you would not want his money if you knew how he got it! |
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listen up
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|  I actually do not think you know a damn thing about Heber D. Perrett and his money. Go ask him how he lived as a boy and how he made his money, you will get an honest answer. and a good one, nothing dirty. next time do some research before you go bad mouthing people. |
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Anon1980
@adelphia.net
| Talk is so cheap. As a boy myself, my family went from owning a thriving and successful ranch to scrounging for fire wood in the city dump as a result of dealing with Heber Perrett. And we are not the only ones- countless others have lost "the family farm" to good old Mr. Perrett. He seems like such a nice guy, and sounds so believable. You have no idea. You mention research- I suggest you do a little- at almost any California county records division for example. My advice is never get involved with him in matters of money! |
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