Another Carbon Canyon Area Map from the 1920s

This map, from the late 1920s, is an interesting contrast to the 1917 map profiled last week. For example, the La Vida Mineral Springs had opened within the canyon. Curiously, it seems to show three structures there, including two on the south side of the road, whereas all other indications have shown that the resort was entirely on the north side--though, this could have been a mistake by the mapmakers.

It is also interesting to see that Olinda Boulevard was changed to Valencia Avenue, which still (and would for years to come) curved into Carbon Canyon Road--with a portion of that curved section still visible behind a fenced oil property just east of the current roadbed of Valencia Avenue. Meanwhile, what is now Birch Avenue remained Brea-Olinda Boulevard.

Note, too, how the Olinda Oil Field is seen as a continuation west from the original 1890s location at the mouth of Carbon Canyon and extending westward to Brea Canyon, which road, then called Pomona Avenue, is at the upper left. Incidentally, the "Coyote Field" refers to the oil fields in Fullerton from where State College Boulevard and Bastanchury Road meet and heading west. In recent years, a golf course and homes have gone in at that location.

Also noteworthy is the presence of a "Unoco Golf Course", referring to the Union Oil Company's private course, shown as being north of today's Lambert Road. It seems that more oil exploration in this section at what is now the 57 Freeway led most likely to the dismantling of the course. My understanding is that the Birch Hills Golf Course was later put onto Union Oil land, which is why the Union Plaza shopping center is called by that name just south of the course and north of Imperial Highway. Remember, too, that, until just a few years ago the very modernistic architecture of the Unocal company headquarters was at the northeast corner of Imperial Highway and Valencia Avenue. All of this has its roots in the company's pioneering ventures at the Olinda oil field.

Other items of note that were on the previous map: the Pacific Electric Railway streetcar tracks and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe spur railroad line. It is interesting to see long-gone place names that were part of these transportation lines, like Loftus (likely named for the Graham-Loftus Oil Company, another early player at Olinda), Daum, and Carlton, which almost seems like its own little town between Yorba Linda and Brea.

Old maps are always interesting in showing us what has remained consistent over time and what has gone by the wayside or been altered through the years. Soon, a post will detail a Auto Club map of Carbon and Brea canyons, also for the 1920s.