The "Moving Mountain" on Carbon Canyon Road in 1938

The Brea portion of Carbon Canyon is much steeper and hillier than that on the Chino Hills side.  The engineering of Carbon Canyon Road has been presented problems over the years, especially when heavy winter rains (hardly an issue this winter, as rainfall barely reached a paltry 5 inches--meaning get ready for potential fire hazards) pummel the area.

In the winter of 1937-38, some of the worst flooding ever recorded in the southern California area took place.  Along the Santa Ana River, many lives were lost and houses destroyed, especially in the Atwood community, now part of Placentia.  In La Cañada-Flintridge, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, flooding and mudslides took a heavy toll.  Damage and destruction were found throughout the region.  Higher than usual precipitation continued into the spring, moreover.

The 27 June 1938 issue of the Los Angeles Times featured an article titled "New 'Moving Mountain' Perils Orange County Road."  This was the second county highway to have the problem of major sliding of earth, though the other was not specified.  In any case, Carbon Canyon Road was the threatened roadway receiving attention in this piece, which reported that the problem "was asuming major proportions, as ahuge mass of each apparently is ready to move across the Carbon Canyon highway near here."

The paper went on to note that "the moving hill first started some distance from the highway above the Ed Gaines ranch."  For those who've read other posts on this blog about Canyon history, the name Ed Gaines will be recalled as being the owner of a large stock ranch in what is now Olinda Village.  The article contined that the problem "was not viewed with alarm by engineers. but since the movement started the hill has plowed up more than forty acres of ground and seems to be preparing to wipe out a small hill and possibly move across the highway."

While observing that the road was not yet affected by the sliding mass, the Times stated that, "at times tons of earth have blocked about half of the right of way and have been removed."  In addition to this, "the earth slide has opened many huge fissures and has wiped out a small plateau of about five acres in its downward course."  Engineers studying the situaton estimated that the ground, soaked by the heavy rains, would continue their slide.

In hilly, steep terrain, the composition of the soil is such that landslides occur with some frequency.  In the winter of 2004-05, one of the wettest in recent history, some significant landslides occurred at various points along Carbon Canyon Road, especially in Brea.  There is a major steep cut in the hills just west of Olinda Village that, a few years back, was the subject of stabilization attempts.  The failure of certain slopes is always a real danger.

In fact, this question is now pertinent with the proposed Madrona housing development (formerly known as Canyon Crest) of 162 residences on the north side of Carbon Canyon Road in the hills east of Olinda Village and west of Sleepy Hollow.

The propensity for land slides have been pointed out frequent as an ongoing concern as the Canyon Crest/Madrona saga, senselesly grandfathered in its present state from outdated, outmoded and obsolete general and specific plans for the Canyon, plods along.  Several areas of the proposed project site have been determined to be potentially subject to slope failure, with cutting and filling being a major part of the project, even as the newest iteration seeks to slightly reduce the number of affected areas.

Now, of course, engineering technology is light years better now than it was 75 years ago, but we know from recent experience that building in some hilly terrain still leads to slides and failures and, as the Madrona project, moves to a council decision on the 2008 appeal of the then-Canyon Crest project, which was narrowly approved 3-2 by the Planning Commission, this is one of several areas of concern that will be focused on as the council vote, probably in June, nears.