Tonight's Carbon Canyon History Presentation

Just returned from the new Chino Hills Community Center (still has that new community center smell) after a highly-enjoyable presentation on the history of Carbon Canyon before an audience that might have been close to 150 persons.  That's a pretty amazing number for a local history talk and testament to the excellent publicity given to the event by the members of the Chino Hills Historical Society.

Some of the audience at tonight's Carbon Canyon history presentation at the new Chino Hills Community Center who were either hungry for history or desperate for anything to do on a Monday night.

Clocking in, timed on a sometimes-intelligent phone, at a brisk 30:52.88, the PowerPoint illustrated talk covered the geological origins of the canyon; the native peoples; the Spanish and Mexican periods, including the creation of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino (the borders of which extended nearly to Sleepy Hollow); the subdivision of the Sleepy Hollow and Mountain View tracts in the 1920s; the thirty-year history of the Jewish camp Camp Kinder Ring and its successor, including the short-lived and bizarre Ski Villa and to modern days with its further subdivisions, the creation of Western Hills Country Club, and the issue of upcoming housing projects and so on.

The central quadrant of the surprisingly-substantial crowd enjoying themselves before the event had really gotten rolling.

The question-and-answer session was fantastic, as many in the audience, including past and current residents of the canyon, shared remembrances and stories--maybe the historical society can find ways to get information from some of those folks to document the city's history.

A few artifacts (mainly photos and maps, as well as some copies from early news articles) were on display and it was great to talk further with people about their connection to this canyon and all of its unique features, attributes, and history.

Those on the east end were a little further removed but seemed no less enthusiastic.

The photos show much of the audience and, hopefully, future historical society talks will draw similar or higher numbers.  The next presentation is September 15 and features publisher emeritus Allen McCombs of the Champion.  Mr. McCombs has amassed a great knowledge of the local area, much of it appearing in his weekly column, "Rolltop Roundup" and he will cover the history of the Chino Valley. 

As for tonight, it was a great evening and its heartening to see such interest in our local canyon and city history.