Chino Hills History Talk on 9 September

The Chino Hills Historical Society's next event is Monday, 9 September at 7 p.m. at the Chino Hills Community Center and features a talk on Chicago financier Albert W. Harris' Anazel Ranch, a 170-acre property for Arabian horse breeding just west of Los Serranos Country Club.

Harris, who ran one of Chicago's biggest banks, was said to be the first American to breed Arabian horses, starting with his Kemah Farm in Wisconsin.  After visiting Los Angeles, Harris was taken with the growing city and region and even organized and carried out an oxen-led covered wagon trip for the City of Angels to his Wisconsin horse ranch in 1911.

Click on the image to see it enlarged in a separate window.

Not long after Will Keith Kellogg, the Michigan cereal magnate, purchased land west of Pomona to breed horses—this now being the location of Cal Poly Pomona—Harris acquired 170 acres in 1927 from the Chino Land and Water Company, said to be the last major sale of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino land, and established Anazel Ranch to breed his prized Arabians.

Harris expended a large sum to build an expansive ranch house, barns, stables, workers' quarters and other outbuildings and maintained the ranch for about a quarter century.  Nationally known for his breeding, Harris wrote extensively about Arabian horses and held leadership positions with national associations for the breed.  Several years after selling Anazel to Paul Greening, who became one of Chino Hills' major landowners and developers, Harris died at age 91 in 1958.

Attached here is the Society's press release and hope to see you there.