The Gaines and Brown Families of Carbon Canyon, Part 13: More Photos from the Flying Cow Ranch at Olinda

With thanks once more to Joyce Harrington for sharing photos of the Brown and Gaines families, who lived in the Carbon Canyon and Olinda areas for decades, here is another set of great images of scenes at the Flying Cow Ranch.

The ranch, established by Edward F. Gaines, was located where today's Olinda Village community is situated just outside the mouths of Carbon and Soquel canyons.  The Craftsman-style residence stood where the Hollydale Mobile Home Estates is on the south side of Carbon Canyon Road, while the majority of the ranch was north of the state highway.

The Craftsman-style house of the Gaines family's Flying Cow Ranch.  The site is now Hollydale Mobile Home Estates in Olinda Village, south of Carbon Canyon Road.  All photos are courtesy of Joyce Harrington.  Click on any to see them enlarged in a separate window.

As noted here before, Gaines lived in the community of Clearwater, so named because of the many artesian wells drilled in the area.  That hamlet, along with Hynes, were among the first in the region to experiment with sugar beets in the late 19th century, a crop that made Chino famous, as well. 

After the sugar beet era died out, Clearwater and Hynes, along with adjacent areas like Artesia and Cerritos, became the center of a massive and profitable dairy industry.  The region was regarded as "The Milk Shed of Los Angeles" and "The World's Largest Hay Market," as the growing of hay to feed the cows was an adjunct industry of significance. 

A hunting party at the Flying Cow.  The distinctive hill in the background is on the west end of the Olinda Village subdivision.

The dairy industry reigned supreme in the area until after World War II when massive immigration and large-scale suburban development rendered the land far more valuable for housing, commercial business and other uses.  The dairy farmers of Clearwater and Hynes, as well as neighboring communities, then headed inland to Chino and Ontario.  With developing spreading further into the Inland Empire, the dairies have been, are now and will continue to be leaving our region for greener pastures elsewhere.

Gaines, who lived from the 1870s to the 1950s, experienced the stunning transformations of life in the region from the late 19th century to the jet age and all of the technological and other innovations that went along with it. 

Ed Gaines' prized stagecoach, which he and a grandson restored and which was taken to parades and other events until it was destroyed in a September 1939 fire at the Flying Cow Ranch.

In many ways, he was a holdover from an earlier age, though, and his Flying Cow Ranch was a rural retreat where he hunted, kept horses and livestock, and stored his vintage stagecoach.  This latter was a particular pride and joy for Gaines, who took it to all kinds of public events and rode it as a reminder of pre-automobile days of transportation.  Sadly, a barn fire in 1939 killed some of Gaines' prized horses and destroyed the coach.

Having these photos provided by Joyce is a great way to document the history of Carbon Canyon and Olinda, especially as the oil wells at the latter are gradually being shut down and removed for more suburban development.

A view at the Flying Cow Ranch and which appears to look north into where most of the Olinda Village tract is now.

Check back again soon for more great historic images of the Gaines and Brown families of Carbon Canyon and Olinda, including the Olinda oil field and Olinda School.