Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #64: "Oil Fields Olinda Cal." Looking North from Carbon Canyon Road, ca. 1920

This real photo postcard and another from a series has been sitting on the desk for months, waiting for its chance to be shared and so it is clearly long overdue for a post on the Chronicle after an eternity of inactivity.

The view is of the Olinda oil field taken from above Carbon Canyon Road, of which a sliver is at the bottom left where the flivver is parked, and looking north into the hills where today's Olinda Ranch subdivision is situated.  The field was discovered by oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, who partnered with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (locomotives were transitioning to oil at the time) to bring in the first well, which is still operating at the Olinda Oil Museum and Trail, in 1897.

In addition to the large tank at the center, the wooden derricks, the sheds and pump houses, tanks and other components of the intensive petroleum prospecting taking place at Olinda during what look to be the 1910s, there is also the presence of the tanker cars for the spur line, coming up from Atwood in Placentia, of the Santa Fe (the line through north Orange County was built by the its subsidiary, the Southern California Railway, in the late 1880s).

In addition to the row of cars waiting, presumably, to be filled with crude for its return trip down to the main line, another track is visible next to a pole and behind that large tank in the foreground.  In the distance are the crown of the hills where the Olinda Alpha Landfill is now and which is slated, some day, to be an Orange County regional park, not unlike what is slowly transpiring with the shuttered Puente Hills Landfill not too far away.

The photographer was Edward W. Cochems (1874-1949), a native of Chicago born to German immigrants and whose family came to California in the 1885, living first in what is now San Marcos and then in Escondido in San Diego County and then moving to Santa Ana about 1912.  Cochems was a manager of a Los Angeles tailoring company before he relocated to the Orange County seat in 1915.  By the time, he registered for the draft, in September 1918, during World War I, he'd established his photo studio there and he ran the enterprise for some three decades.

We'll share the second Cochems view of the field, looking from the hills southward, sometime in September, so be sure to be on the lookout for that.

Carbon Canyon Regional Park's 40th Anniversary Bash

Booths at the Carbon Canyon Regional Park's 40th Anniversary event today.

Today was a very nice event at the redwood grove deep in a corner of one of our area's great treasures, Carbon Canyon Regional Park, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

Set in a clearing among nearly 250 redwood trees planted on space leased to the county from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which built the adjacent Carbon Canyon Dam, the confab featured such organizations as the state Department of Fish and Game, California State Parks and the Chino Hills State Park Interpretive Association, the Olinda Oil Museum, and others.

More displays at today's bash.

Live animal shows were given, there was face painting, and a really creative balloon maker, and hot dogs, hamburgers and chips were served to all guests.

Orange County Historical Commission member Pamela Harrell and former Olinda resident Jack Smith spoke about the Olinda Museum and the oil community in which Smith lived.  In fact, his family in 1943 bought a home built by the Armstrong family, for whom a grove of trees at the northeast corner of the park was named.

The folks at the Olinda Oil Museum, including former Olinda resident Jack Smith and Orange County Historical Commission member Pamela Harrell, at their booth, with two of their displays at the left.

Situated at the corner of Carbon Canyon Road and Traverse Street, which went a short distance to the south in what is now the park grounds, the home was where Smith lived while he was the last student to graduate from the Olinda School and up until he finished high school.  He is a walking memory book of an oil town that has long been dismantled.

The live animal demonstration was really interesting and kept kids and adults engrossed while the presenters talked about a variety of snakes and reptiles.

A presentation  of snakes and reptiles drew the attention of many attendees at today's festivities.

This blogger also gave a 15-minute presentation about Carbon Canyon history, giving a highlight reel of sorts about everything from the formation of the canyon by receding glaciers to the founding of Olinda Ranch by William H. Bailey, to the establishment of La Vida Mineral Springs, to the gradual addition of housing developments and on up to current issues.

A table provided by Orange County Parks featured collected items (all of which have been included in this blog over the last seven years), such as some two dozen postcards of La Vida and other canyon sights, mineral water soda bottles from the La Vida Bottling Company, maps of the Olinda oil field and a AAA "strip map" of a drive through Carbon Canyon; and more.

This blogger's display of historic real photo postcards, La Vida mineral water bottles, maps of Olinda and Carbon Canyon Road, and other items were available for visitors to enjoy.

Even though housing developments have surrounded much of the redwood grove, the walk out from the main portion of the park and time spent strolling through the grove still give a feel of being "away from it all."

One of the two recently-installed display boards noted that a local bank, back in 1970, was giving away redwood seedlings to new customers, which has to be one of the strangest promotions imaginable, in light of the usual calendar, pen-and-pencil set, paperweight, and so on that were handed out.

Other than their smaller size and lighter color, these trees look like they could be from the northwestern reaches of California, where redwoods are natives.

The leftover seedlings were donated to the county, which planted them at the park site.  A total of 241 trees survived and, though they don't get as tall or as green as those in the native northern California groves, they've done pretty well in our arid environment, with the tallest tree topping out at 92 feet.

The park has many amenities, included a goodly number of tennis courts, lots of shelters for family picnics (there were at least two family reunions going on today), excellent playgrounds, and a nice lake.

Completed just within the last three weeks, this path fence provides for a nice addition to the beautiful redwood grove at the southeast corner of the park.

But, the redwood grove, hidden away as it is, has to be the park's most interesting and surprising feature.  It's been years since the last visit there and more regular jaunts out there are definitely in the offing.

Thanks to park superintendent Maureen Beckman and all the rangers, volunteers and others who put on this event.  It was a lot of fun and who knows who'll be around for the 50th anniversary?

The approach to and from the grove includes a crossing at what is called "Coyote Pass" through the now-parched bed of Carbon [Canyon] Creek.  The view here is back towards Carbon Canyon.

A View of the Olinda Oil Field, ca. 1910

This post highlights an interesting cabinet card photograph of part of the Olinda oil field taken about 1910.

Given the topography of the hills and similar views, as well as the likelihood that the dirt road in the foreground is Carbon Canyon Road, it is apparent that the image shows a portion of the Santa Fe lease.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, under its subsidiary, the Southern California Railway, obtained land in the Olinda Ranch and partnered with Edward Doheny, whose Los Angeles City oil field project with Charles Canfield, was a major success in 1892 and afterward.

In 1897, Doheny drilled a well that became a major producer (and still is "on the pump" today as part of the Olinda Oil Museum) and inaugurated Orange County's first oil field.

Known as the Santa Fe lease, the property at the foothills of the Chino Hills range along the north end of Olinda was a successful field for many decades, and is now the location of the Olinda Ranch housing subdivision.  Santa Fe Road, a main road through the tract, is a reminder of the oil heritage there, along with the museum, which is located at 4025 Santa Fe Road in the upper reaches of the development.

The image shows a few dozen wells, associated pump houses and other structures.  The road is a simple dirt one with piles of dirt forming the shoulder.  Around this time, as noted in the last post, the roadway was fully built through to Chino and opened on 9 January 1915 and so has reached its centennial year.

The term "cabinet photograph," refers to a paper photo mounted (or glued) onto a stiff paper board--which were often stored in cabinets.  They were popular from about the 1880s through the 1920s.  This image was provided courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry, which collects material relating to the oil history of the Los Angeles region because the Workman and Temple families had oil-related projects in the 1870s and 1920s in the area.

Here is a circa 1910 cabinet card photograph of a section of the Olinda oil field, most likely the Santa Fe lease with Carbon Canyon Road in the foreground.  Click on the image to see it in an enlarged view in a separate window.  Courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry, California.