29 December 2013

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #41: Carbon Canyon Road at La Vida Mineral Springs, ca. 1920s-30s


Here is another early real photo postcard from probably the late 1920s or perhaps the early 1930s titled "Road to La Vida Mineral Springs     Carbon Canyon, Cal.  2."  The number refers to the fact that the card was second in a series produced by the owner of La Vida Mineral Springs, probably William Newton Miller.

The view is a simple, but highly effective view evoking a bucolic rural environment.  The road does not appear to be paved with asphalt, though probably had some treatment to keep the dust down.  A nice composition was created with shade from oak trees just off the roadbed to the left contrasting with sunlight just around the graceful curve ahead.  Note, too, the lushness of the hillside at the right.  It certainly looks like the relaxing country drive it must have been seventy-five to eighty-five years ago.


The reverse of the postally unused card has an ink inscription:  "Will & I use to drive to this place / many times, some times go / on up through Carbon Canyon enroute / to Pomona California."  For folks heading inland from Orange County or southern Los Angeles County, Carbon Canyon Road, when it was fully completed through from Brea to Chino in the late 1920s, was a nice alternate to either Valley Boulevard through the eastern San Gabriel Valley or Brea Canyon Road north from Orange County.

The DOPS stamp box was used from 1925 to 1942, so, as noted above, this card would likely have been made during the years when Miller operated La Vida and had these cards made for souvenirs and marketing and before it was taken over by his children, as noted in the last post.

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