Olinda and Carbon Canyon on an 1889 Orange County Map

Created for the newly-organized Orange County, this 1889 map, by S.H. Finley, includes a rendering of the Olinda Ranch, which was recently subdivided into lots as well as the townsite of Carlton.

As discussed here before, William H. Bailey, the owner of Olinda Ranch was trying to ride the wave of the famed "Boom of the Eighties," when a massive population increase and related real estate activity was transforming southern California.

Tired of playing second fiddle to Los Angeles, leaders in Santa Ana and Anaheim led the charge to create a new county as far back as 1870, but finally succeeded in the late Eighties.

As for Bailey's ambitions with Olinda, they came to a halt when the boom went bust.  Nothing much happened for several years, until Edward Doheny, in partnership with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, discovered Orange County's first well at Olinda in 1897 and changed the course of local development.

The Carbon Canyon area is in the numbered sections5-7, and 10-12 at the upper right of the second photo, but there wasn't too much going on in the canyon in 1889.