Horace McKenna Documentary Recently Released

The story of the 1989 murder of Horace McKenna at his Carbon Canyon ranch property and which was the subject of an early post on this blog is now a 45-minute documentary on the Oxygen channel: https://www.oxygen.com/.../epis.../the-king-of-orange-county.

On the Skids in Carbon Canyon: Flattening on the Curve

A rare post last week which discussed the introduction of new speed limits on the Orange County portion of Carbon Canyon Road (State Route 142), generated a comment left on the Chronicle Facebook page: "Signs signs everywhere the signs . Signs don’t work . People do 70 passing me westbound by the park every morning . I drive it at 5:45 am every morning. Thanks for trying I guess!"

While the "On the Skids in Carbon Canyon" series tried over about a decade or so to bring some form of attention to the regular occurrences of dangerous driving on the state highway, especially on weekend evenings, those have largely gone by the wayside as fundamentally nothing has changed and there are other priorities that have emerged, which is why posts here have been few in general recently.

It should be noted, though, that CalTrans can only improve state highways through such means as signage, striping, barriers, and others.  Patrolling is for other agencies to enact.  As dangerous driving continues, virtually daily (well, nightly, mostly), the only real and effective mitigation would be more of a physical presence.  Barring that, these accidents will continue to happen and it appears that calculating acceptable risk, along with weighing how to allocate existing funding and other factors, is what drives policy.

With this in mind, this post includes several photos taken on the Chino Hills side of the canyon from Old Carbon Canyon Road to the summit where accidents have occurred in recent weeks. The recent improvements done by CalTrans' district 8 with resurfacing, but also adding many safety elements like more and better secured guardrails, many more reflectors, new signs, improved striping and more, do not stop errant drivers from eviscerating reflectors, mowing down signs, flattening utility boxes, crushing guardrails and plowing into privately owned power poles, fences and walls, with these latter obviously having financial impacts on property owners who have no control over what happens when reckless drivers, knowing they have free reign, race through the canyon. 

So, there are plenty of people out there like the Facebook commenter who experience first-hand just how much dangerous driving there is on Carbon Canyon Road and the photos here show what at least some of the consequences are, though the risk of getting hit by reckless driver is one those of us who use the highway regularly face and deal with.

Carbon Canyon Road Speed Limit Changes

Sorry for the long delay between posts and this is not exactly the latest news, but, about two weeks ago, the speed limit in the Orange County/Brea portion of Carbon Canyon Road (State Route 142) was changed.  Here is what is noticed with the new progressive limits:

Westbound

County line to near the old Manely Friends stables:                            40mph

From Manely Friends to former La Vida Mineral Springs resort:       45mph

From La Vida to Valencia Avenue:                                                       50mph

Eastbound

Valencia Avenue to near Manely Friends:                                            50mph

Manely Friends to west of Sleepy Hollow:                                           45mph

From west of Sleepy Hollow to county line:                                         40mph

It should be added that, so far as this blogger knows, there have been no changes on the San Bernardino County/Chino Hills side (Eastbound: 35 through Sleepy Hollow, 45 from there to just past Fairway Drive/Ginseng Lane, 40 through the S-curves [though no one can actually drive that speed through virtually all that section] and then 45 from past Old Carbon Canyon Road to Chino Hills Parkway; westbound: 50 from Chino Hills Parkway to approaching Summit Ranch, 45 to just before Old Carbon Canyon Road, 40 through the S-curves to Fairway Drive/Ginseng Lane, 45 to just before Sleepy Hollow, 35 to the county line)

There are two CalTrans districts operating within the Canyon and it was District 12 that made the decision to revise limits on the Orange County side, while District 8 handles the San Bernardino County portion.  Why the change was made, especially to increase from 45 to 50 eastbound from Valencia, is not known.  Vehicles, when the road is clear, generally fly downgrade from Valencia and it is surprising the limit is not lower when approaching and passing through Olinda Village.  The higher limit through sections with some strong curves through the canyon is also somewhat eye-opening.  We'll see if more accidents result from the change, though some people drive way beyond these limits anyway. 

Crossing (County) Lines With a Photo of La Vida Mineral Springs, circa 1920

This is, so far, the earliest photograph of La Vida Mineral Springs that this blogger has seen, though there may be others out there somewhere.  In any case, it is one showing Carbon Canyon Road looking east with the mineral springs out of the camera's view to the left, though there is a car parked to the side (a sign by the car reads "Red Crown Gasoline," a product of Standard Oil Company of California, now Chevron, so a small filling station was obviously there) and a couple of eucalyptus trees in the frame, as well.

Carbon Canyon Road was completed from Olinda (Brea) to Chino (Chino Hills) in 1914 and remained a dirt road, with frequent washouts and improvements made periodically until it was fully paved in the late 1920s.  This image is postmarked on this date, 12 September, back in 1920—exactly 100 years ago—and was sent from San Juan Capistrano in southern Orange County.

Perched on the lower part of the steep hillside at the right is a small, dark brown cabin.  Back in 2012, this blog posted about James Williams, who'd lived in what became Paramount near Long Beach and managed the La Vida Mineral Springs on behalf of Edward F. Gaines, owner of the Flying Cow Ranch just to the west where the Olinda Village community is situated.  Williams had a house on the east side of the road across from the springs and died in 1919, after which his family left the springs and canyon.

Gaines' nephew, Allen Abbott, was managing the resort in 1920 and it may be that this was a new house built for him.  Incidentally, there are remnants of stone steps at the base of the hill in this general vicinity and these may be what was left of an access to this dwelling in days gone by.  It looks like there might be a path up to the house to the east of it.  The structure appears to be quite small with just a few rooms and, though it appears to be lifted off a small foundation, it has to be wondered how it fared with heavy rainfall (there were a couple of flood years during the Twenties, especially the winter of 1926-27) or during wildfires (a major one struck the canyon in 1929, for example.)

The reverse has a message from someone only identified as "Mae" to her sister Mrs. Carl Ward of Collyer, Kansas.  There is nothing said about the resort or the canyon, just a reference to a box of roses sent back to the Midwest and an acknowledgement of letters received.  So, there didn't seem to be much of a reason to look into who Mrs. Ward or Mae wight be, but a little searching was conducted.

It turns out that the two were Mae and Blanche Purinton before they married in their hometown of Collyer.  The 1920 census recorded them both living in that town in northwestern Kansas and which now has barely more than 100 souls roughly halfway between Kansas City and Denver, but Mae must have moved very soon after because she wound up living in San Juan Capistrano and was recorded there in the 1930 census.  As for Blanche, she and her family also picked up stakes and came to Orange County, settling in Santa Ana, though she later moved to the Sacramento area and remained there the rest of her life.

The maiden name of the sisters is spelled slightly differently, but they were distant relatives of Cleve A. Purington, who was living in Long Beach in 1920 and who may well have been the reason why Mae and then her sister migrated to the area.  Purington who worked in a shipyard at East San Pedro/Wilmington at the Port of Los Angeles became, a few years later in 1923, the founder with other Long Beach people of the Sleepy Hollow community just over the line in San Bernardino County to the east of La Vida.

A little searching found that Cleve (1882-1928) and Mae and Blanche's father, Leonard were five generations down from their shared ancestor, Elisha Purinton/Purington (1698-1751), who was three generations down from the first of the family to come to America, George, who was born in Devon on the southwestern tip of England and settled in York, Maine by the middle 1630s, about fifteen years after the Plymouth Colony was established in Massachusetts.

Perhaps it was Cleve who began visiting La Vida when Gaines operated it, though, by the mid-1920s, William Newton Miller, an oil operator living in Anaheim, took over and greatly operations with a large bath house, more cabins, and a bottling plant to poduce La Vida Mineral Water in a variety of flavors.  Miller and his descendants operated the resort for close to a half-century before it was sold to Leo Hayashi of Los Angeles in the 1970s.  Hayashi operated the springs until it closed about fifteen years later after a fire destroyed a hotel the Millers built years back.  The last vestige, the La Vida roadhouse closed in the early 2000s and all the remains today are remnants, including an old water tank on the side of the hill.

This photograph turned out to not only be an early view of La Vida (well, more of Carbon Canyon Road and the house across the street), but also had an unexpected connection to the founder of Sleepy Hollow to boot.  The image is made available courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, a City of Industry Historic-Cultural Landmark.

Stoody Hilltop House For Sale

Another landmark property in Carbon Canyon up for sale currently is the hilltop house at the summit between Western Hills Country Club and the Summit Ranch tract.  The 3,645 square foot single-story ranch house on just over 1.5 acres has panoramic views that are, with few exceptions, unparalleled in the city and there are plenty of amenities of interest.

The house was the country place of Shelly Stoody, a Whittier blacksmith who parlayed his invention of a highly durable oil drilling tool bit into a substantial fortune.  Stoody, who lived on the Palos Verdes peninsula and commuted regularly to work at his Whittier headquarters by helicopter, acquired several hundred acres in Carbon Canyon in the early 1950s and built his second home on the hilltop in 1952.

An avid aviator, Stoody also had a landing strip and hangar for his small private plane, which he regularly used to visit his ranch, which was stocked with purebred cattle, horses and other animals.  After about a decade or so of owning and using his ranch, Stoody took up some passengers for a flight, but was drunk when he veered the plane into a hillside just below the house to the west, killing himself and his passengers.

Stoody's widow immediately sold the ranch, most of which was turned into Western Hills Country Club and which opened in the mid-1960s.  The airplane hangar, incidentally, is still around and is used by the club for maintenance equipment storage at the far west end of the course.

As for the house, it is listed $1,688.000 through Patrick Wood and you can learn more about the property, including a detailed description and lots of photograph, here.

Hidden Oaks Property For Sale

 After several years of development and a major reduction of proposed houses with a significant reconfiguration of the site plan, the owners of the Hidden Oaks property of over 500 acres just east of Sleepy Hollow and south of Carbon Canyon Road have recently put the tract up for sale.

The listing is with J.R. Shah of Century 21 Discovery and there isn't much said about it, other than "Vacant Land - This is one of the few land parcels left allowing to develop into various opportunities.  One of a kind."  Presumably, after working with local officials and agencies and having the number of units greatly lowered, the owners decided it was not worth pursuing any longer.

The asking price is $66,250,000 and the link, while offering little more than the basic quote above, to the listing page can be found here.  Whether anyone else will pay anywhere near that figure and seek development, given the dramatic downturn in the economy during these uncertain times of COVID-19 and what will follow obviously will be interesting to see.

On the Skids in Carbon Canyon: A Spate of Recent Serious Crashes on Carbon Canyon Road

Within the last few weeks, there have been several major car crashes on Carbon Canyon Road that have caused full shutdowns of the state highway.  As usual, most of these happen late at night when the road is wide open and some drivers race through the canyon or are otherwise distracted.

One of the oldest of these incidents took place eastbound on the switchbacks just east of Azurite Drive when a car went up the embankment and took out an electrical box (this has happened a few times in recent years.)

Another was when a 20-year old Chino Hills woman heading west through Sleepy Hollow veered over the oncoming lane, hit an embankment and rolled.  She was not evidently wearing a seat belt, as she was ejected and the car landed on her foot.

More recently was a hit-and-run accident very close to that location, but a little further east when a long-time Sleepy Hollow resident was killed in a hit-and-run incident.  A roadside shrine has been set up in the large turnout on the north side of the highway at the east end of the community and there has been no news of any developments concerning the fleeing driver.

Finally, at around 2 a.m. Thursday morning, the power went out in the area when a vehicle crashed into a power pole at a very common site for accidents at the middle of the S-curve eastbound between Carriage Hills Lane and Azurite Drive.  In fact, that pole was just replaced a few weeks or so ago, but smaller bollards were put in front of it and it was obvious to those who know that it wouldn't take long for those insufficient barriers to give way to another driver not making the curve to the left there and taking out the pole.

The accompanying photo was taken yesterday afternoon after crews completed repairs on that pole, but there have been so many incidents, too many to count, involving this section over the years that it won't likely be long before another crash happens there.

These incidents are all on the Chino Hills side, but anyone looking closely can see several places where guardrails and chain link fencing on the Brea side have been crushed by drivers veering off the road, most of these, but not all, taking place east of Olinda Village where the road has more of its twists and turns.  There are a couple of spots, though, on the downhill to the west of the Village where cars have left the roadway and hit rails and other objects.

It has been said that, as traffic has been generally lighter on our roadways during this pandemic, that there has been a significant uptick in speeding.  Whether these latest incidents are of that type or not, can't be known, but there has definitely been a noticeable increase in dangerous driving on Carbon Canyon Road in recent weeks.

There was a sheriff's department vehicle on the westbound side of the road near the entrance to Sleepy Hollow yesterday afternoon, but that's not when the vast majority of speeding and crashes occur and it's not known why the vehicle was parked there.

This blog used to be more active in documenting incidents like this in the hope that more of a police presence and enforcement might take place, but in lieu of that, it has seemed generally pointless.  The recent rash of activity, however, is concerning. 

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #61: "Tidwell's at Sleepy Hollow, Carbon Canyon," 1933

At the far east end of Sleepy Hollow on the south side of Carbon Canyon Road are some decrepit buildings, last in the news because they were red-tagged by the City of Chino Hills as not meeting basic standards of livable conditions by ordinance.

In the front, right up against the state highway, is one building, while a two-story home is at the very rear of the property.  In between the two are a variety of other structures, all of which were deemed in substandard condition.

The absentee owner and landlord was ordered to make repairs and upgrade the structures before they could be used again as residences and, though there was some initial work, nothing has been done there for quite some time.  Who knows if these buildings will ever be livable again at this rate?  At one time the front building was a store, one of a couple in the community in days gone by.

Tonight's post features a real photo postcard with the caption "Tidwell's at Sleepy Hollow.  Carbon Canyon."  This was Tidwell Oaks, owned by David and Velma Tidwell and which included a store and tavern further west where Carbon Canyon Road and Rosemary Lane intersect. 

David, a native of Alabama, and Velma, who hailed from Texas, were in the first census conducted in Sleepy Hollow when they were enumerated there in May 1930.  He was 39, she was 36, and they owned property valued at $3,000.  He appears to have come to California after 1900 and live with his parents near Pomona, where David was a hired hand on local ranches and farms. 

This real photo postcard of "Tidwell's at Sleepy Hollow, Carbon Canyon," has a message dated 18 June 1933, just as Prohibition was coming to an end, which seems to explain why the couple at the center, maybe David and Velma Tidwell, who owned the store and tavern on the property, have beer bottles on their table and why beer crates are stacked up in the right foreground.  Click on the image to see it enlarged in a separate window.

After he and Velma married, the couple lived in Los Angeles near today's Staples Center and he was a conductor for the Los Angeles Railway system of streetcars that ran all over the growing city.  By 1920, the Tidwells were in the Rowland township where La Puente, Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights are located now, and he was an oil well worker.

In that 1930 census in Sleepy Hollow were three of David's brothers: Henry, Harvy, and Andrew, who ranged in age from 23 to 33.  Henry was a rotary driller for an oil company and the others were general laborers and they may have rented places to live from their older brother.

The image shows a bucolic scene of seven persons seated at tables on a raised patio with an attractive curved low rock wall at the left and a wall of brick around the patio.  An opening in the brick wall in the front includes small pillars on which are potted plants and a few steps leading up to the patio, which was partially built around a sprawling oak tree.  Other trees are in view in the verdant landscape.

Notably, there are several beer crates stacked up at the right, including some marked "Eastside," the name of a popular Los Angeles-made brew from the Los Angeles Brewing Company, established by George Zobelein, who had a partnership with Joseph Maier from the early 1880s to the early 1900s.  The term "Eastside" came from the brewing company's location on the east side of Los Angeles' downtown industrial core right off today's U.S. 101 before it terminates and splits off into Interstates 5 and 10.

The reverse of the postcard with a short message from a woman named Esther who, according to a later ink inscription above, worked at Tidwell's, said to be "near Brea Calif."

There may have been a reason to have included those crates because, on the reverse, there is a message from a woman only identifying herself as "Esther" and who wrote "Hello Mom, Wish I could see you.  Can't this time."  Above that is what looks to be a much later ink inscription, "Where Esther worked near Brea Calif."

Esther's short and dry note is dated "June-18-1933," which was less than six months before the end of Prohibition, the fourteen-year "social experiment" in which most production and consumption of alcoholic beverages was banned.  Yet, in early April, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a repeal of the Volstead Act, the legislation which enacted Prohibition, and this allowed brewers to make up to 3.2% alcohol content brew. 

So, it seems like the photo at Tidwell's was taken to celebrate the availability of near-full strength beer just weeks after the president's repeal.  The folks in the table at the center, who might well be David and Velma Tidwell, have two brown bottles in front of them (the gent at the left, by the way, is holding a guitar, while a small child, a young woman and two young men (maybe two of David's brothers?) are the others in the scene.

This is a very rare early artifact related to Sleepy Hollow, which was established by Cleve Purington and fellow investors just a decade prior, and it gives a sense of the bucolic, rural nature of the community as the Prohibition experiment came to a close.

History of Tres Hermanos Ranch Webinar This Sunday

The history of Tres Hermanos Ranch, situated north of Carbon Canyon, and now under the management of an authority comprising the City of Industry, which bought the property in 1978, and the cities of Diamond Bar and Chino Hills, is the topic of a webinar hosted by the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum this Sunday, the 3rd at 2 p.m.

The PowerPoint illustrated talk includes the ownership of the area from the Mexican era through the creation of the ranch by three friends who were not related but had shared genealogies in the region's oil history—these being William B. Scott, William R. Rowland and Harry Chandler.

The presentation, which has been given in person in Chino Hills, La Verne, Covina and San Dimas, will last about an hour and is being conducted on the Zoom platform.  To sign up, here is the link.

Photos of Carbon Canyon Landscapes

As we remain under stay at home orders during this COVID-19 pandemic, it is important, when we can and safely, to get out of the house. 

One important way is to talk walks while maintaining social distancing and, fortunately, with decent rainfall this season and spring underway, Carbon Canyon has plenty of green in its landscape.

This post highlights a quintet of photos taken on two recent rambles among the hills in the canyon, the first pair taken on the 2nd on the Chino Hills side and the other two taken yesterday on the Brea portion.

The views show the beauty of the canyon's rolling hills, small side canyons, and open spaces, even with a growing number of houses built in recent years.

Yesterday's images are particularly noteworthy, including a relative rare occurrence of a full rainbow and a pretty spectacular sunset, especially with the lingering gray storm clouds.

Using the panorama setting on the camera enables the capturing of both the arc of the rainbow, but also the broad view of the sunset and rolling hills, to nice effect.  Click on any photo to see them enlarged in a separate window.

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #60: "Road to La Vida Mineral Springs," ca. 1930

Almost two months ago, when these gatherings could still be done, a talk was given to the Chino Hills Historical Society on the history of Carbon Canyon Road.  The presentation included the creation of the road in the mid-1910s; its paving on the San Bernardino County side in the late 1920s; followed a few years later by that work done on the Orange County portion; its designation as a state highway in the early Thirties, though not signed as State Route 142 until the mid-Sixties; and more.

Newspaper articles, maps, and photographs were used to illustrate the PowerPoint presentation, including a relatively new find, a real photo postcard of a section of Carbon Canyon Road, titled "Road to La Vida Mineral Springs" dating to before the early 1930s, when the road was paved on the Orange County side.

It looks like a section of the road as it approached the resort, which began operating in the 1910s and, by 1930, was run by an Anaheim resident and former area oil worker and producer, William Newton Miller.  Under Miller's ownership, La Vida expanded to include more cottages, a larger bath house, and a cafe, among other amenities.  His family continued to own and run the facility until the mid-1970s.

The photo shows a bucolic unpaved road gently curving among the narrow canyon setting, lined with trees on one side, and the steep chaparral-covered hillside on the other.  It certainly was a world away from the modern highway of our era.

The card was unused, but there is an ink inscription on the reverse that reads, "Will & I used to drive to this place / many times, some time go / on up through Carbon Canyon enroute / to Pomona California."  This was true for many people heading from the coastal areas to the Inland Empire, which was the paramount reason for establishing Carbon Canyon Road in the first place.

It's a great little photo of our canyon probably some 90 years ago.

So, it's ten minutes before the end of March and it didn't seem right to go the whole month without at least one post on this blog (something that hasn't yet been done in the nearly dozen years since the Chronicle was launched.)  So, even with the surreal circumstances of our COVID-19 era, this little offering is made to remind us that there is something waiting for us at the end of this road, as well.

Please stay safe and stay well.

Fatal Police Shooting at Carbon Canyon Regional Park

There isn't much information provided, given the incident happened yesterday late afternoon/early evening, but NBC Los Angeles news did air a brief segment about a fatal shooting of a man by Brea police.

Here is the link: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/olice-shooting-under-investigation-in-brea/2317908/.

Hidden Oaks Community Meeting Recap

Today's edition of the Champion features a review by Marianne Napoles of a community meeting held on the 6th at Western Hills Country Club with a developer's presentation of the Hidden Oaks housing project, which proposes 53 units on 527 acres south of Carbon Canyon Road, just east of Sleepy Hollow and across from the Circle K convenience store and the Hillcrest community of 76 houses which is just now, after some three years, finally in its last phase.

The discussion, led by consultant Jeff Weber, noted that, when a project was first proposed on the site some thirty years ago, the number of units zoned for the property was just under 250.  This was when a notorious uprooting of a great number of oak trees took place, with many of them boxed and left on the property to die when the developer went belly up.  That travesty was not forgotten as a few audience members well recalled the incident during the presentation.

Current developer K.V. Kumar and associates had a preliminary community meeting at the McCoy Equestrian Center in September 2015 and the link here is from a Chronicle post that goes into great detail about the project as it was proposed then.  Among the elements at the time was that the number of units was 107 and they were spread out through a significant part of the site, including on some prominent higher points.

Since then, however, there has been a significant reduction in units, about half, and they have been even more clustered on about 60 acres (comprising just over 10% of the total acreage) toward the northeastern portion of the property, leaving the higher elevations of the site in open space.  Much of this was to address concerns about visibility of those locales from Chino Hills State Park.

The "Vesting Tentative Tract Map" for Hidden Oaks, which is slated for 53 large homes on average lot zizes of a half-acre, south of Carbon Canyon Road (see top left) at Canyon Hills Road.  The clustering at the northeast corner is a significant change from the 107 units more spread out on the site as proposed several years ago and a massive reduction from the nearly 250 units proposed in a project some thirty-years ago.  Click on the image to see it enlarged in a separate window.

Notably, there was a great deal of effort put into having an emergency access road built to the southeast from the tract, exiting through the Vellano community and several routes were explored.  The most likely and least invasive, however, was not possible because the landowner refused to sell an easement.  So, now, and with the approval of the fire district, the secondary road is one first proposed in 2015 and which exits the northwest part of the tract and onto Carbon Canyon Road.  An issue here is that this is just a few hundred yards west of the main entrance at Canyon Hills Road and, if there was a large-scale evacuation of the canyon, it would put everyone in Hidden Oaks on the state highway with everyone else.

It was stated that new state standards for fuel modification zones are to be applied and some 450 trees, mostly oaks, are to be removed and the 2-1 ratio for replanting in compliance with a city oak tree ordinance.  The units will have sewers and there will be a tie-in to the lift station built across Carbon Canyon Road for the Hillcrest subdivision, which takes the material out of the canyon to the northeast and into the Chino Hills system.

There were plenty of questions and comments from the audience, much of which had to do with the question of tree removal and replacement and how residents will be notified of future meetings, specifically those before the city's Planning Commission and City Council.  There were a couple of outliers, one comment being that it would be better to spread out the units even on the more visible and prominent ridge lines because the current configuration would be too visible within the canyon.  Another commenter suggested public access to trails leading through Hidden Oaks to Soquel Canyon, where a parking lot could be placed for easy connection to the state park—slyly, he added that he happened to own the property where he proposed the parking area be situated.

Generally, though, there didn't seem to be that much opposition to the project in totality and this may be a reflection of the fact that the number of units is drastically lower than the original zoning and that the clustering kept houses in lower elevations, preserving much more open space.  Napoles quoted city council member Ray Marquez, a canyon resident, as being surprised that opposition was somewhat muted.  Council member Peter Rogers, who also lives in Carbon Canyon, was pleased at the attendance and reminded that there will be plenty of opportunity for residents to share views with city staff as the project moves forward.

A detail of the map showing the clustered area, a clubhouse and tennis courts at the upper left and the intersection of Carbon Canyon Road and Canyon Hills Road at that corner.  Click on the image to see it enlarged in a separate window.

It will be later in the year before studies are completed and the matter gets scheduled with the Planning Commission.  Weber, when asked, stated that it would not likely be until 2022 when ground is broken.  It is worth restating that Hillcrest, which looks to be similar in terms of square footage if not lot sizes (Weber said the general average for Hidden Oaks is a half-acre), has sold slowly, perhaps because of the price range as well as concerns about traffic in the canyon.

When traffic was discussed, it was noted that the significant increase in volume in recent years has largely been due to massive growth in the Inland Empire, a trend that will only accelerate.  One persistent audience member kept asking council member Rogers when enough is enough with respect to development in the canyon and, unfortunately, there is no good answer, partially because, even if the canyon was closed off completely for more building, traffic will still increase dramatically because of the tens of thousands of units projected just for south Ontario and Chino alone, much less elsewhere.

So, stay tuned as Hidden Oaks becomes a lot less concealed to the public in its progression.

Hidden Oaks Community Workshop Tonight

Sorry for the late notice here, but if you're available and interested, there is a community workshop TONIGHT on the Hidden Oaks subdivision, proposing just over 50 houses, in Carbon Canyon, south of the state highway and across from the Circle K convenience store at Canyon Hills Road.

The developer is hosting this event at Western Hills Country Club, 1800 Carbon Canyon Road at Fairway, at 6:30 p.m.  There will be a short presentation explaining plans for the project and then time for Q&A will follow.

This is preliminary to hearings before the City of Chino Hills Planning Commission, which will make its recommendation to the City Council.

Chino Hills Historical Society Presentation on the History of Carbon Canyon Road

Hope to see you next Monday, 3 February @ 7 p.m. at the Chino Hills Community Center for a PowerPoint-illustrated presentation for the Chino Hills Historical Society on the history of Carbon Canyon Road.

The talk covers the opening of the road just over a century ago, its realignment and paving in the late 1920s, and some of the changes that have taken place over the decades.

This detail is from a 1920s Auto Club of Southern California "strip map" of "Automobile Roads Leading Into Brea & Carbon Canyons."

Carbon Canyon Road obviously led to the creation of early subdivisions like Sleepy Hollow and Mountain View Estates, was paved partially to allow easier access from Los Angeles and other areas to Los Serranos Country Club, and was increasingly important as an inland to coast route.

This will be the first of three talks for the Historical Society in 2020, so please come out and take in some of our interesting local history.

On the Skids and Off the Grid: Last Week's Carbon Canyon Road Blowout

Last Saturday the 11th, a single-vehicle accident at Carbon Canyon Road and Carriage Hills Lane near the summit in Chino Hills involved the toppling of a power pole, and live wires fell on the state highway.  The driver and passenger in the car were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not described in terms of seriousness. While an investigation determined that alcohol was not a factor, nothing was said about speeding, though it is possible that there was some other cause.

What followed was the temporary loss of power and longer-term disruption of cable and internet access in parts of the Canyon.  Electricity was restored, at least in Sleepy Hollow, within about five hours and internet and cable late on Sunday, though there were problems for other Canyon residents lasting much longer.

Work by Southern California Edison crews replacing the power pole that was toppled by a car early on Saturday morning the 11th.  This was taken that afternoon.

As reported by Marianne Napoles in yesterday's edition of the Champion, however, there was a second incident later on Saturday morning when a trash truck driver pulled over on the shoulder at the summit to let vehicles pass and came into contact with a portion of cable that was low on the run on lines in that area. 

Whether this was related to the previous accident is not known, though a Frontier Communication representative stated that the tall trash truck pulled down the cable line, even though these trucks frequently pull over there and have since Republic Disposal was hired some years ago.  In any case, the second incident led to cable and internet service being out until early Tuesday morning.

Another view of work done on the 11th.

The Champion article quoted a longtime Carriage Hills resident who often comments on Canyon-related concerns involving the state highway and development projects, as well as a Sleepy Hollow resident and Carbon Canyon Fire Safe Council member.  The former said the accidents last weekend were the worst he'd experienced in over 20 years living in the Canyon, while the latter observed that accidents in Sleepy Hollow have involved outages like this recent example and asked for drivers to go more slowly through the canyon.

A lieutenant with the Chino Hills Sheriff's Department station told Napoles that there were 60 traffic collisions on the Chino Hills portion of Carbon Canyon Road in 2019, a 20% increase from the prior year and said "the number is an estimate only."  There are, of course, differences between reported and unreported incidents.  What also wasn't stated was the severity of the damage caused, both in terms of personal injury or death or property damage.

Debris left behind on the 13th and before more work was done.

The lengthy project, still not quite finished, by CalTrans to rehabilitate Carbon Canyon Road has included additional safety features involving more guardrails, replacement of older ones, grooved striping, more signs and others.  These are certainly welcomed and needed, but, despite this work, accidents are clearly increasing in number and some, like last weekends, are severe.

Discussions about the state highway prior to work starting mentioned that the California Highway Patrol would be providing more patrols in the Canyon, but, when asked about the commonly known issue of the CHP not having enough officers to keep up with the growth in traffic, the response from a city official was "that's a good question."

Also from the 13th.

The truth is that all of the physical improvements in the world can be added, but, if accidents, even on estimates, are increasing, those additions are not mitigating the problem.   There has to be more of a physical presence, but it is also understood that staffing and funding are issues to be addressed.  As the Sleepy Hollow resident quoted in the Champion article expressed it, "the situation makes residents feel helpless."

As CalTrans is expected to decide soon about a request from the cities of Chino Hills and Brea to ban large truck (over 50 feet in length) on the state highway, it is clear that, if this is approved, signs won't be enough of a deterrence and a law enforcement patrols will be needed (some truckers and their employers still will find a fine worth the time saved.) 

This is another recent incident, which took place before the ones shown above.  This is at the middle of the S-curve east of the previous scene and is where a westbound vehicle went off the road and chewed up a good part of the embankment.  As can be seen, there are signs indicating a change in direction of the roadway as well as white reflector signs added in the nearly completed rehabilitation of the state highway.

This goes, however, for broader driving issues, though, because large trucks aren't causing the majority of accidents—that's happening with passenger vehicles of various types.  Otherwise, the kind of incidents embodied with last weekend's accident will continue.