A walk in Fountain Valley and some history

Fountain Valley used to be a marsh, that was known as Gospel Swamp.  It was a place where cattle grazed and itinerant preachers set up tents on small islands.  In 1870, there was a severe drought, which turned the marsh, which was fed by the Santa Ana River into rich farmland that were blessed with natural springs and artesian wells.  Abel Stearns, who was a Massachusetts investor, sold off large chunks of the farmland to wheat, sugar beet, barley and lima bean farmers.

By the late 1890's, the area had a blacksmith shop, a school, a general store and a post office.  James T. Talbert formed a drainage district in 1903 that channeled the Santa Ana River and land values jumped from $10 to $500 an acre.

At the beginning of the 1900's, the population was 20,000 and by 1920, there were 61,000 area residents, and two small villages were forming.  During the 1930's, large farms gave way to truck farming, mostly by Japanese-American farmers in the community that was known as Talbert.

The 1950's brought freeways and talk of incorporation to fend off possible annexation to the cities of Santa Ana or Garden Grove.  Supporters of an independent city favored a return to what they considered the town's original name of Fountain Valley after the old school.  In June, 1957, 160 voters supported incorporation and Fountain Valley became Orange County's 21st city.  The first City Council was made up primarily of farmers that pledged to keep the new city a farming community.  The San Diego Freeway or I-405 sliced Fountain Valley in half and drove up land values and brought in housing developers.

One of the historical sites that I saw on my walk was Courreges Ranch, which was the home of Roch Courreges, who was a Basque sheep rancher who came to the area in 1878 from San Francisco.  In 1896, he purchased 80 acres of land.  He founded First National Bank of Huntington Beach, the Smeltzer Telephone Co. and the Farmer's Cannery.  The water-tank house that was built in 1898 and the main house that was built in 1912 are still standing and according to the sign are still lived in by the Courreges family, but are not open to the public.

My walk was about 4.5 miles and it took me from the corner of Ellis and Brookhurst, north on Brookhurst to Talbert, where I turned left and went to Newcomb and then turned south, back to Ellis and back to the corner of Ellis and Brookhurst.

An ongoing photo blog of walks with me and my camera

Long Beach, CA

Irvine, CA

Mission Viejo, CA

Balboa Island, CA

Corona del Mar, CA

Dana Point, CA

Lake Forest, CA

A walk in Encinitas

A trip to Cambria!

Last year from January 10-13, the girls and I decided to take a trip north to Cambria, CA to see Hearst Castle and the elephant seals.  We took the Pacific Surfliner from Irvine, CA to Santa Barbara, CA.  In Santa Barbara we rented a car and drove the rest of the way to Cambria. The drive takes about two hours and by the time we got to Cambria it was dark.   The day before we left, there had been a rain storm with strong wind and right before Carpinteria we stopped for about an hour, as a tree had fallen on the tracks and the railroad wanted to make sure it was safe to take the train over the tracks.  The view we had from where the train stopped was beautiful.  

 This is the view we had from where the train stopped.

 This is the train station in Santa Ana, CA; which is one station north of Irvine, CA

 More pictures of the view!

Before we left for Hearst Castle, we walked down to the beach, which was right across the street from the hotel.  The hotel is located on Moonstone Beach in Cambria.

I had made reservations for the next day to take an Upstairs Suites tour of Hearst Castle, as we had taken the overview tour before.  The tour costs about $25.00 and took under an hour.  There is a bus ride up the hill to the castle.   The California State Parks are in charge of the Castle.  The history of the Castle began in 1865, when George Hearst purchased 40,000 acres of  of ranch land and William Randolph Hearst inherited in 1919 more than 250,000 acres.  By 1947, Hearst and architect, Julia Morgan had created Hearst Castle with 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways.  The Castle was built to Hearst's specifications to showcase his art collection.  Hearst called the hill, La Cuesta Encantada; which in Spanish means Enchanted Hill.

It was close to lunch time, by the time we finished the tour and we decided to go across the highway and explore San Simeon and have lunch.  The oldest native of San Sebastian, passed away several years ago and left behind Sebastian's store, which was established in 1852.  J.C. "Pete"Sebastian took over the store in 1948 from his father, but he worked as a child with his father in the store, when the Hearsts were setting up the castle and later worked as a landscaper on Hearst's castle grounds.  He remembered how the castle grew in concept from a few bungalows to replace the tents to the awesome private residence in the country.  Sebastian's Store is across from San Simeon Bay and saw customers such as Winston Churchill and Cary Grant and witnessed the unloading of ranch cattle from ships, which involved the cows "swimming" ashore to waiting cowhands.  Sebastian's store was kept open during the Depression by purchases inspired by Hearst's generosity, which was to supply all the needy families in the area with groceries and to bill Hearst for the costs.

This is the rest of San Simeon.

After having lunch and doing some exploring, we drove up to find the elephant seals.  The elephants seals spend eight to ten months a year in the open ocean and dive 1000 to 5000 feet deep for fifteen minutes to two hours and migrate thousands of miles, twice a year to its land based rookery for birthing, breeding molting and the rest.  The Piedras Blancas rookery is 7 miles north of San Simeon and 14 miles north of Cambria and 89 miles south of Monterey.  The rookery is home to about 17,000 animals.  If you have never seen the elephant seals, this is the perfect time and seeing them does not cost any money and does not require reservations and is available to wheel chairs.

On the way back from seeing the elephant seals, we stopped in Cambria to see a house that was built from recycled materials and located on Nit Wit Ridge.

That evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

The next day Mari and I headed farther up the coast to Big Sur.  The drive along Highway 1 is beautiful.

The lighthouse is Piedras Blancas.  There are tours.  The construction of Piedras Blancas Light Station began in April, 1874 and was first illuminated 10 months later on February 15, 1875.  The lighthouse was originally 100 feet tall and housed a first order Fresnel lens.  A fog signal building was constructed 1905 and the first sound was produced in 1906.  Earthquakes have caused damage to the lighthouse.  An earthquake in 1948 resulted in the upper part of the lighthouse being declared structurally unsound. In 1949, the upper three levels were removed, which reduced the height of the tower to about 70 feet.  The Fresnel lens was loaned to the Cambria Lions Club and is on display next to the Veteran's Memorial Building on Main Street in Cambria.

The last day of our trip, we drove back to Santa Barbara and took the train back to Irvine.  It was a wonderful trip and we saw some beautiful country along the California coast.

Until  next time, travel safe!