Pretty Little San Francisco

Insurance firms drop Berkeley Hills homeowners, citing wildfire risk - Berkeleyside

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Rolling Through the Bay - Scott Weaver

This nine foot tall wooden sculpture of San Francisco was made with glue and 105,387 and a half toothpicks. It was built by Scott Weaver who, stuck at home at the age of 14 with spinal meningitis, started working in earnest on the project and continued on it for 37 years. It has 10 different starting points and 5 different weaving track ‘tours’ throughout for ping pong balls to roll through, hence its name: Rolling Through the Bay.

Weaver shares the sculpture’s details in this episode of Coolest Thing. You can see Rolling through the Bay in person at its home inside San Francisco’s Exploratorium at Pier 15.

Early structures were abstract and about 2–4 feet tall. Then he built one sculpture that had a ping-pong ball roll through it. In 1974, Scott started a new sculpture and added the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street, which also had a ping-pong ball roll through it. This is what started what is now Rolling Through the Bay. Over the years Scott has worked on Rolling Through the Bay, on-and-off, sometimes not working on it for years at a time, to do other projects and get married to his beautiful wife, Rochelle, and have a wonderful son, Tyler. Scott loves working with toothpicks and hopes to do so for years to come.

“I’ve used Diamonds, Forsters, Ideals, Penleys…Richwoods were the best, back in the nineties. Now I use Diamonds because they're the most accessible for strength, they’re birch still, I think.”

Easter Lily Land in Northern California

The Easter Lily make a great centerpiece to any Easter dinner surrounded by family and friends. And it’s very likely they were grown right here in Northern California.

The fertile land in Smith River, California, sitting in the very northwest corner of California, is home to less than 900 residents, but roughly 95 precent of the world’s Easter lilies. In fact, five farms owned by four families in the area grow around 14 million Easter lilies each year.

Easter lilies grow on the Palmer Westbrook, Inc., Easter lily farm in the small town of Smith River, California. Smith River is known as the Easter lily capital of the world. Farmers in the costal area between California and Oregon grows nearly all of the Easter Lily bulbs sold in America.(Credit Image: © Robin Loznak)

Easter lilies are a native plant of Japan, but it was in 1919 when Louis Houghton began planting the flower just south of the Oregon border. When World War II started, the Easter lilies from Japan were no longer being imported, giving Houghton an incredible opportunity.

By 1945, the 600 acre area near Smith River had taken the lead in worldwide production of the plant. Today, the small town still reigns supreme as the Easter Lily Capital of the World.

While the Easter Lily looks tropical, it is very much a staple of Northern California. So if you have some Easter lilies as your centerpiece on Easter Sunday, you are truly supporting local business.

Ocean Floor off Palos Verdes

Northern California Winery Portfolio - Gary Crabbe

Gary Crabbe is a photographer here in Northern California.  Here are just two of his amazing photos, go check out the rest of his collection HERE.

Mexican California: The Heyday of the Rachos

For a quarter century after the achievement of Mexican independence in 1821, California was a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico. Huge cattle ranches, or ranchos, emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. Traders and settlers from the United States began to arrive, harbingers of the great changes that would sweep California during the Mexican American War of 1846-1848.

Life in Mexican California 

After three centuries of imperial rule, the American colonies of Spain began to demand their freedom. Mexican independence was achieved in 1821 following a long and bloody struggle.

Life in California changed slowly. The most visible impact of Mexican independence was the secularization of the missions. The missions lost their lands and much of their power. In "dividing the spoils," Mexican administrators created huge cattle ranches or ranchos. A few wealthy land-owning families emerged as a rancho elite, while most of the labor was performed by California Indians serving as Native American serfs.

Native-born Californios grew restive under Mexican rule and in 1842 asserted the provincial autonomy of California. The autonomy was short-lived.

Most rancheros occupied themselves with trading hides and tallow for manufactured goods brought to California by ships from the United States. In their leisure hours, the Californios amused themselves with popular entertainments such as bull and bear fights or the festive celebration of a California wedding.

Mexican Independence

The same spirit of liberty that led British colonists to declare their independence in 1776 inspired Spanish colonists to assert their independence in the early 1800s. On the morning of September 16, 1810, a priest named Miguel Hidalgo made a fiery speech in the town of Dolores in New Spain. His words set off a long and bloody war to make New Spain an independent country.

During most of the war for Mexican independence, California remained uninvolved and unaffected. The only direct contact with the war came in 1818 when two "revolutionary" ships sacked and burned several settlements along the California coast. Three more years of fighting, all to the south of California, were necessary before Mexico achieved its independence in 1821.

When news of Mexican independence reached California the following year, the old red and gold imperial flag of Spain was lowered over the presidio at Monterey. A crisp new flag, bearing an eagle and a snake, rose in its place. As the flag unfolded in the breeze, the assembled soldiers shouted: "Viva la independencia Mexicana!"

Secularization of the Missions

The missions of California, like the missions on all Spanish colonial frontiers, were intended to be temporary institutions. When the work of Christianization and acculturation was finished, the missionaries were to be replaced by secular clergy and the mission lands distributed among the former neophytes. This process was known as secularization.

Following the establishment of Mexican independence in 1821, demands for the secularization of the missions intensified. The constitution of the Republic of Mexico endorsed the equality of all Mexicans regardless of race. Mexican liberals concluded that the missions--which denied basic liberties to the Indians-- were unconstitutional.

The Indians themselves were becoming increasingly restive under mission rule. A coordinated revolt broke out in 1824 among Chumash neophytes at three of the missions along the Santa Barbara Channel. Meanwhile, Nativeborn Californios saw the missions as an obstacle to the economic development of the province; they believed that the missions' control of prime agricultural lands and the indigenous labor force retarded the growth of private ranches and farms.

In 1834 Governor José Figueroa issued a proclamation ordering the secularization of the California missions.

Dividing the Spoils

According to the 1834 secularization proclamation of Governor José Figueroa, half the property of the California missions was to be distributed to the former mission Indians.

Unfortunately most Indians did not receive any of the mission lands; those who did rarely kept them for long. Lorenzo Asisara, a former neophyte at Mission Santa Cruz, later remembered that during secularization his people were given some "old mares that were no longer productive and very old rams." They also received a portion of the mission lands, "but it did not do the Indians any good."

Between 1834 and 1836 each of the twenty-one California missions was secularized. Governor Figueroa, who died in the midst of the secularization proceedings, appointed administrators to supervise the disposal of mission properties. The administrators sold off the cattle, grain, and lands that rightly should have gone to the former neophytes. The vast bulk of the mission properties ended up in the hands of a few prominent Californio families.

The final blow to the missions came in 1845 when cash-strapped Governor Pío Pico auctioned off the remaining mission properties--including the crumbling mission churches. One dispirited padre lamented: "All is destruction, all is misery, humiliation and despair."

The Rancho Elite

A small group of ranchero families, mostly California-born, emerged as the new elite of Mexican California. Their wealth and power was based on the enormous ranchos they acquired from the Mexican government. Each rancho grant was accompanied by a diseño or map. The maximum legal limit for a private rancho grant was 11 square leagues--about 50,000 acres. Not even this generous limit was always applied; some individuals received multiple grants.

Typical of the new elite was Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, grantee of several ranchos in present-day Solano and Sonoma counties. Born in Monterey, Vallejo became the most prominent land-owner in northern California. From his casa grande in the new pueblo of Sonoma, Vallejo ruled over a feudal barony of vast lands, herds of cattle, and a large retinue of Indian laborers.

The ranchero oligarchy was divided by personal, factional, and sectional disputes. Rivalries between norteños and sureños foreshadowed later disagreements between northern and southern Californians in the twentieth century.

Native American Serfs

The ranchos of Mexican California depended upon the labor of Native Americans. A typical California rancho might employ as few as twenty or as many as several hundred Indian workers. The Native work force totaled perhaps four thousand in all, including both former mission Indians and new recruits gathered by the rancheros.

The Native workers tended the fields and herds of the ranchos. Some became highly skilled cowhands or vaqueros. In return for their labor the Indians usually received nothing more than shelter, food, and clothing. The rancheros used various means of coercion--persuasion, economic pressure, violent force--to recruit and maintain their labor supply.

The Indian workers were nominally free, but in practice they were bound to the service of the ranchero as long as he cared to hold them. Thus rancho society of Mexican California was essentially a feudal society. The rancheros ruled as lords on their great landed estates; the Indian workers who tended the fields and herds were their serfs.

Provincial Autonomy

During the years of Mexican sovereignty, California was ruled by a governor appointed by officials in faraway Mexico City. A provincial legislature, or diputación, met in Monterey but its powers were strictly limited.

Politics in Mexican California were turbulent and often chaotic. In one five-year period, from 1831 to 1836, California had eleven different gubernatorial administrations--not counting three hapless individuals who were appointed to the governorship but whom the Californians did not permit to take office. The nativeborn Californios grew discontented with Mexican rule and sought greater control over their own affairs.

The most dramatic assertion of Californio discontent was the "revolution" led by Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1836. Alvarado, president of the diputación, seized control of the capital in Monterey and deported most of the Mexican officials. On November 7, 1836, he proclaimed California "a free and sovereign State."

The revolution was short-lived. The Mexican government in 1837 offered Alvarado the governorship of California. He accepted the offer.

Trading Hides and Tallow

The economy of Mexican California was based on the raising of huge herds of cattle. Skilled vaqueros or cowhands periodically rounded up the cattle, slaughtered them, stripped and cleaned the hides, and stretched the hides in the sun to dry. The hides were a valuable source of leather for making saddles, shoes, and other products. Fat from the cattle was boiled in iron pots until it melted into a fatty liquid called tallow. The tallow was used to make soap and candles.

The rancho elite traded hides and tallow for manufactured goods from foreign traders who sailed along the coast. In the following account, Prudencia Higuera recalled a time in 1840 when a ship from the United States sailed into San Pablo Bay to trade for hides and tallow:

"The next morning my father gave orders, and my brothers, with the peons, went on horseback into the mountains and smaller valleys to round up all the best cattle. They drove them to the beach, killed them there, and salted the hides. They tried out the tallow in some iron kettles.... The captain soon came to our landing with a small boat and two sailors.... The captain looked over the hides, and then asked my father to get into the boat and go to the vessel.... [My father] came back the next day, bringing four boat-loads of cloth, axes, shoes, fish-lines, and many new things. There were two grindstones, and some cheap jewelry. My brother had traded some deerskins for a gun and four tooth-brushes, the first ones I had ever seen."

Bull and Bear Fights

Among the popular pastimes of Mexican California were horse races, bull fights, and bull and bear fights. For the latter, fearless vaqueros would capture a California grizzly bear, take him to a bull ring, and tie or chain his hindleg to the foreleg of a long-horned California bull. Spectators would then place their bets, sit back, and wait for the swatting, goring, and biting to begin. Whoever survived the fight was declared the winner.

The nephew of ranchero Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo offered the following playby-play account of one such contest:

"The bull began the fight by charging the grizzly with his horns. A blow from the grizzly's paw did not stop the onset. In a moment they were rolling over each other in the dust. But the bear finally, though badly gored, got his teeth fastened into the bull's neck, and bull was pulled to his knees. The bull's tongue hung out. This was what the bear wanted. He got his claw into the bull's mouth, pulled the tongue out still further, and then bit it off. With this the bull gave up the contest, and soon after both animals were dispatched."

California Wedding

The rancho elite of Mexican California was noted for its prodigal hospitality and spirited entertainments. Singing and dancing were passions for Californios of all ages.

Wedding festivities among the elite Californio families lasted from three days to a week or more, and for each event the bride usually wore a different outfit. To her wedding breakfast, she might wear a dress of brightly colored silk or satin; then change into a low-cut, short-sleeved gown of delicate pink or blue for the afternoon activities. For the actual wedding itself, the bride wore black. Her gown was often of silk brocade, with silk stockings and satin slippers. She wore her hair piled high on her head, accented by a beautiful tortoise-shell comb set with precious stones, and highlighted by an elegant black Spanish lace mantilla.

Harbingers of Change

During the years California was ruled by Mexico, visitors and settlers from the United States arrived in ever greater numbers. These interlopers were harbingers of the change in sovereignty that would come to California with the Mexican American War.

The earliest visitors from the United States were sea-otter hunters who sailed along the California coast. The story of "Jedediah and the Beaver" reminds us that the first group of Americans to arrive overland came in search of beaver pelts in California's great Central Valley. New Englander Richard Henry Dana was among those who came to take advantage of the Californio's penchant for trading hides and tallow for imported manufactured goods.

The first wagon train of overland settlers from the United States arrived in California in 1841. The perils of the Donner Party while attempting to cross the Sierra Nevada starkly revealed the dangers of the overland trail--dangers that would take the lives of countless others in the years ahead.

Official United States interest in acquiring California grew steadily in the 1840s. The Jones Incident of 1842 was an embarrassing prelude to the far more decisive events of the upcoming war between Mexico and the United States.

Sea-Otter Hunters

The first visitors from the United States to come to California were men engaged ins hunting sea otter along the western coast of North America. The skin of a full-grown sea otter was five feet long and more than two feet wide, with a thick, black, glossy fur highlighted by silvery hair. A pelt's value when shipped to the Chinese port of Canton was about $300. Sea otters could be found at many points along the coast from the Aleutians to Baja California, and some of the greatest concentrations were in the bays and channels of Alta California.

Ebenezer Dorr, captain of the aptly named ship the Otter, sailed along the California coast in 1796 and collected hundreds of sea-otter pelts. Dorr put into Monterey for fresh supplies of water and wood, but Spanish mercantile restrictions prohibited him from engaging in any trade.

Other American ships followed the lead of the Otter. They occasionally defied Spanish prohibitions and engaged in clandestine trade with local otter hunters. Trading was encouraged by local officials only after the achievement of Mexican independence in 1821, but by then the sea otter had been nearly exterminated along the coast of California.

Jedediah and the Beaver

On November 26, 1826, Jedediah Strong Smith, leader of an expedition of American beaver trappers, reached Mission San Gabriel after an arduous crossing of the Mohave Desert and the San Bernardino Mountains. Smith and his party were the first white men from the United States to cross overland to California, thereby effectively opening the fur trade of the far Southwest.

California Governor José María Echeandía was perplexed by Smith's arrival. Suspecting that he was a spy, the governor ordered Smith arrested. He was released only after promising to leave California.

As Smith traveled northwestward over the Tehachapis and into the southern Central Valley, he found a trapper's paradise. There he collected a large quantity of pelts and then turned eastward and left California by way of Ebbetts Pass. Smith thus accomplished the first recorded European-American crossing of the Sierra Nevada.

Smith shared with other trappers the story of his successful hunting in California. One trapper later recalled that he "reported California to be the finest country in the world--having a charming Italian climate & a soil remarkably productive...& Beaver were abundant in all the Creeks & Rivers."

Richard Henry Dana

The hide and tallow trade was important not only for its immediate economic effects but also because the writings of men engaged in the trade greatly heightened American interest in California.

On board the ship Pilgrim in 1835 was a young Bostonian named Richard Henry Dana. For eighteen months, Dana and his shipmates collected hides along the California coast. He also made close observations of California's land and people.

When Dana returned to New England, he published his recollections in Two Years Before the Mast (1840). He described for his countrymen in precise detail the beauties of the California landscape, its capacious harbors, abundant wildlife, and salubrious climate "than which there can be no better in the world." He was contemptuous of the Californios, "an idle thriftless people" who could "make nothing for themselves." He was amazed that they bought "bad wine made in Boston and brought round by us" when their own country abounded in grapes. "In the hands of an enterprising people," he concluded, "what a country this might be!"

The Donner Party

Among the several parties of overland pioneers that come to Mexican California, none suffered more hardships than the Donner party. The party was organized in Springfield, Illinois, and made good time in the early spring of 1846 as it headed westward across the plains. It later lost valuable time by taking what was believed to be a shortcut south of the Great Salt Lake.

The Donner party began its ascent of the Sierra Nevada in October and had the misfortune of being caught near the summit during the heaviest snowfall in thirty years. As the snow reached a depth of more than twenty feet, the group lived in crude log cabins and lean-tos. When food provisions ran out, first the pack animals were eaten, then the hides and the boiled leather from their snowshoes, and finally the flesh of those who died. Only about half of the eighty-seven members of the party survived the winter.

There was heroism as well as horror during that terrible winter in the Sierra. James Reed left the party to seek help and returned leading a relief expedition. When rescuers arrived, Tamsen Donner refused to leave her husband George who was too weak to travel. Their three daughters were saved, but George and Tamsen died.

The Jones Incident

One of the strangest episodes in California history was the premature invasion of Monterey by a squad of United States Marines in 1842.

It all started when Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, an impetuous young naval officer, got wind of a rumor that the United States and Mexico were at war. Jones was under standing orders that, in the event of such a war, he was to set sail and seize Monterey, the capital of Mexican California.

On October 18, Commodore Jones sailed confidently into Monterey Bay and demanded that the Mexican officials surrender. The next morning, a triumphant Jones landed 150 marines and sailors on the beach. The marines lowered the Mexican flag, raised the Stars and Stripes, fired a salute, and proclaimed California to be under the benevolent protection of the United States of America.

Unfortunately, Commodore Jones had made a big mistake. He soon learned that the war rumor was false. With all the dignity he could muster, Jones hustled his marines back on board his ship and sailed away.

Four years later, the military forces of the United States again invaded California. But this time it was for real, and the conquest was permanent.

Mexican American War

The United States in 1846 declared war on Mexico, and during the course of that war American military forces seized California. The war was fueled in part by feelings of Manifest Destiny, a popular sentiment in the United States that viewed the expansion of the nation as an inevitability.

The arrival in Mexican California of John C. Frémont, a loose cannon, sparked a rebellion by Anglo-Americans in the province. Their uprising became known as the Bear Flag Revolt, although the image on their banner resembled more a pig than a bear.

Military forces from the United States soon landed along the coast and marched into the interior. The Californios fought well against the Americans, scoring a victory with their long lances at San Pascual. Ultimately, however, the Mexican forces were defeated in far larger engagements elsewhere. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the cession of vast lands from Mexico to the United States. This treaty and transfer marked the end of Mexican sovereignty in California.

A Loose Cannon

A "loose cannon" is someone whose actions often are unrestrained and impulsive. Lieutenant John C. Frémont, an officer in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, fit this definition perfectly. He arrived in Mexican California in 1846 with sixty armed men, all expert marksmen.

The Bear Flag Revolt

The California state flag commemorates an event that occurred in the little town of Sonoma on Sunday morning, June 14, 1846.

A band of some thirty rough-hewn American settlers seized Colonel Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and informed him that he was a prisoner of war. The Americans proudly proclaimed that theirs was a war for the independence of California. In front of Vallejo's casa grande, the rebels hoisted a flag emblazoned with a crude drawing of a bear, a lone star, and the words "CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC."

The original bear flag was made by William Todd, nephew of an up-and-coming Illinois attorney named Abraham Lincoln. Todd used a three-by-five piece of white cotton cloth. Along the bottom he sewed several strips of red flannel taken from either a man's shirt of a woman's petticoat. He then painted a five-pointed red star in the upper left-hand corner and drew a picture of a California grizzly bear. But William Todd clearly was no artist. His grizzly looked more like a pig than a bear.

Shortly after the arrival of United States naval forces along the California coast, the Stars and Stripes replaced the Bear Flag over Sonoma. The life of the "California Republic" thus ended on July 9, less than a month after it had begun. The main result of the Bear Flag Revolt--an event that would later be fantastically romanticized--was an unnecessary embitterment of feelings between Anglo-Americans and the Spanish-speaking Californios.

Lances at San Pascual

Following the outbreak of the Mexican American War in 1846, military forces from the United States invaded Mexico. Naval forces landed along the coast of California in July and proclaimed that "henceforward California will be a portion of the United States."

California's Mexican leaders denounced the invasion and mobilized their forces against the Americans. On August 9, 1846, Colonel José Castro called upon his fellow Californios "to give to the entire world an example of loyalty and firmness, maintaining in your breasts the unfailing love of liberty, and eternal hatred toward your invaders! Long live the Mexican Republic! Death to the invaders!"

Treaty and Transfer

Fighting in California during the Mexican American War ended with the surrender of Andrés Pico to John C. Frémont on January 13, 1847, at Cahuenga Pass in present-day Los Angeles County. The meeting was arranged by Bernarda Ruiz, a woman in Santa Barbara who was saddened by all the bloodshed in her country. Fighting elsewhere in Mexico continued for another year.

The war formally ended on February 2, 1848, with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In the treaty, the United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million and to assume unpaid claims against Mexico. For its part, Mexico agreed to transfer to the United States more than 525,000 square miles of land. From this vast area would come the future states of California, Nevada, and Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

The Mexican American War was a great tragedy for Mexico. Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico transferred half of its land to the United States. For the American people, the war was a great victory. Many Americans believed that their nation at last had achieved its Manifest Destiny.

Tustin Street Name History

Columbus Tustin showed a lack of originality in 1870 when he named the streets dividing Tustin City's 100 acres into 300-square-foot blocks. He used numbers for east and west streets with First on the north side of town and Sixth on the south. North and south streets received alphabetical names, A through H.

Fourth Street became Main Street as businesses congregated there, and Fifth Street never got off the plat map. D Street doubled as State Highway 101 after 1914, but was renamed El Camino Real in 1968. 

More original, but unexplained names, such as Pasadena, Myrtle, Pacific, California, Yorba and Mt. View, were attached to streets added later on the west side. Some streets surrounding Tustin were named for their destinations, Irvine Boulevard, Newport Avenue, Tustin Avenue, and Red Hill Avenue.

David Hewes, who relocated to Tustin from San Francisco in 1881, building a Victorian mansion at the corner of Main and B, inspired Hewes Avenue, which lead to Anapauma ranch, agricultural property he acquired between Tustin and El Modena. Vanderlip Avenue memorialized Nelson Vanderlip, a banker and Tustin resident who served as treasurer of the Santa Ana, Orange and Tustin Street Railway in early 1886.

John Holt, a Swedish immigrant, who owned property on First Street as well as near the present Civic Center, inspired Holt Avenue. Browning Avenue was named after Felton P. "Frank" Browning, owner of Red Hill and its mercury mine.

When the 1950s brought mass development to Tustin and the surrounding area, developers and landowners came up with both commonplace and unusual names for the streets in the new subdivisions. However, some of the names selected honored early residents and ranchers.

Fourth Street was reincarnated when it was cut through the orange groves as a continuation of Santa Ana's Fourth Street in the 1950s. Later it was extended into Irvine Boulevard and renamed. Utt Drive in South Tustin recalled Lysander Utt who came to Tustin in 1874 as well as his son, Tustin entrepreneur C. E. Utt, and grandson James, both a state assemblyman and a congressman representing Tustin. Mitchell Avenue identifies Ralph Mitchell, a South Tustin rancher.

Preble Drive honors the Preble family, including brothers Samuel and James as well as cousin George. Nisson Road is named for Mathias Nisson, a Denmark native, who established himself in Tustin in 1876. His grandsons are still Tustin residents. Warner Avenue, Williams Street and Kenyon Drive were named for Frank Warner, Albert C. Williams and Chester Kenyon, who farmed in the area.

Ebel Road remembers the Ebel family which traces its Tustin roots back to the early 1900s. Marshall Lane was created when Joseph Marshall subdivided his orange acreage. Enderle Center Drive leading to Enderle Center harks back to Herman Enderle who came to Orange County in 1892.

More recently, streets in Tustin Ranch have been named for civic leaders and war heroes.

Replicas of 1906 bell mark El Camino Real

Originally El Camino Real, also known as the Kings Highway, was a footpath worn by the Franciscan fathers as they traveled up and down California in 1769 between the 21 missions they built. Eventually the trail became wide enough to accommodate horses and wagons, but it was not considered a route until the last mission was completed in Sonoma in 1823.

The 700 miles of El Camino Real joined the Franciscan missions, the pueblos and presidios in the early days of California. Now it is incorporated into California Highway 101 and passes through Tustin as it makes its way between San Diego and Sonoma and is known for its El Camino Real Bells.

With the support of the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the El Camino Real bell was hung from a standard shaped like a shepherd's crook in front of the Inglesia de Nuestra Senora Reina (Plaza church) in Los Angeles in 1906 in tribute to the work of the Franciscan fathers and their leader Father Junipero Serra.

Designed by Mrs. A. S. C. Forbes, the 85-pound cast iron bell was inscribed El Camino Real 1769-1906. The plan was to place duplicate bells along the El Camino Real Highway, in front of each mission and selected historical landmarks, approximately one bell for every mile.

By 1913, 425 bells were in place including two in Tustin. One was planted in the sidewalk a few feet north of the corner entrance to the First National Bank of Tustin at Main and D (El Camino Real) and the other along Laguna Road which was part of the 101 Highway south of Tustin High School. Tustin's bells remained in place until after World War II when D Street was widened as part of a Highway 101 improvement project.

Removed while the work was being done, they were not to be found when the job was completed. Missing bells were not unusual. Despite supervision by the Automobile Club of Southern California and the California State Automobile Association of San Francisco from 1921 to 1933 and by the California Division of Highways after that, many bells were stolen or disappeared during road work.

Los Angeles County could account for only 17 of its 110 original bells in 1959. Two hundred of the bells missing throughout the state were recovered by 1963, but unfortunately Tustin's bells were not included in this number.

The city had no bells when D Street was renamed El Camino Real in 1968 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding. But the City of Tustin remedied this with the cooperation of various civic organizations by installing 12 duplicate bells along El Camino Real between First Street and Newport Road in 1972.

Two bells stand on each block. A plaque on each brick base identifies the civic group donating it. The most recent addition to Tustin's bells was dedicated near Camino Real Park in 1998. The Tustin Area Woman's Club raised $500 to pay for it with the Automobile Club of Southern California providing a matching sum.

Working with the California Bell Co. which cast the original bell, Caltrans has installed 555 original El Camino Real bells on Caltrans property along Highway 101 between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Man Behind Holt Avenue's Name

Thousands of cars travel up and down Holt Avenue between 17th Street and Newport Avenue every day, according to traffic surveys done by the city.

However, despite the huge number of drivers and passengers involved, probably not one person in a hundred gives a moment's thought to the origin of the street's name.

John Holt, for whom the street is named, was a native of Sweden who immigrated to the United States. Facts about his life vary depending on the source, but the following information comes from the 1911 edition of "History of Orange County, California." The book contains biographical sketches of the men and women of the county Samuel Armor identified as participating in the growth and development of the area at that time.

Holt came to the United States at the age of 13 when his father, Sven Holt, immigrated here to become a brass worker, employed first in St. Louis, then Chicago. The elder Holt returned to Sweden in 1860, but John remained in this country.

He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1866 and served on several battleships, mainly in the Asiatic waters, visiting both China and Japan. At the end of his enlistment, he transferred to the merchant marines, shipping out of Philadelphia and Portland, Maine harbors. His next employer was the U.S. government, which hired him to do harbor improvement work on the East Coast.

Holt then came to California, arriving in what would become Orange County in 1882. After deciding to locate in Tustin, he first bought an unimproved tract of 10 acres. Four years later, he purchased an additional 10 acres at the intersection of First Street and a road which would become known as Holt.

After marrying Louise Deathelms, a resident of New York, he used his carpentry skills to build a cozy cottage on his property. Before long, Holt became known for his experiments in agriculture.

After planting walnut and apricot trees on his first pieces of land, he began a long and extensive series of experiments to discover how the various fruits would adapt to the soil. His first experiment of planting a vineyard failed when the grapes died before they came into bearing.

He next planted a variety of fruits, including prunes which he soon found to be a money losing crop. Disillusioned by their low market value, he abandoned them in favor of crops that would bring in revenue in keeping with the high cost of the land.

When he found that oranges, apricots and walnuts would earn the highest profit because they were the best adapted to the climate and the soil, he concentrated on planting these species in his orchard.

In addition to experimenting with fruit, Holt enjoyed raising poultry. He was recognized for his skill in selecting birds and caring for the flock. His pureblood White Brahmas were judged to be the finest specimens of that breed in Orange County.

Although Holt was a Republican, voting for party candidates in both state and national elections, he was known for supporting the man he thought best able to promote the welfare of the county and not the party line, in local elections. He belonged to the Masonic Lodge, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Foresters of America.

Since Holt was included in the U.S. Census in 1900, 1910 and 1920, he is assumed to have died between 1920 and 1930.

History of the Utt Juice Co.

The History of the Utt Juice Company

The Utt Juice Co. plant, which ran along the west side of Prospect between Main and Third streets, produced 7 million gallons of juice during the 50 years it was in operation. C. E. Utt, who developed the San Joaquin Fruit Co. along with Sherman Stevens and James Irvine, experimented with a number of agricultural crops, citrus, peanuts, chili peppers and grapes during his lifetime, but his involvement with grapes continued for many years. It all began when he leased property on Lemon Heights from the Irvine Co. in 1915 and planted two acres of Concord grapes. By 1918 when the vines came into production, he had more grapes than he could find a market for. His solution was to start making grape juice at home, using the back porch for his kitchen. When he had more juice than his family could consume, he bottled the excess and started giving it to his friends. People raved about the drink and told him he should bottle it commercially. Soon he was marketing a drink labeled Home Made Grape Juice. On Sept. 9, 1918, he founded a new enterprise, which he called the Utt Juice Co. When it outgrew his back porch, he moved to a Victorian-Italianate building on the northwest corner of Main and Prospect. The building, which he had owned since 1907, had been the home of Sauers and Berkquist grocery. Set up with boilers, vats, presses and bottling equipment , it became the Utt Juice Co. Sheds and additional buildings were added as the company grew. Arcy Schellhous, a young man of 27, bought a quarter interest in the business in 1922 and took over the management, giving Utt more time for his duties as president of the San Joaquin Fruit Co., president of the First National Bank of Tustin and owner of Tustin Water Works. They adopted the brand name of Queen Isabella and added pomegranate, rhubarb and guava juice to their inventory. Schellhous bought out Utt in 1931 although the company continued to use the Utt name. Production reached a peak of 200,000 gallons of juice in 1965. The company was ahead of its time in producing juices that could be labeled �100% Pure, No Sugar Added.� Queen Isabella jams and jellies were added to the product mix as well as boysenberry products that carried the Knott label. However, grapes and other fruits produced locally became increasingly hard to find and Schellhous was forced to buy fruit from other parts of California. Utt died in 1951, but Schellhous continued to run the company until he died in an automobile accident in 1970. Jack Hall who had joined the company in 1946 as office manager became president and served until 1973 when a scarcity of fruit and increasing competition forced the company to close. It was calculated that Utt Juice Co. had produced 7 million gallons of juice in 50 years. Cleared of equipment, the building stood empty until a few years ago when building began on the recently completed Prospect Village complex.

Thoughts of the California Desert

Thoughts of the California Desert

by Reed Whittemore

Under palm trees, oranges, olives and pears

The indolent desert slouches, half an eye closed

And half an eye out for men of affairs whose cares

Keep them from keeping their gaudy gardens hosed.

Slouches and yawns, that clown.  Leaves in disdain

Gaseous dragons their nauseous knights to nettle.

Flips his tail coyly, rolls over, says he would fain

Die a dry death.  Haw! browning a petal.

Has it too good, too good.  Is vastly diverted

Watching his merchants and bankers stumble out doors.

Parries their blows, says he loves, loves to be squirted

As at him they fiercely empty their reservoirs.

Sleeps a great deal, drinks deep, drinks deep and makes hay,

Thinking he'll swallow the bankers and all one day.

Hummingbird Frenzy

Turn up the volume and listen to this Hummingbird Frenzy around a cluster of eight hummingbird feeders on a back patio. The happy swarm was filmed by YouTuber Duane Reid in Valley Center, California in August. How many hummingbirds can you count? Reid writes of his wife’s hobby:

Lunchtime for Cheryl’s Hummers! Enjoy the frenzy. Over 150 hummingbirds feeding at the same time. Starts out with only one or two, then builds up to a swarm, so view it thru till the end to see them all. Notice the different colors and markings?

The Chandelier Tree

Over the course of six years, Adam Tenenbaum turned his Silver Lake, California front yard tree into one that was filled with the warm light of 30 vintage chandeliers. In this short, filmmaker Colin Kennedy (who lives down the street) talks with Adam about how this public art project began.