We finished another county... - 1/25/2014

After a hiatus last weekend to celebrate Libi's birthday and suffer through the nasty stomach bug that hit our home, we are back on the CHL trail!  Today we decided to finish up our third county, Ventura!

 

Our first stop was the second mission we have encountered-- San Buenaventura (CHL 310). 

 One of the mission's claims to fame is that they are the only mission that originally had wooden bells.  These confounded Ron, but made perfect sense to me-- everyone has to have a gimmick, right?
Another interesting fact about their bells-- the bells that currently reside in their bell-tower were originally borrowed from Mission Santa Barbara, but they never returned them.

 The interior of the mission was extremely dark-- much like it would have looked during the mission days.  Luckily my camera sucked in enough light from the windows that I was able to get a few good shots without flash!

 This mission sanctuary is quite small, but 2000 people still call this their church home!

 I think that taking a photo in the mission courtyard with a fountain is going to be a tradition for us.

 Here is a photo of the bell-tower on this gorgeous Southern California January day!  There is one bell that still rings daily, it is inscribed with 'Hail Mary Most Pure. Mary of Zapopan Year of 1825." This bell was originally cast for the church of Zapopan, but was later sent to the mission. 

 Another obligatory photo with Fr. Serra!  Libi's comment, "We've seen this guy before."  Yes, my dear.  We will see him at every mission.
Interestingly, this mission was supposed to be the third one built, but due to postponement it is actually the 9th mission built.

 There is another CHL on the grounds of the mission that actually connects to one we saw months ago... the Old Mission Reservoir (CHL114).  The priests put the local Chumash people to work building an elaborate system of aqueducts to bring fresh water to the mission.  We saw the last remaining piece of the aqueduct in this post in October. 

After our very brief self-guided tour we headed across the street to take photos of the building.
Here is a side by side of Libi and I at the mission.  Libi's photo is from yesterday age 7, mine is from 1986 when I was around 9.  It's so funny to me that we were both standing in virtually the same spot almost 30 years apart.  For the record, I found this photo of myself after the fact, so we didn't purposefully stage these to be so similar.

 Daddy had to get into the act as well.

These trees in the photo are over 100 years old and according to the mission website:  "The twin 120-foot Norfolk pine trees in front of the mission (planted circa 1880) were designated California Millennium landmark trees by the American the Beautiful Fund in 2000."

It was a lovely morning at the mission!

Our next stop was the Ventura County Courthouse building (CHL 847).  The reliefs on the side of the building look like something out of the Haunted Mansion...

We expected them to start singing to us at any moment, but sadly they just stared down at us.

The courthouse (which is now City Hall) was very quiet on this Saturday morning, which made it perfect for lots of photos.

The building was designed in 1910 by Albert C. Martin, Sr. using a neoclassical style.

The building was condemned due to earthquake damages, but was purchased by the city and repaired.  Thank goodness this gorgeous building wasn't' lost!

Next we left the city of Ventura and went to Newbury Park to the Stagecoach Inn (CHL 659).

This hotel was built in 1876, but burned to the ground in 1970.  It was completely restored using only hand tools and re-opened in 1976.  It had many names when it was a hotel--  The Grand Union Hotel, El Hotel Grande,The Conejo Hotel, and the Stagecoach Inn.

It is a great site-- with lots to see and do.  I even took my fifth grade students here for a field trip years ago!

One of the most fun things about this site is that all the docents (many of whom are retired school teachers) are dressed in period costume.  They even had a junior docent who was 11 years old who gave us a tour of the kitchen.
They don't allow any photography inside the hotel, but it was full of interesting displays-- a room full of phonographs, one of human hair art, dresses from the 1800's, and lots of photos and antique furniture. 

 

Libi loved all of it!  She even got to do a mini lesson in the school house where she wrote her name on a slate, looked at a third year reader, and rang the school bell.

They have a barn full of stage-coaches and tools. Here Ron is holding a brake that was put on the wagons when they were coming down steep grades to help the driver not lose control.

Libi got to use a corn seed planting contraption that was just her size!

After a fun few hours at Stagecoach we rushed over to Rancho Simi (CHL 979).  This site was closing at 4 p.m. so we wanted to have at least an hour to explore the grounds.

When we walked onto the site we were all impressed-- the grounds were large with lots of buildings.  Sadly, the docents were not very kind-- shoving us in front of a video, telling us there was nobody to show us the buildings (even though a docent in the back offered to take us), and then pushing us through the grounds so she could lock up.  It left a really bad taste in our mouth, so be careful when you go.  I would suggest going when they first open and hopefully they will be more hospitable! 

We did get to see the outside of the building-- inside this house two rooms of the original adobe that was built in 1892 still remain.

Our final Ventura County site was one of the 20th Century Fold Art Environments.  You might remember the first one, which totally creeped out Libi. 

Today we saw Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village (CHL 939).  Tressa Prisbrey, a 60 year old began using recycled bottles and items from the dump to build "shrines, walkways, sculptures, and buildings" from 1956 to the early 80's.

It was all locked up today, but they do give tours on occasion-- which would be fascinating to attend.

I don't think Libi spotted this sculpture or she might have given it a thumbs down just like the last 20th century folk artist.

So now, we have completed Ventura, Stanislaus and Merced counties!  We rock!

St. Francis Dam Disaster - 1/12/2014

Today we visited one site: the St. Francis Dam Disaster Site (CHL #919). The dam was designed by, and construction was supervised by, William Mulholland. Mulholland was the general manager and chief engineer of the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply (later to become the Department of Water and Power--the DWP). He was also the genius behind the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The LA Aqueduct was a marvel of hydrological engineering. Mulholland completed the aqueduct in 1913, on time and under budget. You can read more about the history of the aqueduct from our visit to Sylmar and San Fernando. Concerned not only about Owens Valley residents sabotaging the aqueduct (many residents felt they had been swindled out of their water and were deliberately destroying sections of the aqueduct), and also concerned with the future water needs of the city, Mulholland decided it would be wise to secure a second source of water, this one in a canyon (San Francisquito Canyon) in the hills just north of the Santa Clarita Valley.  Construction began on the St. Francis Dam in 1924, and the dam was completed in 1926. At 2-1/2 minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the dam experienced catastrophic failure.

Image courtesy LATimes.com

The 12.4 billion gallons of water from the reservoir created crests up to 40 feet high and  drained from San Francisquito Canyon south into the Santa Clara River, where it then flowed from Saugus west through Fillmore, Santa Paula, and eventually into the Ventura/Oxnard delta where the water emptied out into the ocean. Along the way, it killed a confirmed 450 people, but the number of deaths was probably closer to 600 or more. There were many itinerant migrant farmers living in camps along the farmlands of Fillmore, Piru, and Santa Paula. Bodies that had been washed out to the Pacific were found a week later as far south as San Diego. This would be the worst US civil engineering disaster of the 20th century and the largest loss of life in California history next to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It took just under 70 minutes for the reservoir to empty completely.

Image courtesy of Google Maps. Arrows created in Skitch. Click map to enlarge.

image courtesy of kcet.org. Click map to enlarge.

Remains of St. Francis Dam after its failure | Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library

Woman stands in midst of the St. Francis Dam devastation, 1928

Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library

News of the disaster spread across the country, and it made front page news in the New York Times, as well as scores of other newspapers.

image courtesy of scvhistory.com

screenshot from images.google.com. Click to enlarge.

We made a quick trip up to San Francisquito Canyon on this day to check out the site, but we definitely want to come back to explore more of the canyon floor (we stayed along the road at the top of the canyon. If you'd like to learn more, there is a great interview with local historian (and father of two of my former students at Canyon High School) Frank Rock. You can check it out here:

Afterward: I got so wrapped up in telling the story of the dam, I forgot to share the photos of our visit!

It was cold and windy that day. Here is Power Plant #2, about a mile and a half south of the disaster site. We're in drought right now in California, so there's no water from the San Francisquito Creek currently flowing into into the power plant.

This is as close as we got to the actual disaster site. In the photo below, you can see a little rubble in the middle of the frame. The actual dam location is in the space up ahead between the two hills. Like I mentioned earlier in the post, we will have to return to this site in the future to get a closer look.

click on the image to enlarge