of rocks just off NORTHEAST POINT, the home of several hundred hair
"seals," or California sea lions. The color of the animals varies from
light brown to deep black; some attain a weight of a ton or more, and
have a life span of 50 years. Although a few remain on the rocks the
year round, most of them follow the shifting of the warm Japan cur-
rent, going southward to Mexican waters for the summer. They are
most plentiful on Seal Rocks from September to May.
The EVENING FLYING FISH TRIP (daily, Apr. to Oct., 40
minutes) , follows the north here. A 45-million candlepower search-
light attached to the vessel bores through the night sky, attracting thou-
sands of flying fish and reflecting the iridescent colors of their "wings"
(fins). The flight of the fish resembles the glide of an airplane, as
its fins remain rigid. The wriggling lower part of the tail provides
motive power; the upper part acts as a rudder. The fish can glide
from 50 to 100 yards, but must return to the water when its wings
dry. The flying fish, which range in length from 12 to 18 inches, keep
to deep water during the day but at night seek the shallower shore
regions. A migratory species, they prefer warm waters, and are seen
off Santa Catalina Island only during the summer.
The AVALON SPEEDBOAT TRIP (frequent daily departures;
2 miles), is a 5O-mile-an-hour ride in high-powered speedboats.
The ISTHMUS BOAT TRIP (May to Oct.; 28-mile round
trip; 3 hrs.), is a cruise along the lee coast of the island, from Avalon
Bay to Isthmus Cove, with an hour's stop for lunch and sightseeing at
the Isthmus. The course follows the curving shore and affords close
views of the rock formations, caves, and beaches.
The 'ROUND THE ISLAND CRUISE (10:30 a.m. Sun. only,
Apr. to Oct.; 55 miles; 3 to 3 1 /! hrs.) , is taken in a large double-deck
excursion boat. From Avalon to Isthmus Cove the boat follows the
same course as on the Isthmus boat trip (see above). After a 45-
minute stop-over at the Isthmus, the course is northwest, past the mouth
of CHERRY VALLEY, honey-combed with tunnels and shafts dating from
the Civil War mining boom. Just around Red Point, the island nar-
rows to LAND'S END, and the steamer begins to feel the force of waves
from the open sea. Rounding Occidental Point, at Land's End, and
heading down the south coast, the wildest of the island's land- and
seascapes are seen: steep cliffs rearing skyward, the surf booming at
their base. This part of the island is as wild and uncultivated as when
the white man first visited it 400 years ago. Between Eagle Rock and
Catalina Harbor the coast line is incised with a series of small coves
Ironbound Bay, Lobster Bay, Smugglers' Cove in which Orientals
who had been deported under the 1855 China Boy Laws were hidden
until they could be smuggled back to the mainland. South of the wide
mouth of Catalina Harbor the island widens again, reaching its greatest
TOUR 6 379
width at BEN WESTON POINT. The course veers around CHURCH
ROCK, aglow after heavy rains with green, lavender, rose, blue and
orange tints, then moves along the narrow northeast headland to Seal
Rocks and back to Avalon.
The ISTHMUS AUTO TOUR (daily) follows the Old Stage
Road from Avalon to the Summit (1,520 alt.), then descends to HAY-
PRESS LANDING, site of an Indian town in prehistoric days, and enters
Middle Ranch Canyon. In this canyon is Middle Ranch, some of
whose buildings date from the Civil War period. Westward the road
passes Eagles Nest Lodge (see above), then the soapstone ledges from
which Indians once cut bowls and mortars, and suddenly swings out
upon a high ridge. It descends rapidly to the southwest coast, skirting
LITTLE HARBOR, with INDIAN HEAD ROCK (resembling the head on
buffalo nickels), a symbolic sentinel for the Indian burial ground and
kitchen midden on Little Harbor's shore, jutting from a headland.
From Little Harbor the route cuts diagonally across the island
again, ascending gradually to West Summit (1,086 alt.), then drops by
easy stages to the flat mesa of the Isthmus, where a stop for lunch and
sightseeing is made before the return trip to Avalon over the same
route.
The STARLIGHT DRIVE (Apr. to Oct.; 7 miles; 45 minutes),
is made in open busses through the environs of Avalon and its adjacent
scenic points. A costumed guitar or accordion player supplies musical
background. Stops are made at UPHAM and INSPIRATION POINTS for
views over night-lighted Avalon.
The SKYLINE DRIVE (daily the year round; 30 minutes; 5
miles'), is a trip by motor bus along the major part of the Starlight
Drive course.
Tour 6
TO MALIBU
Los Angeles Hollywood Sherman Oaks Tarzana Girard To-
panga Canyon Topanga Beach Castellammare Santa Monica; US
101, Sunset Blvd., Cahuenga Ave., Ventura Blvd., Topanga Canyon
Rd., Roosevelt Highway (US lOiA) ; 45.4 m.
Paved roadbed throughout; six-lane concrete between Hollywood and San
Fernando Valley; four-lane concrete between Cahuenga Blvd. and Girard;
two-lane asphaltum between Girard, through Topanga Canyon, to Topanga
Beach; four and six-lane concrete between Topanga Beach and Santa Monica
city limits ; concrete or asphaltum, varying widths, to Santa Monica.
All accommodations.
380 LOS ANGELES
This route is through Hollywood and the southern end of the San
Fernando Valley, with its broad, flat acres of fruits, grain, and vege-
tables, its busy little towns, and movie stars' estates; through the low
Santa Monica Mountains via Topanga Canyon; and along the Pacific
Coast between surf line and mountain palisades, to Santa Monica.
North from the LOS ANGELES CITY HALL, m. t at ist and
Spring Sts., on Spring St., L. on Sunset Blvd. (US 101), and R. on
Cahuenga Blvd. (US 101).
HOLLYWOOD, 7 777. (385 alt., 184,531 pop.) (see Hollywood).
Points of Interest: Hollywood Bowl, Pilgrimage Play Theatre, motion-
picture studios, and others.
At 10.3 772. is the junction with Lankershim Blvd.
Right on Lankershim Blvd. to UNIVERSAL CITY, 02 m. (550 alt.), a tiny
segment of unincorporated county territory, around the UNIVERSAL MOTION
PICTURE COMPANY STUDIO (no visitors). This is the oldest film studio in
San Fernando Valley, dating from 1915 when Carl Laemmle acquired 800
acres of the former La Providencia Rancho through a corporation functioning
under the name of the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company.
The company has centered all its film production activities at this plant since
1923, though nearly three-quarters of the tract bought by the company has
been subdivided into residential plots. Along the front of the lot are the
executive offices, 16 sound stages, enclosed sets, warehouses, and other struc-
tures. To the rear is the Back Ranch, with the outdoor sets where the
"westerns," once a prominent part of the Universal production schedule, were
filmed. Most of the great barns that once held 300 horses for use in these
pictures have been converted to other uses.
CAMPO DE CAHUENGA (L), 3913 Lankershim Blvd., is the place where the
Treaty of Cahuenga was negotiated on January 13, 1847, by Lieutenant Colonel
John Charles Fremont, General Andres Pico, and General Jose Maria Flores,
who represented the provisional Mexican governor (see The Historical Back-
ground).
The half-acre plot, with pepper and olive trees, wistaria vines, and trel-
lised roses in its center, is a Los Angeles park. Flanking the boulevard
entrance stand two one-story adobes of recent construction, one containing a
small collection of historical relics.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, 1.5 m. (625 alt., 38,582 pop.), lies in a fruit-
growing area at the base of the Hollywood Hills, but is primarily a residential
community. North Hollywood originated as Toluca in 1893, later changing
its name to Lankershim, to honor Colonel J. B. Lankershim, one-time owner of
vast lands in the valley. Four years after the town was annexed by Los
Angeles in 1923, it was given its present name.
REPUBLIC PRODUCTIONS STUDIO (adm. by special pass only), 4024 Radford
Ave., occupies the former Mack Sennett lot, with 15 buildings, including 10
sound stages and a sound-dubbing stage. Extensive outdoor sets for the
"westerns" in which this studio specializes cover much of the lot. Republic
Productions was formed by the merger of several smaller studios in 1935.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD PARK, bounded by Riverside Dr. and Chandler Blvd.,
Tujunga Blvd. and Tujunga Wash, is a Los Angeles city park. It contains a
community building, a little theatre, and various playfields. Sections along
Tujunga Wash in the western end of the park are preserved in a primitive
state.
At 15.3 m. is the junction with Van Nuys Blvd.
Right on Van Nuys Blvd. to VAN NUYS, 2 m. (710 alt., 9,780 pop.), the
largest community in the San Fernando Valley incorporated in Los Angeles.
Along the Highway
'^&^<&^^^^
F. W. Carter
NORTH SHORE, SANTA MONICA BAY
PALM CANYON, PALM SPRINGS
F. IV. Carter
m
- :
JOSHUA TREE
Burton O. Burt
Burton O. Burt
SAN FERNANDO VALLEY FROM MULHOLLAND DRIVE
MOUNT SAN JACINTO
F. W. Carter
GRAPEFRUIT GROVE
California Fruit Groivers' Exchange
ROPING CATTLE
SHEEP
Horace Bristol
CASA VERDUGO, GLENDALE
Burton O. Burl
SHINTO TEMPLE IN JAPANESE
FISHING VILLAGE. TERMINAL ISLAND
Burton O. Burt
'
*?
t/!
J^. . .jjfcs.
^&a
- SM
Theodore Baron
LASKY'S BARN, HOLLYWOOD
FIRST HOME OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES
OLD LUGO HOUSE ON THE PLAZA, LOS ANGELES
Pirogue Baker
\\
PORTUGUESE MENDING NETS, TERMINAL ISLAND
Viroque Bakt
TOUR 6 381
It is the administrative center for city government in the valley. Now a
suburban area, it came into existence as a farm-trade center. The town was
named for I. N. Van Nuys, an early settler.
The VALLEY MUNICIPAL BUILDING, NW. corner Sylvan St. and Sylmar Ave.,
houses branch offices and bureaus of the city government. Its eight-story
central tower flanked by two-story wings all of white stone and concrete
structure, make it resemble the huge Los Angeles City Hall. It contains
branches of all the usual municipal departments.
VICTORY-VAN OWEN PARK, between Whitsett Ave., Laurel Canyon Rd., and
Calvert St., a 9o-acre irregularly shaped tract, was acquired by the Los
Angeles Park Department in 1929. It has picnic facilities for 200 persons.
SHERMAN OAKS, 15.5 m. (657 alt.), is a suburban real estate de-
velopment.
ENCINO (Sp., oak), 18.3 m. (790 alt., 1,548 pop.), is a
residential suburb in a beautiful area. Because of the numbers of great
liveoak trees here in 1769 the Caspar de Portola expedition named the
valley Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos (St. Catherine of
Bononia of the Oaks). A number of Hollywood notables have built
homes in the near-by Santa Monica foothills.
The AMESTOY ADOBE (private), 16801 Ventura Blvd. (R), was
built in 1851 by Vicente de la Osa, owner of Rancho El Encino during
the first two decades of the American regime. Its site was once consid-
ered by the Franciscan padres for San Fernando Mission. Containing
nine rooms, the long, rectangular adobe, one room in width, faces a
small lake, fed by water piped from natural springs south of Ventura
Blvd.
The ADOHR MILK FARMS (open daily 1-5; large parties by special
arrangement) , iSooo Ventura Blvd. (L), spreads over 600 acres of
valley and foothills at the western edge of Encino. It has a herd of 3,-
800, mostly Guernseys. The annual milk yield is more than 1,500,000
gallons. Adohr bulls and cows have been prize winners at agricultural
fairs for a number of years. The establishment has barns, employees'
dormitories, garages, stables, warehouses, feed sheds, offices, and bot-
tling plants. The administrative buildings stand among great oaks
and sycamores along Ventura Blvd.
TARZANA, 20.4 m. (760 alt.), is a business and residential area
surrounded by small farms used for alfalfa growing, truck gardening,
and horticulture. The town was named for Edgar Rice Burroughs'
fictional character Tarzan, the author having bestowed that name on
the estate of General Harrison Gray Otis, which he purchased in 1917.
Right from Tarzana on Reseda Blvd. to RESEDA PARK, 1.3 m. (R), a 42-acre
forested area with an abundance of massive oak trees of great age. The city
has planted additional trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. The park contains
a pool and community clubhouse, and supervised playgrounds for children.
GIRARD, 24.4 m. (892 alt., 889 pop.), is a residential suburb
of scattered Spanish and Moorish type homes.
Right from Girard on Topanga Canyon Blvd. to CANOGA PARK, 2.1 m.
(790 alt., 2,460 pop.). Formerly known as Owensmouth, it was laid out in
382 LOS ANGELES
1912 by H. J. Whitley. In the neighborhood are small farms growing walnuts,
citrus fruits, berries, melons, field crops, sugar beets, and alfalfa.
CHATSWORTH, 6.2 m. (965 alt.), lies in a navel orange and fig-growing
belt at the entrance to Santa Susana Pass. The name was suggested in 1898
by the Duke of Devonshire, who, during a visit to the valley, saw in this
region a resemblance to Chatsworth Park, his ancestral home.
RANCHO SAN ANTONIO, 21004 Plummer St., is a home for under-
privileged boys ii to 15 years of age. Its long, one-story buildings of the
ranch-house type are on a small farm that is worked by the 43 boys. The
home is operated by the Catholic Big Brothers, Inc.
At 24.4 m. is the junction with Topanga Canyon Rd., now the main
route; L. from US 101 on this road.
Right (straight ahead) on Ventura Blvd. to CALABASAS, 2 m. (929 alt.),
a settlement consisting of a store, garage, cafe and a few scattered houses.
The origin of the name is conjectural: according to one theory the Spanish
named the spot Calabasas (pumpkins), because of the wild gourds, resembling
pumpkins, that grew here; according to another the word is a corruption of
Calahuasa, the name of a Chumash Indian village near Santa Ines Mission,
in Santa Barbara County.
The trails of Spanish explorers crossed here several times: the Caspar de
Portola party, returning to San Diego from Monterey, traveled down Conejo
Pass and passed this place on January 15, 1770; Juan Bautista de Anza (see
Tour 1), blazing an overland trail from Sonora to Monterey, traversed the
region on April 10, 1774, and a year later his second expedition camped on
February 22, 1776 on the banks of Las Virgines Creek. Following the estab-
lishment of San Fernando Mission in 1797 Calabasas became a way station
for the padres in their journeys along El Camino Real to Ventura, Santa
Barbara, and other northern missions. In the i86o's it was a stop on the
stagecoach line operated by Flint, Bixby and Company between Los Angeles
and a junction of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which at that time had come
no farther south than Soledad, in Monterey County. It was during this period
that Calabasas developed its reputation as the "toughest" frontier town in
southern California.
The L. J. Kramer general store (L), Ventura Blvd. and El Cajon Dr., is
approximately on the SITE OF THE CALABASAS CORNER INN, the six-room plank
structure that in the i86o's and 1870*8 witnessed most of the stage station's
lusty social life, since it was the store, town hall, dance hall, and saloon.
Here, too, the Vigilantes met to decide the fate of captured bandits and cattle
rustlers, many of whom were hanged on the massive live oak west of the
store that is called the HANGMAN'S TREE. A noose dangling from the limb
that extends over US 101 is merely a "prop." The tree's age is estimated at
more than 500 years.
Along the east wall of the Kramer store is an oak post that reputedly
marks THE SEALED WELL, the grave of three bandits. Following a gun battle
of the 1870*8 between bartenders of the Corner Inn, ranchers, and members
of the Tiburcio Vasquez gang, the bodies of three desperadoes were thrown
into the well here whose opening was sealed, according to popular legend.
The MIGUEL LEONIS ADOBE, 23537 Ventura Blvd., built in 1869 by Miguel
Leonis, son-in-law of one of the first owners of the surrounding Spanish rancho,
is now a roadside cafe. The two-story structure, with a wide two-story
veranda along two sides stands in a semitropical garden with a grape arbor.
Among the first mission lands in San Fernando Valley allotted to private
persons were the 1,100 acres in the west end granted to three Indians, Urbano,
Odon, and Manuel, who called it El Escorpion Rancho (the scorpion ranch).
In 1869 Leonis, a native of southern France, settled in the valley, became a
sheepherder, and married a daughter of Urbano. Becoming manager of his
father-in-law's property, he soon owned the land and all its cattle, horses,
and sheep, though as one historian describes him, he was "... a giant in
TOUR 6 383
stature and strength, a perfect savage in nature, besotted in ignorance, so
illiterate that he could not read a word in any language."
At 2.6 m., is the junction with a private road.
Right on this road 0.4 m. to the Los ANGELES PET CEMETERY (open 9-5;
free), on rolling land at the foot of the Simi Hills. The cemetery, in use since
1928, is platted after the modern manner in burial grounds, with the graves
marked only by tablets flush with the ground. Some 2,000 animals are buried
in graves at the foot of the hill, about 50 more are in a mausoleum or in urns
in the columbarium. Dogs predominate among the pets, but there are also
cats, parrots, canaries, three monkeys, a horse and alligator, an owl, a duck,
and a turtle. Interred here is Kabar, a dog that belonged to Rudolph Valen-
tino and reputedly walked from New York City to Los Angeles after the
death of his master; the story is that he died of a broken heart. Other
residents are possums, a blue Maltese cat, a movie star which signed its own
contract with a paw print; Bubbie and Tagalong, Louise Dresser's dogs, and
others that belonged to Winnie Lightner, Cesar Romero, Alice Brady, George
Brent, Alice Joyce and other cinema luminaries. In adjoining graves lie Bill,
a mallard duck, and Patsy, a Scotty. Bill and Patsy were pals who fre-
quently walked, side by side, down Hollywood Boulevard. After Patsy died
in 1937, Bill walked in front of an automobile and was killed.
At NEW CALABASAS, 3 m., are the Calabasas Post Office and Justice
Court, a general store, a garage, and a few homes.
West of New Calabasas the highway enters CONEJO PASS (rabbit pass)
which leads to the Ventura Coastal Plain. In the Simi Hills (R) SIMI PEAK
(alt. 2,400) stands out boldly in the northwest; L. are the more abrupt folds
of the Santa Monica foothills, with cattle grazing on their steep sides.
At 5.4 m. is the junction with Las Virgines Canyon Rd.
Left on Las Virgines Canyon Rd, 4.5 m. to TAPIA COUNTY PARK (picnicking
facilities; baseball diamond), whose heavily wooded terrain is cut by Malibu
Creek Canyon.
At 8.1 m. on the main side road is AGOURA (1,000 alt.), which advertises
itself as "The Picture City," because of its popularity as a location. It was
laid out in two tracts in 1928 by the L'Agoura family, Spanish grant owners.
Part of the L'Agoura home ranch, with its old ranch house and auxiliary
buildings, are now owned by William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper pub-
lisher. The charm of the place has caused many Hollywood writers, directors,
actors, and artists to build homes here.
At 8.9 m. f is the junction with Cornell Rd.
Left on Cornell Rd. into La Sierra Canyon, 2.3 m. to the PARAMOUNT PIC-
TURES' INC., LOCATION RANCH (adm. by pass only), which extends for more
than a mile along a valley below the road. A variety of false-front, painted-
canvas movie sets hug the low foothill knolls (R) groups of log cabins,
stockades and forts representing a frontier outpost, clusters of palm-thatched
African huts, a street from a town of the Old West, the weathered stone
walls and casement windows around a market square of an 18th-century
French town, and middlewestern, European, early American, and cattle-ranch
buildings.
At the foot of a sharp defile, at 2.8 m. where Media and Triunfo Creeks
form Malibu Creek, the canyon floor becomes a wide valley holding MALIBU
LAKE, an artificial body of water created in 1926 by the Malibu Lake Moun-
tain Club. Scores of cabins belonging to club members line the five-mile
lakeshore or cling to the steep, tree-clad slopes. The MALIBU LAKE MOUNTAIN
CLUBHOUSE (private), on the west bank (R), is a one-story, white stucco
structure, with wide French windows and terraces overlooking the lake. Many
motion-picture scenes have been photographed on the lake and along its
shores.
The road follows the lake to its western end, then swings R. to climb
between abrupt slopes.
SEMINOLE HOT SPRINGS, 5.8 m., is a year-round health and pleasure
384 LOS ANGELES
resort, with springs, cottages, bathhouse, open-air mineral water plunge, and
cafe buried in a copse of sycamores (R) below the level of the road.
At 12.8 ra. is the junction with Protrero Rd.; L. from US 101 on this route.
The route bears sharply R. at 14.6 m., and moves through sloping meadows
that merge with woods of widely-spaced live oaks. Since 1923 when the silent
version of the motion picture Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.,
was made here, this area has been known as Sherwood Forest, in memory of
the Sherwood Forest of Nottinghamshire, England, celebrated in the Robin
Hood legends.
Ascending gradually through the forest, the road tops a rise at 15.7 m.
and then winds down along the northern shore of SHERWOOD LAKE (L),
an irregular, privately owned, body of water formed by a dam at the eastern
end. The area was developed as a summer resort, but in recent years about
250 people have established year-round homes here. Among the estate owners
are Will H. Hays, censor and president of the Motion Picture Producers'
Association. Maria Jeritza, Winfield Sheehan, Jack Holt, Fredric March,
Carleton F. Burke, Robert Stewart, and others.
From the Ventura Blvd.-Topanga Canyon Rd. junction, the main
tour route ascends the north slope of the SANTA MONICA
MOUNTAINS, rising from the valley level to the summit of the
coastal watershed divide in less than three miles.
TOPANGA SUMMIT, 27.3 m. (1,560 alt.), at the head of Topanga
Canyon, is on the divide between the coastal watershed and the San
Fernando Valley. The view (use of telescopes on railing 10$) encom-
passes the greater part of the valley to the Santa Susana Mountains
on the north, and the San Gabriel Range on the northeast.
From the summit the road descends Topanga Canyon in a long,
gradual drop between steeply rising mountain ramparts. The canyon
slices seaward through the range in a general southerly direction for
nine miles. Scattered through it are the homes of some two or three
thousand permanent and part-time residents. Bordering Topanga
Creek in the lower part of the canyon are thickets of sycamores and
alders, and, on the slopes, California holly.
From the sparsely forested uplands, the canyon gradually descends
into heavily wooded areas as it approaches TOPANGA MINERAL
SPRINGS (cabins at varying rates, free picnic grounds}, 29.1 m. (L),
distributing center for waters of a mineral spring.
TOPANGA POST OFFICE (L), 32.2 m. (750 alt.), about
midway between the summit and the ocean, is a canyon trading center,
with a post office, general store and garage.
CAMP WILDWOOD, 32.7 m., is another canyon trading center,
supplying the needs of six to seven hundred cabin dwellers in near-by
dells and side canyons; many are year-round residents.
TOPANGA BEACH, 36.4 m., a shore colony at the mouth of
Topanga Canyon, is part of the old Malibu Ranch. Residential sites
are leased but never sold. Many of the houses were built by motion-
picture people, but passed into other hands when the film colony moved
to Malibu Beach.
At 36.4 m. is the junction with US lOiA, now the main route;
L. from Topanga Canyon Rd. on this road.
TOUR 6 385
R. from Topanga Canyon Rd. on US iciA, Malibu Road, to LAS TUNAS
BEACH (cactus beach), 0.4 m., a compact district of gay, brightly-tinted stucco
house* between the hignway and the mountains.
A row of less imposing frame cottages is on the other side of the highway.
LAS FLORES BEACH, 3.4 m., at the mouth of Las Flores Canyon, was
part of Rancho Malibu, acquired from Mrs. Rindge for $6,000,000. The land
was repossessed by Mrs. Riadge when the project's developer was imprisoned
for promotional peculation. The terms of the trusteeship under which the
Rindge property now is being administered provide for the re-establishment
of the subdivision.
Northwest of Las Flores Beach are the rolling hills and the miles of strand