Puente Hills

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Puente Hills
SanGabrielMountains.jpg
View of the San Gabriel Mountains from the Puente Hills
Highest point
Peak Workman Hill
Elevation 424 m (1,391 ft)
Geography
Relief map of California.png
Red triangle with thick white border.svg
Location of the Puente Hills in California [1]
U.S. - Los Angeles Metropolitan Area location map.svg
Red triangle with thick white border.svg
Location of the Puente Hills in Los Angeles County
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
District Los Angeles County
Range coordinates 33°59′59.044″N117°55′3.226″W / 33.99973444°N 117.91756278°W / 33.99973444; -117.91756278
Topo map USGS  La Habra

The Puente Hills are a chain of hills, one of the lower Transverse Ranges, in an unincorporated area in eastern Los Angeles County, California, in the United States. The western end of the range is often referred to locally as the Whittier Hills.

Contents

Geography

The Puente Hills lie to the south of the San Gabriel Valley and the Pomona Freeway (State Route 60), to the east of the San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605), to the north of Whittier Boulevard, and to the west of the city of Diamond Bar and Chino Hills. To its north are the City of Industry, Hacienda Heights, and Rowland Heights. To the south are Whittier, La Habra Heights, La Habra and Brea. The Brea-Olinda Oil Field, discovered in 1880 and still producing in 2014, is in the southernmost portion of the hills adjacent to the city of Brea.

Flora

The Puente Hills are in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of the California Floristic Province. The remnant California native plants here are in the chaparral and oak woodland plant communities, with stands of California native grasses. Vascular Plants of the Whittier Hills, a floristic study, was completed by Julie A. Schneider Ljubenkov and Timothy S. Ross (2001), and published in Crossosoma. It built on the work of Bob Muns. [2]

Puente Hills in Hellman Wilderness Park Hellman Park Whittier CA 3 Mariposa Trail.jpg
Puente Hills in Hellman Wilderness Park

Landmarks

Rio Hondo College is located at the foot of the western end of the hills, and the Puente Hills Landfill is nearby. Rose Hills Memorial Park occupies portions of the northern area. The highest point in the western hills is Workman Hill, named for the pioneer Workman family. The Puente Hills Mall is located north of the hills. Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, the largest Buddhist temple and monastery in the western hemisphere, is located in the hills.

Parks

Puente Hills Native Habitat Preserve

Puente Hills is home to the Puente Hills Landfill, the country's largest landfill, which closed in 2013. The high-tech landfill has begun offering tours. [3] [4] The Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority directs the acquisition, restoration, and management of open space in the Puente Hills for preservation of the land to protect the biological diversity and provide opportunities for outdoor education and low-impact recreation, and scheduled hikes are offered. [5] [6] [7]

Hellman Wilderness Park

Hellman Wilderness Park is located in the western Puente Hills ("Whittier Hills") with trailheads in Whittier. [8] It is managed by the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority. [9] It has trails into native coastal sage scrub habitats, and up to vistas of the Los Angeles Basin. [10]

Schabarum Regional Park

Schabarum Regional Park is partially in the eastern Puente Hills, in Rowland Heights, eastern Los Angeles County, California. It has equestrian and hiking trails in the hills. [11] [12]

Oil drilling

Whittier Oil Field structure map WhittierOilFieldStructureMap.png
Whittier Oil Field structure map
Whittier Oil Field geologic cross section WhittierOilFieldGeologicCrossSection.png
Whittier Oil Field geologic cross section

A commercial discovery was made in 1897, for what would become the Whittier Oil Field, when a well was drilled to a depth of 984 feet. The location was in the central area of production. By 1903, about 100 wells were in operation and by 1924, there were 163 commercial wells in operation. [13]

There has been a long history of oil drilling in the Puente Hills. In the early 20th century, several companies drilled, including Simon Murphy's Murphy Oil Company. Recently, Matrix Oil has proposed resumption of oil drilling on several acres in the Puente Hills. Oil drilling began to decline in the Puente hills in the 1940s. [14]

History and Legends

'Powder Canyon', near La Habra Heights, was named after some explosion tests took place ca. 1910 by a company experimenting in blasting powder. The venture failed during World War I, but the name remained. [15]

In the early 1930s an unsuccessful high-voltage experiment was made at Turnbull Canyon (near Skyline Drive) in an attempt to create rain. [16]

A Robin Airlines Curtiss C-46 passenger plane crashed in the Puente Hills near Turnbull Canyon, killing all 29 passengers on April 16, 1952. [17]

In the 1953 film adaptation of H. G. Wells' science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds , the Puente Hills was the location of an unsuccessful attempt to use a nuclear bomb against the Martian invaders. [18]

It was one of the sites for Nike anti-aircraft missiles in the 1950s till the late 1960s. [19]

In the scene from Back to the Future (1985 film), Doc Brown introduces the iconic Delorean time machine in the parking lot of Puente Hills Mall. [20]

The October 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake revealed a previously unrecognized fault line under the Puente Hills Area. [21] [22]

It was the location of one of the largest landfills in the U.S. before shutting down in 2013. [23] [24]

Nearby ranges

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Habra Heights, California</span> City in California, United States

La Habra Heights is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2010 census, down from 5,712 at the 2000 census. La Habra Heights is a suburban canyon community located on the border of Orange and Los Angeles counties. The zoning is 1-acre (4,000 m2) lots with a variety of home and ranch style properties. La Habra Heights features open space and there are no sidewalks in the community. La Habra Heights has no commercial activity with few exception. Hacienda Park is the main park in the city and runs along Hacienda Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowland Heights, California</span> Unincorporated community in the United States

Rowland Heights is an unincorporated area in and below the Puente Hills in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 48,231 at the 2020 census. Rowland Heights is in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and represented by the County of Los Angeles and is the largest census designated place in Los Angeles County by area and the county's fourth largest CDP by population. The area has a high Taiwanese population and was known as “Little Taipei” in the 1980s and 1990s, when it saw an influx of wealthy immigrants from Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brea, California</span> City in California, United States

Brea is a city in northern Orange County, California. The population as of the 2010 census was 39,282. It is 33 miles (53 km) southeast of Los Angeles. Brea is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacienda Heights, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Hacienda Heights is an unincorporated suburban community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the community had a total population of 54,191, up from 54,038 at the 2010 census. For statistical purposes, the Census Bureau has defined Hacienda Heights as a census designated place (CDP). It is the second largest CDP in Los Angeles County by area, behind Topanga, and the county's fourth largest CDP by population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chino Hills State Park</span> State park in Southern California, United States

Chino Hills State Park is a state park of California, in the United States. It is located in the Chino Hills, foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. It is a critical link in the Chino–Puente Hills wildlife corridor, and a major botanical habitat reserve for resident and migrating wildlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chino Hills</span> Hill range of the Transverse Ranges in California, United States

The Chino Hills are a mountain range on the border of Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties, California, with a small portion in Riverside County. The Chino Hills State Park preserves open space and habitat in them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puente Hills Landfill</span> Formerly largest landfill in the United States

Puente Hills Landfill was the largest landfill in the United States, rising 500 feet high and covering 700 acres (2.8 km2). Originally opened in 1957 in a back canyon in the Puente Hills, the landfill was made to meet the demands of urbanization and waste-disposal east of Los Angeles. By the 1990s, the landfill became an artificial mountain visible around the San Gabriel Valley region. Puente Hills accepted four million tons of waste in 2005. As of October 31, 2013, its operating permit was terminated and it no longer accepts new refuse. The former landfill is in the process of becoming a natural habitat preservation area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fullerton Joint Union High School District</span> School district in California

Fullerton Joint Union High School District (FJUHSD), founded in 1893 is a school district in Orange County, California that serves a fifty-square-mile area which includes the cities of Fullerton, La Habra, and small sections of Anaheim, Buena Park, Brea, La Palma, Whittier and La Habra Heights.

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) of six of the ten counties in Southern California, serving Imperial County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and Ventura County. San Diego County's MPO is the San Diego Association of Governments, which is an unrelated agency.

The San Rafael Hills are a mountain range in Los Angeles County, California. They are one of the lower Transverse Ranges, and are parallel to and below the San Gabriel Mountains, adjacent to the San Gabriel Valley overlooking the Los Angeles Basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rancho La Puente</span> Historic ranch in Southern California, United States

Rancho La Puente was a ranch in the southern San Gabriel Valley that measured just under 49,000 acres (200 km2), and remained intact from its establishment in the late 1700s as an outpost of Mission San Gabriel until about 1870. By modern landmarks, the ranch extended from San Gabriel River on the west to just west of the 57 Freeway on the east and from Ramona Boulevard/San Bernardino Road on the north to the Puente Hills on the south. All but 40 acres (160,000 m2), which fall within Orange County, are within Los Angeles County. The present communities of Avocado Heights, Bassett, Baldwin Park, San Dimas, Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, City of Industry, La Puente, Walnut, Covina, West Covina, and small sections of South El Monte and Irwindale are contained within the old boundaries of Rancho La Puente.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coyote Creek (San Gabriel River tributary)</span> Tributary of the San Gabriel River in California

Coyote Creek is a principal tributary of the San Gabriel River in northwest Orange County and southeast Los Angeles County, California. It drains a land area of roughly 41.3 square miles (107 km2) covering eight major cities, including Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, Hawaiian Gardens, La Habra, Lakewood, La Palma, and Long Beach. Some major tributaries of the creek in the highly urbanized watershed include Brea Creek, Fullerton Creek, and Carbon Creek. The mostly flat creek basin is separated by a series of low mountains, and is bounded by several small mountain ranges, including the Chino Hills, Puente Hills, and West Coyote Hills.

Rancho La Habra was a 6,698-acre (27.11 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County and Orange County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Mariano Reyes Roldan. The name refers to the "Pass Through the Hills", the natural pass to the north between the Chino Hills and Puente Hills into the San Gabriel Valley, first discovered by Spanish explorers in 1769. The La Habra grant was shaped like a wedge pointed south. The rancho lands included the present day cities of La Habra and La Habra Heights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brea-Olinda Oil Field</span> Oil field in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, California, United States

The Brea-Olinda Oil Field is a large oil field in northern Orange County and Los Angeles County, California, along the southern edge of the Puente Hills, about four miles (6 km) northeast of Fullerton, and adjacent to the city of Brea. Discovered in 1880, the field is the sixteenth largest in California by cumulative production, and was the first of California's largest 50 oil fields to be found. It has produced over 412 million barrels of oil in the 130 years since it was first drilled, and retains approximately 19 million barrels in reserve recoverable with current technology. As of the beginning of 2009, 475 wells remained active on the field, operated by several independent oil companies, including Linn Energy, BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P., Cooper & Brain, and Thompson Energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laguna Coast Wilderness Park</span>

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is a 7,000-acre (2,800 ha) wilderness area in the San Joaquin Hills surrounding Laguna Beach, California. This park features coastal canyons, ridgeline views and the only natural lakes in Orange County, California. Trails are maintained for hiking and mountain biking with a wide range of difficulty, from beginner to expert. Most trails gain in height, reaching a maximum of 1,000 feet (300 m) in elevation. Several trails lead to downtown Laguna Beach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Habra–Fullerton–Yorba Linda Line</span> Pacific Electric interurban route in California

La Habra–Fullerton–Yorba Linda Line was a Pacific Electric interurban line which traveled between Los Angeles and Yorba Linda.

The Olinda Landfill is a landfill situated in Orange County, California, west of the northern portion of Chino Hills State Park in Carbon Canyon in Olinda neighborhood of Brea City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turnbull Canyon</span>

Turnbull Canyon is a 4-mile loop trail located near Whittier, California, and is part of Puente Hills Preserve. It lies in the northern-central part of the preserve, and is an east–west canyon with relatively steep drainage. The canyon has a creek at its bottom that supports a narrow strip of riparian woodland dominated by sycamore trees, while the slopes are covered in coastal sage and native and non-native grasses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 La Habra earthquake</span> Earthquake in California, U.S.

The 2014 La Habra earthquake was a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that occurred on March 28, 2014, at 9:09:42 p.m. PDT. Although given the name "La Habra" it was centered in Brea, a city in northern Orange County. Despite its moderate magnitude, it had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII, and caused a total of $10.8 million in damage. Thirteen water mains broke in Fullerton, forcing roughly 70 families to be displaced from their homes after they were declared temporarily uninhabitable.

References

  1. ↑ "Puente Hills". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior . Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  2. ↑ Muns, Bob. "Flora of the Skyline Trail, Puente Hills, Los Angeles County". Tom Chester. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  3. ↑ www.npr.org "The Nation's Largest Landfill Beckons Tourists"- access date: 6/7/2010
  4. ↑ Puentehillslandfill.org . access date: 6/7/2010
  5. ↑ Habitatauthority.org: Puente Hills Native Habitat Preserve homepage + activities access date: 6/7/2010
  6. ↑ Habitatauthority.org: park map Archived 2011-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Habitatauthority.org: image Archived 2011-05-27 at the Wayback Machine . access date: 6/7/2010
  8. ↑ LAMountains.com: Hellman Wilderness Park
  9. ↑ Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority website
  10. ↑ Hiking Around Turnbull Canyon Trail in Hellman Wilderness Park, Whittier.
  11. ↑ "Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation -Parks - Full List of Parks - Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park". Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-05-16.
  12. ↑ Schabarum Regional Park Support Foundation
  13. ↑ Holman, W.H. (1943). Whittier Oil Field, in Geologic Formations and Economic Development of the Oil and Gas Fields of California, Bulletin 118. San Francisco: State of California Dept. of Natural Resources Division of Mines. pp. 288–291.
  14. ↑ Michael Keating. Black Gold in the Golden State:The role of oil in the development of the Puente Hills. Claremont College History Department (2006). https://habitatauthority.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/petroleum_history.pdf
  15. ↑ "The Explosive History of Powder Canyon, Puente Hills". The Homestead Blog. 2017-12-30. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  16. ↑ The Electrodome - A Forgotten Tale of Turnbull Canyon. Forgotten Tales. March 1, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2022– via YouTube.
  17. ↑ The Crash of Flight 416 West - A Forgotten Tale of Turnbull Canyon. Forgotten Tales. August 29, 2013. Archived from the original on July 28, 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2022– via YouTube.
  18. ↑ Erickson, Glenn (2020-07-14). "The War of the Worlds". Trailers From Hell. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  19. ↑ Nike Missile Bases - A Forgotten Tale of the Puente Hills. Forgotten Tales. May 8, 2015. Archived from the original on December 5, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2022– via YouTube.
  20. ↑ "Go Back to the Future With These LA Film Locations | Discover Los Angeles". www.discoverlosangeles.com. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  21. ↑ Etheredge, E. C.; Porcella, R. L. (1987), Strong-motion data from the October 1, 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, Geological Survey Open-File Report OSMS 87-616, United States Geological Survey, pp. 1, 3
  22. ↑ Quake City '87 - A Forgotten Tale of Whittier. Forgotten Tales. October 1, 2017. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2022– via YouTube.
  23. ↑ "The World's Most Offensive Landfills". Matador Network. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  24. ↑ Manaugh, Geoff; Twilley, Nicola (2013-04-05). "Touring the Largest Active Landfill in America". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
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