Olive Through the Ages

Tour of Olive: Section B - Santa Ana Canyon

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Section B

1Ramón Peralta Adobe: The plaque mounted on the wall outside the Ramón Peralta adobe [see 2012 image at right], located on the southwestern corner of E. Santa Ana Canyon Road at S. Fairmont Blvd. in present day Anaheim Hills, CA, reads as follows:

Ramón Peralta built this adobe dwelling in 1871. His grandfather, Juan Pablo Peralta, was co-grantee with José Antonio Yorba of the only Spanish land grant in Orange County, the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, upon which the old Peralta settlement was located. The adobe was restored in 1985.

Historical Site No. 33 / Orange County Board of Supervisors / Orange County Historical Commission / Placed 1986

The Ramón Peralta adobe [see various images at right from 1936, 1974, and 2012] is the only surviving adobe in the area. When Ramón Peralta died in 1873, the adobe was acquired by his cousin Pablo Dominguez. In 1881, after repairs and remodeling to the structure, Dominguez and his bride Felipa Yorba moved into the adobe. Following Dominguez's death in 1895, the family moved to the north side of the Santa Ana River. (Source: LA Times, November 26, 1988.)

The abandoned adobe and surrounding land were sold to E. Walter Pyne in 1908 so he could extend his orange groves. Pyne preserved the adobe walls by covering them with a two-and-a-half inch layer of concrete.

In 1920, when the Santa Ana Canyon Road was realigned, Pyne set up a gas station and roadside diner next to the adobe to serve passing motorists [see mural illustration at right]. The cafe operated for more than four decades under the ownership of different families, such as the Shaffer family in 1947 [see black and white image at right], and the McCollum family in the early 1960s who named their eatery Mac's Canyon Cafe.

The Mac's Canyon Cafe matchbook cover from circa the early 1960s [pictured right] shows the address of the diner as 20722 Santa Ana Canyon Road, "4 Miles East of Olive," indicating that Olive was a well-known town by many locals during that time.

 

Ramon Peralta Adobe plaque

Ramon Peralta Adobe today

Ramon Peralta Adobe

Canyon Cafe

Mac's Canyon Cafe matchbook cover

     
2Yorba Cemetery: In 1858, Don Bernardo Yorba set aside land as a cemetery in Rancho Cañón de Santa Ana (Santa Ana Canyon) which is known today as the Yorba Cemetery [see 2007 image at right]. The cemetery is located in the Woodgate Community in Yorba Linda, CA.   Yorba Cemetery
     

3Bernardo Yorba Hacienda: Don Bernardo Yorba's hacienda, built in 1834 [see bottom right image from circa 1914], was located on the northern banks of the Santa Ana River in Rancho Cañón de Santa Ana (Santa Ana Canyon) in present day Yorba Linda, CA. The plaque on the fieldstone monument [see top right image from 2007] reads:

Site of Don Bernardo Yorba Hacienda

On this land, portion of Santa Ana grant awarded by King of Spain 1810 to José Antonio Yorba, and additional grants to son by Governor José Figueroa 1834, was created Hacienda of Don Bernardo Yorba. Greatest Ranchero of Golden Age, Bernardo Yorba was third son of José Yorba, who came to California with Don Gaspár de Portolá 1769, and established California's first family.

State registered landmark no. 226 / Marker placed by California's Centennials Commission. / Base furnished by Placentia Round Table Club / Dedicated May 3, 1950

 

Bernardo Yorba Hacienda marker

Bernardo Yorba Adobe, c1914

     
4Santa Ana River near Olive: This 1928 oil painting by William Wendt [pictured right] shows the section of the Santa Ana River near Horse Shoe Bend, a few miles east of the Olive boundary at the time the work was created. The basically naturalistic rendering gives the viewer an idea of the vegetation, terrain, and how the river looked before it largely became contained in its present concrete channel.   Santa Ana River, William Wendt, 1928
     

 

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