Anza






Information about Anza, California

Submitted by Ghostpainter on Mon, 06/05/2006 - 4:46pm

The Anza Valley lies in south Riverside County. Due to its isolation, the Cahuilla Valley (Now Anza Valley) attracted only a few hardy settlers--- ranchers mostly and a few miners. The Thomas family, for example, up from Hemet, or Judge Terwilliger, a refugee from the desert, Jim Hamilton, the Reeds and the Hall Family.

The Lost Gold Train of the Anza Borrego Desert.

Submitted by Ghostpainter on Sat, 02/17/2007 - 9:47am

My dad and his brothers would sometimes take off and go up to the Anza area and go hunting. Hunting for Gold that is. It seems that back in the 1880's when Palm Springs was still a small little pit stop in the dessert and Indio was the City of the furture. Gold was discovered in the La Quinta Ridge area in 1879. This area is now part of Arnold Palmer's Golf Empire. It is also known as Palm Canyon and is a part of the Anza Borrego Desert.
It was decided that since the area ws so close to the bottom of the Oak Hills area which just North of the Anza Borrego dessert, the gold would be shipped up over the mountain to Anza, then down what is present day highway 74 to Hemet. From there it would be shipped on in to LA on the Santa Fe Railroad.
If you have ever been down the back side of San Jacinto, you know that the road is steep, with lot of curves and a drop off of over 3,000 feet in several areas. Imagine what the road was like in the 1890's, unpaved, muddy & snowy in the winter time and bone dry in the summer time. Because of the terrain several drafts of horses, or mules would be employed just to bring one wagon up the steep road.

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