Carbondale, in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...

, is a historical

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

town in Santiago Canyon, where

Santiago Creek Santiago Creek is a major watercourse in Orange County in the U.S. state of California. About long, it drains most of the northern Santa Ana Mountains and is a tributary to the Santa Ana River. It is one of the longest watercourses entirely withi ...

had its confluence with Silverado Creek in

Silverado, California Silverado is an unincorporated community in Silverado Canyon, which is located in the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California. Portions of the town sit on a former Mexican land grant Rancho Lomas de Santiago. Silverado is loc ...

. It had a post office from May 11, 1881, to January 29, 1884, when it was closed and mail sent to the Santa Ana post office.Frickstad, Walter N., ''A Century of California Post Offices 1848–1954'', Oakland, CA: Philatelic Research Society, 1955, pp. 115–126. Coal was discovered near Santiago Creek in 1878. A coal mine was established there, called the Santa Clara. In 1881, the Southern Pacific took over the Santa Clara Coal Mine, and a mining camp, Carbondale, with a post office was established on the flat near the creek. Besides the post office, it had a hotel, saloons, a store, and shacks for the miners. Carbondale became the post office for Silverado after its post office was closed on January 22, 1883. When the coal was depleted, the coal mine was closed down in 1884. Carbondale's post office closed, and its buildings and equipment were removed, leaving few other remains.

Marker

The site is marked as California State Historical Landmark No. 228 by a plaque located at the Silverado Community Church entrance on Silverado Canyon Rd., 1.1 mi W of the Silverado post office. It is also marked as Orange County Historical Site No. 1 by a plaque located at 8002 Silverado Canyon Rd., Silverado. The marker at the site reads: *''In 1881, after the Southern Pacific took over the Santa Clara Coal Mine northeast of here, a bustling mining camp complete with hotel, saloons, shacks, store, and post office sprang up on these flats. Three years later the mine played out and Carbondale disappeared without a trace.'' Erected 1976 by Orange County Board of Supervisors and Orange County Historical Commission. (Marker Number 01, CA 228.)Marker Number 228
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References

{{authority control Former populated places in California History of Orange County, California California Historical Landmarks 1878 establishments in California

See also

Marker

References