Canyon, California
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Canyon, formerly known as Sequoya or Sequoia Canyon, Elkhorn, and The Redwoods, is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
located near the border of Contra Costa and
Alameda An alameda is a street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada * Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan ** Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile * Alameda (Santi ...
counties, in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. It is situated between
Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
and Moraga in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
. The community is named for its location in the upper canyon of
San Leandro Creek San Leandro Creek () is a year-round natural stream in the hills above Oakland in Alameda County and Contra Costa County of the East Bay in northern California.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe ...
along the eastern slope of the
Berkeley Hills The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges, and overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" (from the original Spanish ''Sierra de la Co ...
. Canyon lies at an elevation of 1138 feet (347 m). The community is mainly traversed by Pinehurst Road and Canyon Road. The homes of the community are nestled amongst the steep, narrow private roads and footpaths that extend from the
redwood Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of Pinophyta, coniferous trees within the family (biology), family Cupressaceae, that range in the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere. It includes the List of superlative tree ...
groves and ferns along the creek, through the mixed
live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are generally not more closely related to each other than they are to o ...
,
bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...
, and
madrone ''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islands a ...
forests on the steep hillsides, up to the
chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...
and knobcone pines that grow along the ridge.


History

Canyon has a colorful history.
Logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckssaloons Saloon may refer to: Buildings and businesses * One of the bars in a traditional British pub * An alternative name for a bar (establishment) * Western saloon, a historical style of American bar * The Saloon, a bar and music venue in San Francis ...
helped establish a local reputation for rowdiness in the nineteenth century. A vast forest known as the Moraga Redwoods once covered the valley that is now Canyon. An extant fire trail west of the spot where Pinehurst Road makes a sharp hairpin turn near
Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve is a regional park and nature reserve in the Oakland Hills, in the eastern East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area) region of the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is within Alameda and Contra Costa Cou ...
was previously known as Winding Way on some maps, and was originally an old 19th century logging road built by Hiram Thorn. In the 1850s, Thorn operated a
mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * Factory * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Paper mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * Sugarcane mill * Textile mill * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic ...
on the site. Thorn built the road to bring redwood logs out of the forest and to his mill, and then over the mountain into Oakland via the Temescal Creek route on the northwest edge of Montclair Village. The Oakland part of the route is now known as Thornhill Road. In the first half of the 20th century, the local water company, East Bay Municipal Utilities District, purchased much land south of town. They constructed the Upper San Leandro Reservoir, which, as it filled up, slowly flooded the former towns of Valle Vista and Redwood. The reservoir also flooded several neighborhoods of Canyon itself. In fact, the only reason Canyon is not the size of neighboring Moraga is because of a lack of a viable water resource. The few people that do live there are mostly commuters and retired people who like the town's seclusion and its proximity to San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. Earlier in the 20th century, the
Sacramento Northern Railway The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico, California, Chico in northern California with Oakland, California, Oakland via the state capital, Sacramento, California, Sacramento. In ...
ran through the canyon for which the community is named. The rails ran on a bench (still present) above Pinehurst Road, upon exiting a long tunnel from Oakland at the site of Thorn's road. The eastern portal (called Eastport by the railroad) just north of Canyon was buried by a landslide in 1980 and is no longer visible, but was located on the inside of the hairpin turn on Pinehurst Road. In the late 1960s, Canyon became a center of political and social protest and creative alternative lifestyles.
Canyon Cinema Canyon Cinema is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films. After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative. ...
of San Francisco was founded by neighbors here in the 1960s. In the summer of 1967
Country Joe and the Fish Country Joe and the Fish was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Berkeley, California, in 1965. The band was among the influential groups in the San Francisco music scene during the mid-to-late 1960s. Much of the band's music was writ ...
with
the Youngbloods The Youngbloods was an American rock band consisting of Jesse Colin Young (vocals, bass, guitar), Jerry Corbitt (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica), Lowell "Banana" Levinger (guitar and electric piano), and Joe Bauer (drums). Despite receiv ...
played a benefit for the Canyon School. The Contra Costa County sheriff's office tried to evict approximately half the town's residents in February 1969. A standoff ensued, but ended peacefully. However, in March 1969, someone bombed the
Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Y ...
line that ran through Canyon. Jet fuel leaked into
San Leandro Creek San Leandro Creek () is a year-round natural stream in the hills above Oakland in Alameda County and Contra Costa County of the East Bay in northern California.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe ...
and caused an explosion. This explosion killed a Shell employee and injured five sheriff's deputies. The town's general store, which had been established in 1855, and the post office were burned down. Today's residents still work together to maintain their own roads and water systems, and Canyon Community Association volunteers provide mediation services, emergency planning, and interface with county and state agencies. Much of the land beyond the community is owned by the
East Bay Municipal Utility District East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), colloquially referred to as "East Bay Mud", is a public utility district which provides water and sewage treatment services for an area of approximately in the eastern side of San Francisco Bay.Sectio ...
(EBMUD).


Infrastructure

The only public services in the community are the local post office (ZIP Code 94516) where all mail is picked up and the Canyon School, a 68-student K-8 public school, located on Pinehurst Road on the banks of the Upper
San Leandro Creek San Leandro Creek () is a year-round natural stream in the hills above Oakland in Alameda County and Contra Costa County of the East Bay in northern California.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe ...
. A notion of the community's unconventionality may be gleaned from the fact that th
school lunch menu
features
organic milk Organic milk refers to a number of milk products from livestock raised according to organic farming methods. In most jurisdictions, use of the term "organic" or equivalents like "bio" or "eco", on any product is regulated by food authorities. I ...
and produce,
Niman Ranch Niman Ranch began in the early 1970s on an eleven-acre ranch in a small coastal town just north of San Francisco. They produce beef, lamb, and pork. History Early years Niman Ranch was founded in 1969 by rancher William Ellis "Bill" Niman, a hi ...
beef, and hormone and antibiotic free chicken. The community is in
area code 925 Area code 925 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for a northern part of the U.S. state of California. It was created in an area code split of area code 510 in 1998. The numbering plan area comprises the inland portions o ...
. As John van der Zee wrote in his book about the town, ''Canyon'' (1972): Between 2011 and 2013, a
Carmelite The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...
monastery was located on a ranch in the western area of the town. The nuns moved in 2014 to a building in the nearby town of
Kensington, California Kensington is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census designated place located in the Berkeley Hills, in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area, in Contra Costa County, Californi ...
.


Climate

Canyon enjoys a cool summer
Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...
(Koppen classification ''csb'') similar to that of the nearby city of
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
, though slightly warmer.
Fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...
maintains the cool summer weather.


Timeline

* 1850s: First settlers * 1918: First Canyon School is built * 1922: Canyon Post Office is built


Further reading

John van der Zee, ''Canyon: The Story of the Last Rustic Community in Metropolitan America'', 1972. ()


References


External links


Canyon School
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Alameda County, California Unincorporated communities in Contra Costa County, California Berkeley Hills Logging communities in the United States Unincorporated communities in California