Trabuco Canyon (''Trabuco'',

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for "

Blunderbuss The blunderbuss is a 17th- to mid-19th-century firearm with a short, large caliber Gun barrel, barrel. It is commonly flared at the muzzle (firearms), muzzle to help aid in the loading of Lead shot, shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity ...

") is a small

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 ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) located in the foothills of the

Santa Ana Mountains The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riversid ...

in eastern

Orange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

, and lies partly within the

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest is a National forest (United States), U.S. national forest in Southern California that encompasses 460,000 acres/ of inland Montane ecosystems, montane regions. It is approximately 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean, withi ...

. Trabuco Canyon is north of the city of

Rancho Santa Margarita Rancho Santa Margarita was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in the Santa Lucia Range, Santa Lucia Mountains, in present day San Luis Obispo County, California, San Luis Obispo County, central California. The List of Ranchos of Cali ...

. Plano Trabuco Road leads from the top of the canyon south to Rancho Santa Margarita.

History

Trabuco is

for

blunderbuss The blunderbuss is a 17th- to mid-19th-century firearm with a short, large caliber Gun barrel, barrel. It is commonly flared at the muzzle (firearms), muzzle to help aid in the loading of Lead shot, shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity ...

, a type of shotgun. Some credit a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friar traveling with the Gaspar de Portolá Expedition in 1769 with the story that a blunderbuss was lost in the canyon, after which the area was named. A mission was originally to be built in the canyon, but was instead established in

San Juan Capistrano San Juan Capistrano (also known colloquially as San Juan or SJC) is a city in southern Orange County, California, United States. The population was 35,253 at the 2020 Census. Named for Saint John of Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano was founded ...

. The Trabuco Adobe was built in 1810 next to the

Acjachemen The Acjachemen () are an Indigenous people of California. Published maps often identify their ancestral lands as extending from the beach to the mountains, south from what is now known as Aliso Creek (Orange County), Aliso Creek in Orange County, ...

village of

Alume Alume ( ''Acjachemen'': "raising the head in looking upward") was a large Acjachemen village located at the foot of Santiago Peak, upstream from the village of Putiidhem, within what is now O'Neill Regional Park near the Trabuco Adobe, which wa ...

that was also identified during the 1769 Portolá expedition, where

Juan Crespí Juan Crespí, OFM (Catalan language, Catalan: ''Joan Crespí''; 1 March 1721 – 1 January 1782) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of The Californias, Las Californias. Biography A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan ord ...

wrote, "we made camp close to a village of the most tractable and friendly heathens we have seen upon the whole way."

John (Don Juan) Forster Don Juan Forster (born ''John''; 1814 – February 20, 1882) was an English-born Californio ranchero and merchant. Born in England, he emigrated to Mexico at age 16 and became a Mexican citizen. Soon after, he moved to California (then a prov ...

received a Mexican land grant in 1846 and established

Rancho Trabuco Rancho Trabuco was a Mexican land grant in present-day Orange County, California. The five square league grant consisted of two square leagues given in 1841 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Santiago Argüello plus three square leagues given in ...

. The grant was bordered by

Rancho Cañada de los Alisos Rancho Cañada de los Alisos was a Mexican land grant in present-day Orange County, California given by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to Jose Antonio Fernando Serrano in 1842, and enlarged by a second grant by Pio Pico in 1846. The name means ...

on the west, and by

Rancho Mission Viejo Rancho Mission Viejo (Spanish: ''Rancho Misión Vieja'', meaning "Old Mission Ranch") is an active ranch and farm, habitat reserve, residential community, and census-designated place in South Orange County, California. Rancho Mission Viejo is ...

on the east. Trabuco Canyon was the site of attempts to mine

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

in the early 1900s.

Mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

remains from this activity include: tunnels into the sides of the canyon ''(closed for public safety)''; the stone foundation of an ore-processing

stamp mill A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of Mill (grinding), mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than Mill (grinding), grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking materia ...

; and several dams on the creek. The

Trabuco Canyon National Forest Trabuco Canyon National Forest was established by the U.S. Forest Service in California on July 6, 1907 with when the name was changed from Trabuco Cañon Forest Reserve and land was added. On July 1, 1908 the forest was combined with San Jacint ...

was established in 1907, which was quickly combined into the

in 1908. One of the last

California grizzly bear The California grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos californicus''), also known as the California brown bear, California golden bear, or chaparral bear, is an extinct population of the brown bear, generally known (together with other North American brow ...

s was killed in Trabuco Canyon in 1908, a female bear thought to be the mate of the so-called "Monster of San Mateo." On October 21, 2007, a large wildfire started in

Silverado Canyon Silverado Canyon is a roughly 2,500-foot-deep (760 m) gorge in the Santa Ana Mountains, in the U.S. state of California. The small stream it is associated with, Silverado Creek, rises on the north slope of Modjeska Peak at the elevation of and ...

and spread to Trabuco Canyon. The Canyon was evacuated by the Fire Department. On August 23, 2023, it was the site of a

mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...

that resulted in four dead, including the perpetrator, and six injured. On September 9, 2024, a spark from heavy equipment working near Trabuco Creek Road caused a wildfire within Trabuco Canyon, dubbed the Airport Fire. The fire spread to Santiago Peak. The Canyon and nearby residencies were evacuated by the local Fire Department.

Features

Fourth of July Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...

features an old-fashioned parade of locals riding horses and pulling home-made floats. A local landmark is the Trabuco Oaks Steakhouse, which was a favorite restaurant of former President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

. The Vedanta Society of Southern California has the

Ramakrishna Mission Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a spiritual and philanthropic organisation headquartered in Belur Math, West Bengal. The mission is named after the Indian Hindu spiritual guru and mystic Ramakrishna. The mission was founde ...

monastery on in the canyon, founded in 1942 by author and philosopher

Gerald Heard Henry FitzGerald Heard (6 October 1889 – 14 August 1971), commonly called Gerald Heard, was an English-born American historian, science writer and broadcaster, public lecturer, educator, and philosopher. He wrote many articles and over 35 boo ...

. The Trabuco Canyon Community Church is located in the canyon also.Trabuco Canyon Community Church
,

Demographics

For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau first listed Trabuco Canyon as a

(CDP) in the 2020 census.

2020 census

Notable people

Matt Chapman Matthew James Chapman (born April 28, 1993) is an American professional baseball third baseman for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays. Chapman ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player,

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

References

Updated news article as of 8-25-2023. Cook's Corner: 3 killed, 6 hospitalized in shooting at historic biker bar in Trabuco Canyon https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/cooks-corner-at-least-3-killed-6-hospitalized-in-shooting-at-historic-biker-bar-in-trabuco-canyon/

External links

Fire Blog
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Orange County, California Santa Ana Mountains Unincorporated communities in California Census-designated places in Orange County, California