Nostalgia & History > Glendora Ca ATSF Ballast Pits?

I have read recently that the location of the remodeled sports park in Glendora Ca north of Gladstone and west of Lone Hill was once a Santa Fe owned quarry. I have seen old maps that show a spur into the area off the Second District supporting that story, and much of the area next to the main line is used as flood control, further indication of the quarry story. Anyone else have anymore info?

PasadenaSub might have some answers. Locally, the park is known as "The Pit" so that might be a little more validity to the story.

Sorry, no info on the pits here. The Santa Fe in eastern Glendora looked pretty much the same as it does now when my family moved to the area in 1976 (except for the Home Depot center wiping out the strawberry fields to the south). T.O. member BulletBob may know more, since he grew up in the area in the 60's.

In the 40s and 50s, the eastern San Gabriel Valley (California) was dotted with rock quarries. The outflow from San Gabriel Canyon and San Antonio Canyon was pure alluvial rock flow for thousands of years. That is why the entire area was dotted with citrus, which preferred lots of drainage.

I did landscaping for three decades in that area and it was a standing joke among those of us in the trade that for every rock you dug up, you would find three more.

The areas closest to the mouth of each canyon would have the greatest dispersion of rock. Instead of citrus, folks would create gravel and rock quarries. Between Claremont and Upland, south of the mouth of San Antonio (Mt Baldy) Canyon, there were several quarries just north of the ATSF tracks. Similarly, in the Glendora to Azusa area, south of San Gabriel and San Dimas canyons.

Driving along Baseline Road, one would often see large piles of rock near areas cleared for citrus planting. It made no sense to haul them away, so rock was just pushed into piles by large Cat tractors. Rock fences were ubiquitous.

Now, the rock is gone, the citrus is gone, and most of the railroad trackage. Progress.

Wasn't there a proposal beck in the 80's to convert one of the
old pits into a sunken stadium for the Raiders?

TexBob Wrote:
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> Wasn't there a proposal beck in the 80's to
> convert one of the
> old pits into a sunken stadium for the Raiders?

Yep, City of Industry was behind that, I believe....all part of the Raiders' crazy cross-state history...

frcanyonsub Wrote:
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> TexBob Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wasn't there a proposal beck in the 80's to
> > convert one of the
> > old pits into a sunken stadium for the Raiders?
>
> Yep, City of Industry was behind that, I
> believe....all part of the Raiders' crazy
> cross-state history...


It was the city of Irwindale which is north and west of Industry. They had put up front money of about 4 million dollars just so Mr. Davis would think about it. We all know what happened- he took the team back up to Oakland along with Irwindale's 4 million bucks. Ever since then I've been a Raider hater!-BMT

As stated above in talking to a Santa Fe Engineer he stated that due to a steep down grade a steam engine could only pull out 2 cars at one time. The city that tried to build a statium was Irwindale.

Rich

I do not know of that exact location. I do know that many old gravel pits and low lying areas near
major drainages were converted into "pecolation basins" as an attempt to replenish underground aquifers with excess surface water.

That surface water is quite often really aqueduct water such as the water the roars down San Dimas Wash that comes from just below San Dimas Park and comes from the Foothill Feeder. That water is used to replenish aquifers toward the coast along the San Gabriel River.

Dalton Wash ran to the north of San Dimas Wash and W of the Lone Hill location but I don't think
ATSF did anything along there. My grandparents had a dairy and orange ranch right a foot of west
end of those foothills. I saw pictures of what Dalton Wash looked like before concrete and even had a great grandmother clobbered in a Model T by the Santa Fe Chief in Glendora. She lived.

The Pacific Electric also had a spur around Lone Hill, perhaps for the same pit or very close to the one described in this thread. I will need to dig out a couple of books and see if I can confirm anything.

Sorry I could not be of more help. Yes this location is considerably east of the Irwindale location also mentioned in this thread.

Cool, I had no idea I would get so many good replies, Thanks guys. I live within sight of the pit and i am going to do a little "archeology" in the morning

> Now, the rock is gone, the citrus is gone, and
> most of the railroad trackage. Progress.

I'll agree with the citrus and railroad, but I wouldn't say the rock is gone. Vulcan Materials just poured millions of dollars into completely replacing all their processing equipment at the Irwidale site off Foothill Bl. at Irwindale Ave., and has a second huge location South, a couple of miles down the 605 freeway. To the East, Holiday Rock and Vulcan are both alive and well working the San Antonio wash area. There's another firm on the opposite side of the 605 from Vulcan who's name escapes me. Robertson's is huge and scattered all over the area, as well as Holliday which has other locations.

There are certainly fewer companies in the business; like everything else, it's been one merger or acquisition after another. Names like Livingston-Graham, Industrial Asphalt, Blue Diamond Materials, etc. are gone, but generally speaking, all the same areas are still being quarried.

All the aggregate and concrete that continues to build our Inland Empire still comes from right here. At least that's one thing we're not importing from over seas.

Mark