CANADA DE LOS ALISOS

In 1998 I sat out on the patio of the new main dining hall at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute awaiting the beginning of a brunch to honor the outgoing President of the Board of the Institute, Judge Joe Wapner, and his wife, Mickey. The day was brisk and windy - one of those crystal clear fall days that follows a rain. The sun at mid-day was relatively low, creating long shadows. As I waited, my thought ran back to what the history of that canyon had been and what it must have looked like in the old days. Certainly, an Indian trail ran up the east fork of the canyon and possibly up the west fork to the tops of the mountains, including the widespread Chumash ceremonial sites in what is now called Burro Flats, and probably over the mountains to the San Fernando Valley. Indeed, an important rock art site is present in the area and there evidence of Chumash presence in a number of places on the property.

The Chumash trail up the eastern branch of the canyon was later replaced by a Spanish/Mexican trail, that is still marked in spots by Spanish names and pictographs. The canyon was referred to in those days as Canada de los Alisos, which means “Canyon of the Sycamores.” The Chumash may or may not have had the same name for the canyon. The early Anglo-American settlers referred to the canyon as “Big Sycamore Canyon.” This Anglo-American name differentiated this canyon from another “Sycamore Canyon in the area. The view that all three of these cultures must have had was of a canyon bottom with scattered coast live oak trees, some valley oaks, and numerous majestic old sycamore trees.

While oaks and sycamores still abound, the civilized part of the canyon, that is that portion that was developed by Eddie Maier, the beer magnet, and later by the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, now includes hundred of blue and red gum trees and hundreds of California pepper trees, as well as many other exotic trees, such as monkey pod trees and Canary Island date palms. The north side of the canyon, below the road to the House of the Book, includes dozens of exotic species, such as Italian cypress and one large grove of coast redwoods. Given all of the changes that have occurred, the name Canada de los Alisos may be inappropriate today.

                                                                                    Mike Kuhn

                                                                                    11-1-04

THE TREASURE OF MEIER CANYON

A tale comes down to us from the Overland Monthly, a popular travel magazine of the late Nineteenth Century. A copy of the article is cleverly filed somewhere in my study where it can easily be retrieved. The problem is that I have been unable to locate it. To the best of my recollection, the story was taken down by the author of the article sometime during the mid-1860s from one of the two vaqueros mentioned in the story. It was a deathbed confession. It seems that sometime during the 1830s the two vaqueros came upon a derelict small adobe in what was probably the eastern branch of Meier Canyon. The vaqueros were looking for stray cattle and had ventured over the hill from the Calabasas area. Investigating, they found that the adobe contained an old table and three human skeletons. On the dirt floor was an old, leather-bound wooden chest. Scattered about the table and the room were about a dozen Spanish coins. From the evidence at hand, they surmised that the three individuals had argued over the treasure and had mortally wounded each other in the process. The argument and the fight must have occurred during the 1820s, probably following secularization of the missions. California remained very isolated during that time, and life was hard, with few luxuries and little money. The silver and copper coins would have represented a substantial sum in those days - apparently enough to kill for. The two vaqueros agreed to tell no one, divided up the money and went on their way. According to the account, one of the coins still hung on a thong around the neck of the dying vaquero.

Death comes to us all, but those three individuals died anonymously and without anyone knowing what had happened to them. In the 1820s in southern California, people did not have access to banks. Valuables were buried or otherwise hidden in order to protect them from thieves. When one died, the knowledge of the location of any horde usually died with them. The decline of the San Fernando Mission, for example, was followed by decades of individuals digging around the grounds and in the buildings searching for treasure. Perhaps those three got lucky, only to succumb to greed and violence.

There is no record of anyone else having encounter the adobe and its three human skeletons. News, even sensational news was not always written down in those days. Still, El Ranch Simi was a going concern at the time. It seems that someone would have ventured back into the canyon looking for sheep or cattle. Even the hiatus between the time of the deaths of those individual – time enough for only their bones to have been found – and when the two vaqueros are reported to have found them leave a lot of room to question the truth of the story.

Is the story true?  Or is it simply a romantic tale - the kind we all like to hear.  We will never know.

                                                                                    Mike Kuhn

                                                                                    11-1-04