Neenach, California | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Automobile road from San Fernando to Caswells via Bouquet Canyon, Elizabeth Lake and Antelope Valley, 1922 | |
 Location of Neenach inLos Angeles County, California | |
  Neenach, California  Neenach, California | |
| Coordinates:34°46′33″N118°34′06″W / 34.77583°N 118.56833°W /34.77583; -118.56833 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  California |
| County | Los Angeles |
| Elevation | 2,956 ft (901 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
| ZIP Code | 93536 |
| Area code | 661 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1669887[1] |
Neenach (/ˈniːnæk/NEE-nak) is an agriculturalsettlement in northwesternLos Angeles County, California, United States, with a population of about 800.[2] It is facing a massive change with the proposed construction of a 23,000-homeplanned community to its north calledCentennial.[3]
Neenach is 34 miles (55 km) northwest ofLancaster[4] in theAntelope Valley portion ofSouthern California. It is 15 miles (24 km) southeast ofGorman and north of theSierra Pelona Mountains,[5] and 75 miles (121 km) from thecounty seat inDowntown Los Angeles.[6] This region experiences hot and dry summers.[7]
The original name for present day Neenach ispuyutsiwamǝŋ. This is in theKitanemuk language. The Spanish referred to it asOjo de la Vaca.[8]
A 19th century name for the area was Cow Springs (34°46′22″N118°37′17″W / 34.77273°N 118.62134°W /34.77273; -118.62134), about a mile southwest of today's Neenach School.[9]El Camino Viejo, the Old Road to Los Angeles, passed fromLaguna Chico Lopez north via Willow Springs Canyon, then west to the water atAquaje Lodoso, then to Cow Springs and on toTejon Pass.[8] Later a shorter route was followed by theStockton - Los Angeles Road and theButterfield Overland Mail betweenElizabeth Lake and Gorman. Instead of going north-south, travelers went east-west via theSan Andreas Rift andOakgrove Canyon, and north-south viaPine Canyon,Antelope Valley and Cow Springs.[10] French Johns Station, 14 miles (23 km) east of Gorman[11] near Cow Springs, provided a way station for the stage line, teamsters and other travelers.
In 1888, Cow Springs was described as "a pleasant camping-place with willow trees, casting an inviting shade to the weary traveler" with a "pure, cold, limpid stream which came bubbling up from its earthen reservoir and went gaily dancing down to the thirsty soil that encompassed it about".[12]
Neenach itself was founded in the 1870s by Danish settlers fromNeenah, Wisconsin. In 1888, a post office was established, with John A. Coovert as the first postmaster.[13] In September 1905 Christian Clausen was named postmaster.[14]
James Barnes filed a homestead claim for 160 acres (647,000 m²) at present-dayState Route 138 and 300th Street West in 1887. He had a county contract to maintain and improve roads in the Antelope Valley as far asThree Points.[13]
Construction of theLos Angeles Aqueduct between 1905 and 1913, which brought water from the distantOwens Valley to theSan Fernando Valley, was important to the area.
On July 13, 1917, Chief Water EngineerWilliam Mulholland of the city of Los Angeles, the builder of the aqueduct, received word that the line had been broken. He went to Neenach and found a 60-foot ` rupture (18 m). He ordered additional surveillance, which saw the arrest of one man, an employee of the rival Los Angeles Gas and Electric Company. The suspect was later released.[15]
James Anderson, father in law of James Barnes' son Roy, became a line rider or patrolman on the aqueduct: He had to shut down the tunnel periodically to check its condition. He also checked the surface to verify that none of the aqueduct's opponents had damaged it. Harry Womersley, from England by way of Illinois, was another resident who worked on the aqueduct—the 12 miles (19 km) fromFairmont to Neenach.[13]
Gold was discovered in the hills south of the community in the early 1930s. The "Oh Suzanna" mine produced some $7 million over the few years of its operation.[13] Another account says that total gold production from the Neenach mining district was $200,000.[16]
In the 1970s, Neenach was lively, one resident told a reporter. There were community-wide potluck dinners and almost 80 members in the local4-H Club. Since then, he said, many of the kids moved away as soon as they were able.[3]
…the truly rural outposts of Los Angeles County—the nation's top agricultural county not so long ago—are withering away. And this one happens to abut the proposed site of the largest planned community in county history.
— Scott Gold,Los Angeles Times[3]
A portion of nearbyTejon Ranch calledCentennial is proposed to be a 23,000-home master-planned community adjacent to Neenach. Civic squares, parks, shops, three fire stations, and other services are proposed. Children would be encouraged to walk to one of the eight elementary schools planned. The promoters have pledged to create 30,000 local jobs. On average, a new house would be erected every eight hours, seven days a week, for 20 years.[3]
The Tucson, Arizona,-basedCenter for Biological Diversity opposes the project—claiming that Centennial would be built on rare ecosystems, including the largest native grassland left in California.[3]
TheLos Angeles County Library's Antelope Valleybookmobile is at the Neenach market on Saturdays from 11 to noon.[17]
The school closed a few years back when they ran out of kids, and its rose-painted walls are still the brightest thing on the prairie.
— Scott Gold[3]
The present Neenach School building was opened in 1993 to replace an older building that had stood for decades on a neighboring lot.[13][18] The school was closed in 2001 because of dwindling population and high heating costs; lack of a natural-gas source meant the school was all-electric. Sixty-six pupils were enrolled the previous year.[19]
Neenach is part of theWestside Union School District of West Lancaster, which also operates Del Sur, Joe Walker, Hill View, Cottonwood, Rancho Vista, Sundown, Valley View, Leona Valley, and Quartz Hill schools, through theeighth grade.[1]
The community is within theAntelope Valley Union High School District and theAntelope Valley Community College District.
TheNeenach Volcanic Formations, about 23.5 million years old, are a series ofigneous intrusions next to Old Post Road parallelingInterstate 5 nearGorman, California.[20]Plate movement along theSan Andreas Fault split the formations and moved half of them about two hundred miles north into what is nowPinnacles National Park.[21]
The Neenach Meteorite is a 30-pound mass of stony, ordinarychondrite discovered in April 1948 by Elden Snyder of Neenach when he unearthed it with his plow, in the process breaking it into four pieces. In 1952 it was brought to the attention ofRobert Wallace Webb of theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara. Later it was donated to the collection of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles.[citation needed]
TheZIP Code is 93536, served by the Lancaster post office, and the telephone system is part ofarea code 661.
