LA HABRA VALLEY
(Southern Californian, May 9, 1874)
In all the descriptions, which lately have become so much the rage among tourists, special correspondents and others of that ilk, one locality has been entirely overlooked. Either Nature, in repose and unclad with the surroundings of inhabitation and civilization, does not present to them features indicative of beauty and productiveness, or else – they have not seen the spot. The place is called the valley of La Habra. It is situated about five miles northeast of Anaheim, and is completely closed in by the San Jose hills on the north and the Habra hills on the south and east. To the lover of the picturesque, no prettier picture can present itself than is shown from the summit of the dividing ridge between the valley and the adjacent and lower one of Anaheim. To the north and east, as far as the eye can reach, a gently undulating plain, clad just now with all the luxuriant flora, which in California, even more than in other lands, ushers in the beautiful time of spring, gradually rises to the foot of a majestic line of hills and the snow-clad summits of San Antonio and the Cucamonga peaks fill in a back ground, at the same time beautiful and suggestive. But it is not to descant upon the beauties of scenery that we have attempted to remedy the omission of the descriptionist. It is that we may call the attention of those, interested in the purchase of valuable lands, to the pre-eminent advantages which can be obtained by the selection of the tract to which we allude. Its position, closed in as it is by hills on every side, exempts it almost entirely from the winds, which sometimes so annoyingly occur in other portions of Southern California. Its soil is considered by the best judges to be superior to any, either for the culture of the grape and semi-tropical fruits, or for the production of cereals. The only drawback, which has heretofore hindered it from being selected in preference by settlers, has been the lack of water for irrigating purposes. This evil can be remedied, however, as it has been demonstrated by actual survey that water can be conducted from the Santa Ana river over the entire tract. In short, it is a most valuable tract of land, and by the colony system men with capital would find in it a most remunerative investment for their money.