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"In the shadow of Old Saddleback..."

Trabuco Canyon is a small, unincorporated community located in the foothills of the Santa Ana mountains in eastern Orange County, California. It lies partly within the Cleveland National Forest. The population is only a few thousand (some would say a few hundred). Described as 'cowboy-bohemian' by the natives, this tight-knit community is home to a diverse group of blue-collar types, artists, professionals, roughnecks, misfits and a bearded wonder who goes by the name of Shannon.

The canyon and surrounding community are both named Trabuco Canyon. The name comes from trabuco, which is Spanish for blunderbuss, an old type of rifle and a contemporaneous example of which may be found in a glass case at Mission San Juan Capistrano. History has it that in 1769 a blunderbuss was lost in the Canyon by a soldier serving with the party of Gaspar de Portola. Crespi, one of two Franciscan friars in the party, records the loss. The area, (apparently everything bordering Trabuco Creek below what is now Ladera Ranch) was slated to be named for a Peruvian Christian martyr, San Francisco Solano, but the soldiers approved a less ecclessiastical approach. According to legend, the trabuco lies here still - buried somewhere under the crags, sage and scrub. Another bit of lore, cited by Jim Sleeper in 'Bear Stories For Boys' (Orange County's favorite historian), is that the last grizzly in Southern California was killed in Trabuco Canyon by a local man named Adkinson. The head and pelt were displayed at a Santa Ana newspaper office where many viewers opined that it looked more like a black bear. A small street in the village of Trabuco bears Adkinson's name, indeed some of his outbuildings stand yet from the 1890s.

The area above the canyon to the south is called the Trabuco Plain, but by whom we cannot tell. Plano Trabuco Road leads from the top of the Canyon, south, to the city of Rancho Santa Margarita and the CDP Coto De Caza.

Down below, in the 'real' Trabuco (called Hickey Canyon), each 4th of July features an old-fashioned parade of locals riding horses and pulling home-made floats to the cheers of observers - who are small in number but large in enthusiasm (the Weenie Patrol served the crowd a paltry 450 hot-dogs in 2007, down from 456 in 2006 and 457 in 2005). Old Trabuco features cabins dating back to the 1930s. In 1929 a Dr. Moles was the first and only person to subdivide a street of lots. The cabins were built to serve as retreats for early film stars and the Hollywood elite, who would secrete themselves in the rustic setting when they needed time away from the glamour of city life. So successful was the Hollywood set at avoiding paparazzi that to this day there is no documentary evidence of any of them actually showing up for a quick rusticate. The General Store is the meeting place of old-timers and locals. A regular group (the 'Chicken-lippers') meets weekly at the Trabuco General for coffee and a chinwag. Outsiders and visitors to the canyon are termed 'flatlanders' by the locals.

Other homegrown antics include the Hickey Creek Volunteer String Assembly sessions -Friday nights in the summer, led by a particularly sweet-sounding mandolinist, and the Women's Club-sponsored Halloween Potluck which was postponed in 2007 until 2008 on account of the firehouse having to be used for firefighting and anyone with a costume worth entering in competition being evacuated. And, speaking of fourth of July and firefighting, according to authenticated legend, the firetruck of the Volunteer Fire Department of Upper Trabuco (aka Holy Jim Canyon, named for the cussingest chappie who ever tried to get the Beardsley's donkey drunk at the eatery that was once The Lookout, then Lico's, and is now the Cantina) was bought from the City of Long Beach in the 1960s and is the only firetruck in California without road registration. How it ever got to lead the Parade is anyone's guess and a nod in the direction of commonsense prevailing over the sheriff.

Another landmark is the 30-yr old Trabuco Oaks Steak House, known not only for its pleasurable food and large servings of beans, but for affectionately snipping off the neckties of its patrons; it was a favorite restaurant of President Richard Nixon. On weekends, diners come from the far reaches of Orange County. Canyon locals, however, gather at the beloved Rose Canyon Cantina, nestled under the oaks just a stone's throw away (on Rose Canyon Road).

Before you get to the beer at Cook's from Trabuco Oaks, however, somewhere away from the canopied Live Oak Canyon Road, you will pass a monastery of the Vedanta Society with its library of spirituality and mysticism -the largest of its kind anywhere near a biker bar. Aldous Huxley ('Brave New World') and Christopher Isherwood (who laid the ground for 'Cabaret') hung out in these monastery buildings in its previous incarnation: literary Brits dodging World War II. Beyond the monastery is a charming and spiritually significant example of a community church. This one was actually built and is maintained and used (though the pastor, perhaps, would wish more often) by an actual real live community, shades of Acts of the Apostles.

Trabuco Canyon was the site of attempts to mine tin in the early 1900s. Remains of this activity are tunnels into the sides of the canyon, the stone foundation of an ore-processing mill, and some dams along the creek. Unfortunately, the whole tin-mining episode appears to have been a swindle.

On October 21, 2007, a large wildfire, the Santiago Fire, started in Silverado Canyon and spread to Trabuco Canyon. The Canyon was evacuated by the Fire Department and blocked off to residential traffic.

It originated at Santiago Canyon Road and Silverado Canyon Road (Thomas Brothers page 832 A2). This is confirmed to be caused by arson and a $250,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for this crime.

Source: http://www.ocfa.org/pages/ocfa.asp?filename=canyonfire.asp

• Trabuco Canyon, California is at coordinates 33°39′45″N 117°35′22″W / 33.6625, -117.58944Coordinates: 33°39′45″N 117°35′22″W / 33.6625, -117.58944
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v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Orange County, California
County seat: Santa Ana
Cities	Aliso Viejo | Anaheim | Brea | Buena Park | Costa Mesa | Cypress | Dana Point | Fountain Valley | Fullerton | Garden Grove | Huntington Beach | Irvine | La Habra | La Palma | Laguna Beach | Laguna Hills | Laguna Niguel | Laguna Woods | Lake Forest | Los Alamitos | Mission Viejo | Newport Beach | Orange | Placentia | Rancho Santa Margarita | San Clemente | San Juan Capistrano | Santa Ana | Seal Beach | Stanton | Tustin | Villa Park | Westminster | Yorba Linda
CDPs	Coto de Caza | Las Flores | Rossmoor | Tustin Foothills
Unincorporated communities	Ladera Ranch | Midway City | Modjeska Canyon | Orange Park Acres | Santa Ana Heights | Santiago Canyon | Silverado | Sunset Beach | Trabuco Canyon

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