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10 COMMUNITY PAGES Online at www.Sunland-Tujunga.net

SUNLAND & TUJUNGA

“The Healthiest Place in the World”

alifornia history is long. For hundreds of
Cyears people lived comfortably in villages
near the Big and Little Tujunga rivers. Some of
the first inhabitants were called the Tongva.
Their culture was followed by the Padres who
established the mission chain, then the
Mexican ranch owners who grazed "cattle on
a thousand hills". During
the 1880s, the rugged set- “Place
tlers came west by rail- of the old
road and made this wild woman” Bolton Hall, the community clubhouse for the Little
area into a village, which is how the Landers Colony, was built in 1913. Today it serves as our
local historical museum.
gradually grew on the Shoshone
edge of a great metropo- language could work or trade their produce. Their
lis, Los Angeles. referred to the homes were built with struggle and ingenuity
Sunland began as a quiet Tujunga area. by stone masons, carpenters and untrained
citizens alike who kept working until they
agricultural center, while
had their land, their house, a bit of livestock
Tujunga, at first a utopian colony (Little Lands
and a food crop. We see many of the stone
Colony), chiefly embraced commercial, social
homes they built in all the foothill areas.
and cultural endeavors. The two once exqui-
Building material was on site, nothing down,
site spots have prospered and united, evolving
and only small payments to worry about.
into a hub of small business trade, close com-
munity and diversified living.
Rancho Tujunga was a Mexican land grant
given to Pedro and Francisco Lopez in 1840.
The Lopez brothers were prominent educat-
ed gentlemen of the Missions San Fernando
and San Gabriel. Rancho Tujunga was gradual-
ly bought, sold and traded again and again
until it became Tujunga, Sunland, Lake View
Terrace, Shadow Hills and a patch of Sun
Valley in the Stonehurst neighborhood.
We like to brag that Francisco Lopez and his
men found the first gold discovered in
California, 1842, six years before the gold rush
of the "’49ers" in the north.
We are proud of the tough settlers who came
from the east to buy land they could afford
and develop that land. They were able, on this
new frontier, to own their own home while
Once the main street of Tujunga, Commerce Avenue was a
living close enough to Los Angeles where they bustling business and community center.