Where's the nuts?

In search of the nuts

• Drive to Arroyo Rancho Park on Montecito Drive. When facing the park, look right to the homes along the road. There are about five very old chestnut trees that were once in a nursery row. What other interesting trees remain in the neighborhood? 

• Your phone might say you are at "Eberly". Eberly siding (MP 28.90) was located inside the nursery on the Western Pacific. It was name after W.V. Eberly who was the great unsung manager who ran the nursery after John Rock died and before George Roeding bought the nursery. It was during Eberly's tenure that the palms and many other plants were transported to San Francisco by train and ferry. The palms lined the Avenue of Palms at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

• Drive though the neighborhood and notice that there are many beautiful specimen trees. The Roeding family worked with the developer of the neighborhood, also called Arroyo Rancho Park, to preserve as many trees as possible.

• For another day and a long walk, visit the Quarry Lake Rare Fruit Grove. Quarry Lake Rare Fruit Grove is located on a peninsula in the Horseshoe Lake at Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area, an East Bay Regional Park. You can preview the fruits here in their guide. There are some very unusual fruits. However, the Hovenia dulcis does not seem to be one of them.

To give you an idea of how large the nursery was, the 1918 map of the nursery is overlaid onto Google Earth. The yellow outline is the park today. The red outline is the original nursery. A portion of the nursery below the Western Pacific was quarried. Mammoth bones were found during the quarry operation. The rocks went where? 

1918 Map of the nursery

Outline of original nursery overlaid on Google Earth
Yellow outline is the park today.
Quarry Lakes Rare Fruit Grove is where the Roeding gravel plant was located
Chestnut 9D is where you can find the "NUTS"!
The "Platform at Eberly" is no longer, but you can look north to see where the palms left.
The first China Camp was located in this portion of the Horseshoe Lake.