Leaming Canyon, Santa Clarita, California

Website created and maintained by Stan Walker

Looking northeast down Leaming Canyon with Interstate 5 in the distance

Leaming Canyon is located between Wiley and Rice Canyons. There is an old road that runs a little way into the canyon stopping at a crib dam. Most of the mouth area appears to be privately owned. The canyon does not extend as far south as the others and is not as deep. There is no evidence of any oil drilling activity.

In early 1865 Christopher Leaming (1830 - 1888) filed a claim for 160 acres under the Possessory Act of 1852 in the canyon giving it its name. White (Formative Years in the Far West, 1962) says that the land Leaming claimed contained an oil seep.

Unlike Towsley and Rice, I have found bits and pieces of Leaming's life. His short obituary (see below) places his birth at around 1830. The 1850 US Census has a Christopher in Cape May County, New Jersey. He is 23 (born 7/1/1827) and is the son of Humphrey and Mary (Stites) Leaming. He may, or may not, be the correct Leaming. I have not found him on any census after 1850, when he is supposed to be in California.

In March of 1865 the county-wide Los Angeles Asphaltum and Petroleum Mining District was organized by Edward F. Beale, Andres Pico, and Dr. Vincent Gelcich. On June 24, 1865 the more local San Fernando Petroleum Mining District was formed. The first mining recorder was Christopher Leaming.

Leaming was appointed the first postmaster of Petroleopolis on April 1, 1867. Petroleopolis was another name for Lyon's Station. He held that post until Richard N. Hosmer took over on November 21, 1867. Sanford Lyon would be appointed postmaster on July 23, 1869. (From early postmaster appointments in LA county.)

Dr. Vincent Gelcich bought the Leaming claim in 1872 and the Leaming Petroleum Company was formed to develop it. Gelcich received a half-interest in the company for deeding the claim to a group of five incorporators. However, little, if any, work was actually done on the claim.

Leaming also had a small share, with Sanford Lyon, in the Baker and Beale claim at Pico springs in 1876.

In "The Story of Our Valley" (Signal, Oct. 21, 1954) A. B. Perkins writes: "One of the town's oldest houses, 422 Pine Street, was built in 1878 by the Pacific Coast Oil Company, and occupied by Christopher Leaming, Recorder of the San Fernando Petroleum District, and an early employee of the P.C.O."

In 1880 Charles Felton bought out the claims in Leaming Canyon, as he had done with the claims in Rice and Wiley Canyons. These claims became the property of the Pacific Coast Oil Company.

The Report for the State Mineralogist of California for the year ending 1884 stated that Leaming still held the office of recorder for the San Fernando Petroleum Mining District.

A.B. Perkins reports (The Story of Our Valley) that a claim was filed in the Soledad Mining District by George J. Clarke, George Gleason, Christopher Leaming, and Benjamin C. Truman as the Amazonia Mining company on the Amazonia lode in the 1880's. Also in the 1880's, George J. Clarke, George Gleason, H.H.W. Clarke, Sanford Lyon, Christopher Leaming, and Benjamin C. Truman filed a claim on the Eureka lode also in the Soledad Mining District.

Leaming was listed in the California State and County Roster for 1887 as a Notary Public for Los Angeles Country with a term expiring on April 10, 1888. In "California of the South" (Lindley and Widney, 1888), it was reported that in 1887 Leaming was still the recorder for the San Fernando Pertroleum Mining District.

A Los Angeles Times article from May 11, 1888 reported:

Christopher Leaming, an old pioneer oil man, died suddenly at Newhall Wednesday. The remains were brought to this city, and will be shipped to his old home back East. He was 58 years of age and came to California in '49.

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Wells in Leaming Canyon

The following quote is from "Petroleum in Southern California", 1913, Paul W. Prutzman, California State Mining Bureau, Bulletin 63. This is the only document I have found that said there were wells in Leaming Canyon.

Two wells are known to have been located in this canyon, but both were shallow, and can hardly be considered as tests.

Dividend Oil Company. The well of this company was near the south line of section 10, and about 1/8 mile from the east line of this section. It was carried to a depth of about 700 feet, and had no signs of oil.

California Oil Company. This company, which also drilled on section 18, 3-15, has a 400-foot abandoned well south of the canyon, in the northeast quarter of section 14. As might be expected, no oil was encountered at this depth.

These wells appear, superficially at least, to be on a secondary fold, or fault, roughly parallel to the main Pico-Wiley fault. The possible productiveness of this fold remains to be proven.

Unfortunately, the descriptions of the wells place them north of Highway 5 (Gavin Canyon) outside of Leaming Canyon, so it is unlikely that any wells were drilled in the canyon. Also, while hiking in the canyon, I did not find any trails or roads past the crib dam, and found no evidence of any human activity. I also found no oil seeps nor did I smell any petroleum. I could not hike deep enough in the canyon to find the axis of the Pico Anticline, where most of the oil wells in the other canyons were drilled in or close to. None of the old topographic maps I examined showed a road into Leaming Canyon. Therefore, it appears that no serious oil drilling activity took place in Leaming Canyon.

The road into Leaming Canyon. There is a church on the left and a private business on the right. This is a view toward the north. Leaming Canyon is behind me and The Old Road and the freeway are in front.

Closer view of the mouth area

Crib dam

The crib dam was built in 1971

Looking north from the crib dam. Not too inviting - you have to go through all that brush just to get here.

Looking south up Leaming Canyon. No roads or trails here.

Tree blocking the creek bed

A little deeper in the canyon

A little deeper in the canyon

Another tree blocking the creek bed

Toadstools growing under the downed tree

Exposure of the beds showing that I am in the north flank of the Pico Anticline

Looking back north down the canyon. Hiking is tough here. There are also a lot of ticks.

High above me is this exposure of the north flank of the anticline

Hiking is very tough through here. Some of those leafless branches are poison oak.

This is the most interesting object I found in the canyon - a bolder with fossils in it laying in the creek bed. The actual source of the bolder is probably in a bed high up above the canyon bottom and very hard to find. This is also unexpected because I found no fossils in Wiley or Rice Canyons, the canyons on each side of Leaming Canyon.

Close-up of the fossils. You can see cross sections of gastropods.

Looking up the western tributary of Leaming Canyon

Looking down at the fork in Leaming Canyon. The tributary from the previous is coming diagonally toward the right bottom of the photo.