Jon Ponder
Hancock oil fields on Rancho La Brea, with tar pits in the foreground
Hancock oil fields on Rancho La Brea, with tar pits in the foreground

Selling Rancho La Brea

Much of the land acquired by Eugenio Plummer, including his ranch and today’s Plummer Park, was originally part of Major Henry Hancock’s 4,444-acre spread, Rancho La Brea. Henry and Ida Hancock had three sons: twins George Allan and Bertram, and Harry. Both Bertram and Harry died before reaching adulthood.

Henry Hancock died on January 9, 1883. Subsequently, Ida and Allan began selling land around the perimeter of Rancho La Brea. Around 1892, for example, Thomas and Leander Quint, Henry Hancock’s nephews from Vermont, acquired 20 acres that is now the site of much of central West Hollywood, including the location of Greek George’s cabin by the willows, where he tended Hancock’s camels in 1864 and where, in 1874, the bandit Tiburcio Vasquez was captured.

The cabin was abandoned by the time the Quint brothers acquired the land. The Los Angeles Times described its condition in its Cahuenga Valley report on September 9, 1892: “That famous bandit, Vasquez, was captured at Mr. Quint’s place. All that now remains to be seen of the old adobe house in which he was surprised is one crumbling corner. ‘Greek George’ Allen [né Caralambo], who owned the house at the time of the capture and aided officers in effecting it, is still a resident of Cahuenga. He is a handsome, wiry man, with remarkably bright, black eyes and a courtly manner. He came to the United States when a boy with the herd of camels that the government imported from Arabia for use on the Mojave Desert.”

Ida Hancock and her son Allan
Ida Hancock and her son Allan

Black Gold

The Hancocks held onto the core of the rancho, where asphaltum excavation continued near the tar pits. Prehistoric bones had been recovered in the digs from the beginning, but it wasn’t until around 1900 that their archaeological importance was recognized.

The coming of industrialization at the end of the 19th century created a new demand for oil. The Hancocks learned that the tar pits and asphaltum on Rancho La Brea suggested their land sat atop a sizable oil deposit. Ida Hancock granted a 20-year lease to the Salt Lake Oil Company on 1,000 acres north of the tar pits. The revenue from the leases made the Hancocks moderately wealthy. In 1907, they began drilling on their own, putting in 71 wells closer to the tar pits (under what is now the Park La Brea residential community). Each well struck oil, eventually making Ida and Allan among the richest people in California.

In the 1920s, Allan Hancock used some of his fortune to develop the upscale Hancock Park neighborhood at the eastern edge of the old rancho. He became an explorer and aviator. In 1927, he founded Hancock Field, which became the Santa Maria community airport. Later, the facility became Hancock College, which has a long association with nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base, home of the Space Force Center.

The Mark of Zorro, 19191
The Mark of Zorro, 19191

Tiburcio Vasquez in Popular Culture

Tiburcio Vasquez was one of several California outlaws whose lives were woven into the character of Zorro, introduced in “The Curse of Capistrano” by Johnston McCulley, published in All-Story Weekly magazine in 1919. One difference is that Zorro was set earlier, in the era before the U.S.-Mexican War, when the Californios were in conflict with their Spanish colonial overlords. But like Vasquez, Zorro was a handsome, high-status Californio. Both men wore capes. Zorro wore a mask, and Vasquez hid his identity with an assumed name, Ricardo Cantua. Both men were attractive to women, although, unlike Zorro, Vasquez was a heartless lover. One significant difference is that, unlike Zorro, Vasquez never used a sword, much less a rapier.

An outcropping at Vasquez Rocks County Park
An outcropping at Vasquez Rocks County Park

Vasquez is directly memorialized by the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area and Nature Center, a Los Angeles County park in the desert a few miles west of Acton. It’s a massive geological feature of sandstone strata thrust up and tilted at 40-degree angles by earthquakes centuries ago. The park was named for Tiburcio Vasquez because, according to local legend, he buried a cache of gold there stolen from a stagecoach. The reality is much tawdrier; he camped among the rocks when he seduced and impregnated his young niece, Felicita. It was that seduction that led to his demise.

The rock formation’s otherworldly beauty has made it internationally famous as a popular location for shooting television and movies, notably the Star Trek series and films, the Flintstones live-action movie, and dozens of other productions. In 1972, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (site #72000228), not because of its connection to Tiburcio Vasquez, but due to the site’s ancient significance to the Shoshone and Tataviam people. The Vasquez Rocks Natural Area is the only county park named for a career criminal and convicted murderer.

A section of Rancho La Brea as it appears today. Complex at center is the Park La Brea Apartments, To the right, the undeveloped area is the La Brea Tar Pits
A section of Rancho La Brea as it appeared in this undated aerial photo. Complex at center is the Park La Brea Apartments, To the right, the undeveloped area is the La Brea Tar Pits.

Rancho La Brea Today

Traces of the boundaries of Rancho La Brea remain. Wilshire Boulevard marks the southern boundary from La Cienega Boulevard east to South Arden Boulevard, and the Sunset Strip follows the northern boundary from Doheny Drive east for several blocks. The ranch itself has been developed for both commercial and residential use. It is home to landmarks such as the 1930s’ Original Farmers Market and Grove Shopping Center, CBS Studios, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and, of course, the La Brea Tar Pits. The adjacent Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits display a collection of Ice Age fossils recovered in archaeological digs in the area.

Obscured by time and development, the remnants of Greek George’s adobe are long gone, likely hauled away during the construction of a house or an apartment building somewhere north of Melrose Place. The stream that ran by George’s cabin now flows underground.

An early photo of the Hollywood Bowl in what was once known as Bolton Canyon
An early photo of the Hollywood Bowl in what was once known as Bolton Canyon

The Hollywood Bowl

North of the old Rancho property, the Bolton Canyon tract that included Daisy Dell changed hands several times after Eugenio Plummer sold it. Around 1920, local performers discovered that the dell had ideal acoustics when Easter sunrise services were held there. After some rudimentary construction, the Hollywood Bowl opened in the dell on July 11, 1922. The Bowl has become internationally famous, with artists as diverse as the Beatles, Judy Garland, and Luciano Pavarotti performing to sell-out crowds.

Runyon Today

A mile or so west of the Bowl, the section of No Man’s Canyon that Greek George owned is now Runyon Canyon Park, a popular hiking spot above Hollywood. Estimates suggest that 2 million visitors hike the park’s trails each year.

Monument on the grave of Phillip Tedro, known as Hi Jolly
Monument on the grave of Phillip Tedro, known as Hi Jolly

Hi Jolly Monument

After the Army auctioned off its camels in 1864, Greek George’s counterpart in tending the camels, Hi Jolly (Hadj Ali), went into business using camels to haul freight between California and southern Arizona. The business failed to take off, so he released his camels into the desert near Gila Bend, Arizona. He settled in the area and became a U.S. citizen in 1880 using his birth name: Philip Tedro.

He got married and had two daughters. Many years later, he moved to Quartzsite, Arizona, and began prospecting in the desert. He died there in 1902 at the age of 73. Legend has it that he died while searching for a camel and that his body was found lying with his arm embracing a dead camel.

In 1935, the state of Arizona erected a monument on his grave in Quartzsite—a stone pyramid topped with a bronze camel. The only monument to a historic figure in the camel corps experiment, it is located off I-10 in Quartzsite. In January every year, the town holds a festival called “Hi Jolly Daze,” often featuring camel races in his honor.

Greek George’s Gravestone

Greek George’s gravestone was placed on his unmarked grave in Whittier in the 1930s by the Native Daughters of the Golden West. In 1968, the city of Whittier removed all the gravestones in Settlers Cemetery, including Greek George’s, and converted the graveyard into Founders Park. Today, Greek George once again lies in an unmarked grave. The chipped granite marker sat in a storage yard for many years. In 1956, it was discovered and moved to the Whittier Museum, the former Pio Pico Mansion. It’s there today, in the yard behind the house, the only monument to West Hollywood’s first settler.

The Last Camel

Of all the camels that the Army brought to Los Angeles in 1858 and their descendants, the fate of only one is known. After Greek George set them free in 1866, the camels wandered the Hollywood Hills for decades. As development encroached, a few were eventually captured and taken to the animal park in Griffith Park, which later became the Los Angeles Zoo.

Camels can live to be 80 years old, and eight decades after Greek George freed them, the death of one of Henry Hancock’s camels was reported by wire services in newspapers nationwide. The brief article read, in part: “Topsy, the last American camel that trekked across the desert of Arizona and California, died today at Griffith Park.”