Euclid Avenue is the Cathedral to Mount Baldy in Upland, California.
Old Deodar Cedar, Palm, Pine, and Pepper trees line the length of Northbound and Southbound Euclid Avenue, like the aisle of a cathedral. The San Gabriel Mountains are the altar. The sixty-foot wide landscaped median in Euclid Avenue is the center of the 200-foot wide double-drive. The median is for walking or horseback riding. Euclid Avenue is a landmark and hallmark of Upland, California — a suburb 37 miles east of Los Angeles located at the foot of Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountain range.
It’s the kind of unforgettable view that inspires me (I’m also a musician), to sing or write a song.
The view of the mountains distracts me from my plight.
When I was a girl, it was a hard two-and-a-half mile hike,
From the Madonna of Trail statue to the mountains felt impossible.
I smell dirt and horse poop, but cedar and pine encourage my mind.
L.A. to the west, and east is Riverside.
Today, the hike is quite light.
Beauty inside, Beauty insight!
On a clear day, if you stand in the median of Euclid Avenue and 21st Street and look North towards Mount Baldy — it is breathtaking!
Route 66 (U.S. Highway 66)
Foothill Boulevard was originally part of the Old Spanish Trail. In 1829, Mexican explorer Antonio Armijo established this trail as a trade route between New Mexico and California. This trail, now US Route 66, leads directly from Chicago to Santa Monica Beach, Ca. In Upland, US Rte 66 is called Foothill Boulevard.
At the intersection of Foothill Blvd and Euclid Avenue is the famous, “Madonna of Trail Statue.”
Madonna of the Trail Statue
The Upland monument is one of 12 similar statues erected in 12 different cities across the United States. The statues were dedicated to these cities between 1928 and 1929 by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and pay tribute to the importance of historic trails, highways, and pioneer women. It was also the site of the Black Lives Matter protest in the wake of George Floyd in June of 2020.
The statue is a large, towering woman in a pioneer dress holding a baby in her left arm. Her scared toddler clings to her right thigh. She stands proud and armed in right hand — ready to go — encouraging people on this famous Euclid hike, including historical: Indigenous peoples, Spaniards, and George Chaffey.
Upland History
In 1882 George Chaffey, a Canadian-born engineer and shipbuilder of Scottish descent, purchased about 8,000 acres of land, and later purchased San Antonio Creek. His famous contributions include creating a water distribution system for the farms in the Ontario and Upland colonies, and the creation of the famous Euclid Avenue — a main thoroughfare that connected San Antonio Creek to all the nearby settlements.
By the late 1840s, the discovery of gold prompted settlers to rush to California and add it as a free state to the Union.
It was then that the Gold Rush town of “North Ontario” was born. The city was later renamed “Upland” in 1906, when it was officially incorporated. Upland and Ontario produced over 60% of the nation’s citrus fruits and 20% of the world’s supply in the 1930s. This was the dominant agricultural crop in California. The farmers of Upland, however, wanted to distinguish their fruit as “higher quality” which was why they renamed the town Upland. To maintain their pride in high quality citrus fruit, Upland now hosts their Lemon Festival every year in June.
Upland Today and Things to Do
Upland is also famous for its historic downtown, horseback riding, 35 minute drive to ski-lifts, vertical skateboarding, and of course (US) Route 66 and Euclid Avenue. If you want to visit the mountains, beaches, and L.A. in one day, it’s an hour drive and some change to Los Angeles or the Orange County Beaches. There are not many cities who can boast this.
If you travel west cross country from Troy, NY, on State Route 66, to Chicago, then take U.S. Route 66 to California (for you technical folks out there), you would arrive in the Southern California town of Upland, CA. If you continue west on Route 66 for 52 miles, your road trip ends at beautiful Santa Monica Beach, CA. Upland is a quiet town with a population of 80,000 sitting at the foothills of Mount Baldy — the altar to the Cathedral of Euclid Avenue.
