In the Carbon Canyon neighborhood in Chino Hills, they remember La Vida hot springs, where people came to take the waters. Formally they came there from the 1910s to the 1980s, when the resort was in operation. They could have been coming before that, even in prehistory. Said historian Paul Spitzzeri: “Imagine you’re an early human — some of us still are — and you saw hot, steaming water coming up out of the ground.” He was speaking about La Vida at the quarterly meeting of the Chino Hills Historical Society. Title of his talk: “In Hot Water.” It wasn’t steamy, but it was immersive. Chino Hills, incorporated only in 1991, is among the Inland Empire’s youngest cities, one perceived to have little history. And yet for Monday night’s talk at the Community Center, more than 100 people attended, a number that would be the envy of most historical societies. And that turnout is typical for the Chino Hills Historical Society. People listened raptly and participated, too — more on that in a bit. This vintage postcard shows the La Vida Mineral Springs Resort, which existed for much of the 20th century on Carbon Canyon Road south of Chino Hills. The postcard was among the memorabilia on display at a well-attended Chino Hills Historical Society presentation about the resort Monday. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin) Carbon Canyon Road was laid out in the 1910s and paved in the 1920s, connecting Brea and Chino. In the canyon amid mature trees, people built cabins in the rural neighborhood named Sleepy Hollow, which last year marked a century of existence. You may have read about that in my column. Capitalizing on the mineral springs, a resort with a rustic hotel, bath house and restaurant opened around 1915. Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, may have provided an inadvertent boost to the remote restaurant. “What is one of the best places to avoid Prohibition? A canyon!” Spitzzeri exclaimed. A 1920s newspaper ad projected on the room’s screen promised “snappy music,” chicken dinners and “‘Curley’ at the piano.” A party at La Vida for Masonic Lodge members, the subject of a short newspaper announcement, would have unnamed “refreshments.” Spitzzeri speculated they might have been of the liquid variety. The audience chuckled. Two men were jailed as bootleggers after a bust at the resort. Deputies were said to be suspicious, as a story in the Anaheim Bulletin put it, that the resort “was moistening its pastoral surroundings” with more than “sparkling mountain water” but rather “intoxicating sensations.” The actual, unadulterated mineral water from La Vida was bottled at the resort and advertised as a “health curative water” that might cure such ailments as rheumatism, bad circulation, liver trouble and “nervousness.” These bottles are physical reminders of the mineral water bottled at the La Vida Mineral Springs Resort starting in the 1920s and sometimes sold with dubious health claims. The bottles, bottle openers and a wooden crate were among the memorabilia on display at a well-attended Chino Hills Historical Society presentation about the resort Monday. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin) A second hot springs resort, Carbon Canyon Mineral Springs, lasted about a decade, from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, and offered hot sulfur baths and Swedish massages. These resorts were briefly in vogue, Spitzzeri said, because many Jews had emigrated to the United States from Europe prior to World War II and created a market for European-style health resorts. La Vida, in the southern stretch of Carbon Canyon, was technically in Brea, but people in Sleepy Hollow went there, even on foot. Longtime Sleepy Hollow resident Linda Briney told me at the talk that in the 1970s, “my girlfriends and I would walk down to La Vida, swim and have lunch.” They would visit other swimming pools on their way back home. It’s as if they were living out the 1968 Burt Lancaster movie “The Swimmer.” People in the audience asked questions and shared memories for a half hour. A woman reminisced about a platform swing at the outdoor pool that would hold two or three children at a time. Another said guests were brought in by bus in the 1970s and that the pool was often so crowded it was standing room only. One man asked if any celebrities had visited. Spitzzeri replied that LSD guru Timothy Leary was rumored to have gone there to have drugs sweated out of him. This room key for the La Vida resort was evidently taken home by a guest and never returned, despite postage being guaranteed. It was among the memorabilia on display at a Chino Hills Historical Society presentation on the resort. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) The hotel burned in 1988. The restaurant, known as La Vida Roadhouse, continued into the early 2000s before closing. It had been a friendly common ground for bikers, locals and visitors, beloved for taco and spaghetti nights, cheap beer and live music, including punk bands Agent Orange and the Plugz, as some recalled. Nearly two decades after La Vida’s demise, bits of walkway and the concrete tank where the mineral water was bottled survive. The springs are believed to exist behind chain-link fence. The 36-acre property has been for sale since 2019. The longtime owner, Tadayao Hata, who owns a therapeutic spa in Tokyo, in the late 1990s floated plans to rebuild the resort but for Japanese clientele. Spitzzeri is skeptical that a resort could be built there today due to modern building codes. But he joked that commuters might provide a ready market. “If you’re stuck on Carbon Canyon Road,” he said, “maybe you’d want to pull over and have a good soak and bring down your anxiety.” Chino Hills (more) When I took a seat at the Community Center, the stranger next to me greeted me by name and said he never misses my column. A few others in attendance said the same. Sure, five or six people out of 100 is a low percentage, but this is 2024, when supposedly nobody reads a newspaper. Given that even in our heyday Chino Hills was on the distant end of the Daily Bulletin’s readership area, it came as a pleasant surprise to have any readers there at all. Related Articles News | What’s shaking? Ontario, after 4 earthquakes in a month News | Columnist’s new book ‘Waving at Strangers’ greets readers News | Delving into ‘slow violence of the supply chain’ in Inland Empire News | TV crime drama has ‘High Potential’ for insulting Fontana News | Could Dodgers’ postseason secret weapon be this Cardinals fan? One man told me afterward that he gets our newspaper delivered, forsaking all competitors. “There’s nothing more relaxing on a Sunday morning than a pot of coffee and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin,” he said with a smile. “And part of that is because of you.” A comment like that was worth giving up an evening for. And I hope he and everyone else is enjoying this column, pot of coffee at hand or not. brIEfly Last Sunday I attended the annual meeting of the Old Riverside Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to protecting Riverside’s historic character, in court if necessary. Dave Stolte, the executive director, began his remarks like this: “We had a quiet year. We didn’t sue anybody.” Some laughed. “We didn’t have to,” Stolte continued. “But we’re ready if an issue comes up.” A city official in the audience was observed taking a long, nervous sip of water. David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, nervously. Email [email protected], phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.