High along the Main Divide of the Santa Ana Mountains sits the remains of Beek’s Place, a fascinating piece of Orange County history—and the destination of one of our Craziest PawVentures! 🐾
Joseph Allan “Joe” Beek acquired the mountain property around 1927 and built the first main cabin around 1929 as a retreat for his family. Over the years, Beek’s Place grew to include additional buildings, a swimming pool, an enormous water-storage system and even Joe’s experiments with wind-generated electricity.
While exploring old USGS topographic maps, we wanted to see when Beek’s Place first began appearing on the maps—and what this corner of the Santa Ana Mountains looked like befur it was there.
Take a look through the historic maps below and travel back in time with us! 🐾
1902 — Cleveland National Forest: Pre-Beek’s Place
Beeks Place – Cleveland National Forest 1942
Beek’s Place – Black Star Canyon Water Resources Dept of CA 1967
Beek’s Place – Black Star Canyon 1967 (1986 Revision)
BEEKS PLACE
Personal recollections of Allan Beek
A Glimpse into Beek’s Place History
Every map tells a story, and those stories are the true treasure. We hope you’ll find them as fascinating as we do!
Long before Beek’s Place became the destination of one of our memorable PawVentures, this rugged corner of the Santa Ana Mountains had its own evolving story.
Beginning in the late 1920s, Joe Beek transformed his remote mountain property into a family retreat, adding cabins and other improvements over the years. Historic maps let us watch Beek’s Place emerge on the landscape while offering a glimpse of the mountain roads, landmarks and terrain that surrounded it. If you WUV old maps like we do, check out our new and growing PawVentures® Historic Maps Page!
🐾 Explore More History
If you follow us on social, you know we just WUV visiting Historical Markers! We try to see them all every time we go on a PawCation or Day Trip! We ESPECIALLY WUV finding anything regarding a Smith — Mom says all da Smiths are our cousins! 😄