Llano, California

Llano del Rio was a commune (or "colony") located in what is now Llano, California, east of Palmdale in the Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County. The colony was devised by lawyer and socialist politician Job Harriman after he had failed in his bid to become the mayor of Los Angeles in 1911. The colony's land was acquired in 1913 and it was formally launched on May 1, 1914. The Llano del Rio Colony settled in the southern edge of the Mojave Desert along what is now Highway 138 near what is now 165th Street East, in the alluvial plain spreading to the north from the San Gabriel Mountains. The colony took advantage of water from Big Rock Creek, an intermittent stream that flows from the San Gabriel Mountains. Several structures were constructed using local granite boulders and lumber, including a hotel, meeting house, and water storage tank. There was also a small open aqueduct made of granite cobbles and cement. As of 2024, remnants of the structures are still visible at the site. The site was abandoned in 1918. Llano del Rio turned out to be too far from other settlements to develop a sustaining economy, and the water supply from Big Rock Creek proved to be unreliable. Some of the settlers, approximately 60 families in all, relocated to form New Llano, Louisiana.

The 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake, also known simply as the Capistrano earthquake or the Wrightwood earthquake, occurred on December 8 at 15:00 UTC (07:00 a.m. local time) in Alta California. At the time, this was a colonial territory of the Spanish Empire. Damage occurred at several of the missions in the region of Pueblo de Los Ángeles, including Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Mission San Juan Capistrano, where 40 parishioners were killed during the collapse of a church at an early morning service. Tree-ring and paleoseismic evidence show that there is a strong likelihood that the earthquake originated along the Mojave segment of the San Andreas Fault near Wrightwood, but other faults have been suggested as the cause. Several studies in the 1980s placed the shock along the southern Newport–Inglewood Fault near the zone of highest reported intensity. This fault is near the coast and the most significant damage at the missions, but later work at trench sites along the San Andreas Fault excluded it for this large-to-very-large shock. Dynamic rupture modelling enabled another proposal in the 2010s involving a dual-rupture scenario with both the San Andreas and San Jacinto Fault Zones. Each of these studies worked with limited data, and the effects of the shock and various fault rupture details led to Mercalli intensities of VII (Very strong) to IX (Violent) being proposed. Magnitudes from 6.9 Mla on the low end to 7.5 Mw on the high end were also presented.

Valyermo (Spanish: "Barren Valley") is an unincorporated community located in the Mojave Desert, in Los Angeles County, California. The community has a population of about 450.

St. Andrew's Abbey is a male Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of the Annunciation located in Valyermo, in the Mojave Desert, northern Los Angeles County, southern California.

The Three Sisters is a small mountain range found in the Mojave Desert, in Los Angeles County, California. It consists of three main hills of varying sizes, with the smallest to the southwest having a height above surrounding land of 150 feet (46 m), the second 180 feet (55 m), and the third and largest to the northeast having a height of 290 feet (88 m). They three main hills are the highly eroded remnants of what used to be the peaks of the northern San Gabriel Mountains, before recent sediment filled the area.

Jackson Lake is located in the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, California, at an approximate elevation of 6,000 feet (1,800 m). The lake is located in a day-use area in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Jackson Lake is located on the USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle map entitled "Mescal Creek". Jackson Lake is a sag pond located on the San Andreas Fault, a strike slip fault that runs the length of California. Sag ponds are created when the fault action creates a depression in the land where rainwater or snowmelt can collect. The sag pond for Jackson Lake consists mostly of snowmelt from the San Gabriel Mountains. Jackson Lake has been the site of drownings due to the thin ice which can cover the top portion of the lake in colder months but may not be strong enough to support human weight. Popular activities for the lake area include fishing, swimming, picnicking, and kayaking.

Pearblossom locally is an unincorporated community located in the Antelope Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The town has a population of 2,435. The ZIP Code is 93553 and the community is inside area code 661. According to the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance report of 2009, the Palmdale / Lancaster urbanized area has a population of 483,998, of which Pearblossom is a part.

Wilsona was a (tiny and remote) 20th-century settlement in the Antelope Valley section of Los Angeles County, California. It lay in the vicinity of Big Rock Wash, at an elevation of 2726 feet (831 m) in the far northeastern corner of the county, the near the border junction of Los Angeles, Kern, and San Bernardino Counties. Wilsona had a post office beginning in 1916 between the Llano and Gray Mountain post offices. Circa 1929, Valyermo, Llano, Wilsona, Neenach, Domino, and Muroc, were all described as "post offices that serve scattered ranches. All these communities are reached by automobile, and roads lead from the [Antelope Valley] to desert towns lying to the north and east." A 1939 guide to Los Angeles County stated "Antelope Valley has many small communities, among which are Acton, Littlerock, Fairmont, Vincent, Harold, Pearblossom, Llano, Valyermo, Wilsona, Hi Vista, Tierra Bonita, Roosevelt, Redman, Del Sur, Esperanza, Rogers, Lake Hughes, Neenach, Sandberg, and Gorman. Most of these are trading centers for populations, most of which are active either in mining or agricultural pursuits." There was a Wilsona Road between Lancaster and Victorville–Adelanto. In the 1910s and 1920s the population of Wilsona supported a branch of the Los Angeles County Free Library in Wilsona at the Wilsona school. According to a history published 1927, the Wilsona branch "started September, 1915, in the tent house of a homesteader. In 1917 it was moved to the schoolhouse. In all, 1,729 books have been sent and 272 are now in stock. There are 66 registered borrowers. There was still a Miss Wilsona competing in the Miss Antelope Valley pageant as of 1958.

Lake Los Angeles is a census-designated place (CDP) in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 13,187 at the 2020 census, up from 12,328 at the 2010 census. It is located 17 miles (27 km) east of Palmdale's Civic Center. According to the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance report of 2009, the Palmdale / Lancaster urban area has a population of 483,998, of which Lake Los Angeles is a part.

Mount Burnham is one of the highest peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains. It is in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness. It is named for Frederick Russell Burnham the famous American military scout who taught Scoutcraft (then known as woodcraft) to Robert Baden-Powell and became one of the inspirations for the founding of the Boy Scouts. Mount Burnham was officially recognized by the USGS at a dedication ceremony in 1951. It was original known as (West Twin) "North Baldy Mountain". The peak is within Los Angeles County, about 16 miles (26 km) north of Glendora, and 66 miles (106 km) from Los Angeles. In 1956, Mount Burnham was added to the list of Signature Summits by the Hundred Peaks Section of the Sierra Club.

Mount Baden-Powell () is a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains of California named for the founder of the World Scouting Movement, Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell. It was officially recognized by the USGS at a dedication ceremony in 1931. It was originally known as East Twin or North Baldy.

Throop Peak ( TROOP) is a 9,142 feet (2,786 m) peak of the San Gabriel Mountains, in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Angeles National Forest, in Los Angeles County, California. The high peak provides views of both the Mojave Desert and the Los Angeles Basin all the way to the ocean. The peak was named for Amos G. Throop, founder of Caltech, formerly called Throop College. The peak marks the northwestern boundary of the Sheep Mountain Wilderness.