Canyon, California
| Canyon | |
|---|---|
| Unincorporated community | |
 Canyon
Canyon
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| Coordinates: 37°50′02″N 122°09′54.1″W / 37.83389°N 122.165028°WCoordinates: 37°50′02″N 122°09′54.1″W / 37.83389°N 122.165028°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Contra Costa / Alameda |
| Government | |
| • Assembly | Nancy Skinner (D) |
| Elevation | 1,138 ft (347 m) |
| GNIS ID | 255912 |
| FIPS code | 06-10830 |
Canyon, formerly known as Sequoya, is an unincorporated community located near the border of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the U.S. state of California. It is situated between Oakland and Moraga in the San Francisco Bay Area. The community is named for its location in the upper canyon of San Leandro Creek along the eastern slope of the Berkeley Hills. Canyon lies at an elevation of 1138 feet (347 m).
The community is mainly traversed by Pinehurst Road and Canyon Road. The homes of the community are nestled amongst the steep, narrow private roads and footpaths that extend from the redwood groves and ferns along the creek, through the mixed live oak, bay, and madrone forests on the steep hillsides, up to the chaparral and knobcone pines that grow along the ridge.
Canyon has a colorful history. Logging camps and notorious saloons helped establish a local reputation for rowdiness in the nineteenth century. A vast forest known as the Moraga Redwoods once covered the valley that is now Canyon. An extant fire trail west of the spot where Pinehurst Road makes a sharp hairpin turn near Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve was previously known as Winding Way on some maps, and was originally an old 19th century logging road built by Hiram Thorn. In the 1850s, Thorn operated a mill on the site. Thorn built the road to bring redwood logs out of the forest and to his mill, and then over the mountain into Oakland via the Temescal Creek route on the northwest edge of Montclair Village. The Oakland part of the route is now known as Thornhill Road.
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