La Cañada History: ‘Chiquita’ the ocelot gets some press

Ten Years Ago

With a series of lectures and a film depicting its early history, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated its 70th anniversary in the fall of 2006. JPL retold the story of how in 1936 a few Caltech students and some of their friends found an out-of-the-way area north of the Rose Bowl to test their experimental motor, so that if things went awry and an explosion ensued, no bystanders would be injured. Unknown to them at the time, that section of the Arroyo Seco would later become home to the jet lab.

Twenty Years Ago

An alleged drunk driver being pursued by the California Highway Patrol drove his car into a turnout on Angeles Crest Highway above La Cañada and just kept going, plunging 400 feet over the side and into a canyon. Surviving his crash, the 32-year-old El Monte resident was rescued by the Montrose Search and Rescue Team and transported by sheriff’s helicopter to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena to be treated.

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Thirty Years Ago

The La Cañada Flintridge City Council voted unanimously to approve a one-year contract with the city of Glendale to administer a Dial-a-Ride service in the Foothills, with the fare set at $1.

Forty Years Ago

Local residents were facing a historic ballot in 1976, when they were asked to choose whether or not La Cañada and Flintridge (the latter of which then carried a Pasadena Zip Code, but was part of La Cañada Unified School District), should unite and incorporate as one city. At the same time, they were asked to vote for five of the 15 candidates vying for a seat on the first La Cañada Flintridge City Council, assuming the cityhood vote was favorable.

Fifty Years Ago

Kathy Macy of La Cañada won the Pacific Quarter Horse Assn. High Point Youth Rider award in competition held at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. The La Cañada High School senior was presented a hand-carved saddle as her prize. Another thrill for her family came when their yearling filly, “Thunder’s Trina,” placed first in her class out of 36 entries.

Sixty Years Ago

Chiquita, a 5-year-old ocelot from Peru, was featured in a Valley Sun article in 1956. The exotic cat was the pet of Mr. and Mrs. J.V. Thomas of Madison Road. She reportedly had the run of the house during the day, but at night slept in an outdoor enclosure.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.