OJAI : Club’s Plaque Shows Geographic Features

One of the best views of Ojai can be found on the Dennison Grade overlook where a scene of the mythical Shangri-La was filmed for Frank Capra’s 1937 classic, “Lost Horizon.”

Sightseers who pause at the turnout along the serpentine climb of California 150, linking the lower and upper Ojai valleys, are finding the horizon easier to identify now.

The Rotary Club of Ojai has installed an interpretive plaque that identifies a dozen geographical points. Most are visible from the overlook.

Cast in bronze are White Ledge Peak, Three Sisters Peak, Chief Peak, Nordhoff Peak, Matilija Twin Peaks and the 6,244-foot-high Topatopa Peak. Also marked are Horn, Senior and Gridley canyons, among others.

Club member Jane McCarthy, marketing director at Ojai Valley Community Hospital, said it was educational for many of the 65 professional and business people in Rotary to learn the names of the mountains and canyons they see daily.

The plaque’s installation and a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 15, the culmination of the club’s nine-month project to beautify the overlook site, were marked by commendations from County Supervisor Maggie Erickson’s office and Ojai Mayor Nina Shelley.

Using $13,000 of its members’ donations and much of their time to haul trash away from the overlook, the club paved the small parking area, built stone walls and benches, installed garbage cans and put up fencing to keep sightseers from wandering farther onto private property.

Local contractor Ernest Ford, whose property includes the vista point, was thinking of sealing it off after years of putting up with trespassers and trash.

“A lot of people dumped garbage up there,” McCarthy said. “We had a massive cleanup last November and several mini-cleanups since then.”

“It’s our gift to Ojai,” said project coordinator Larry Wilde, an Ojai real estate broker. He credited former club president Roger Phelps, an Ojai optometrist, for directing the effort, stonemason David Lee for contributing his skills and Ojai artist Kent Butler for sketching the plaque’s mountain relief.