Northridge, CA news and local guide

De Celis's heirs later sold the northern half, 56,000 acres, to Senator George K. Porter, who called it the "Valley of the Cumberland," and Senator Charles Maclay, who exclaimed, "This is the Garden of Eden." Porter wanted to ranch and Maclay to subdivide. Francis Marion "Bud" Wright, an Iowa farm boy who became Porter's ranch hand, later helped develop the 1,100-acre Hawk Ranch, now part of Northridge. The Southern Pacific laid tracks through the Hawk Ranch in 1908, and like other railroad boomtowns, the ranch was sold for subdivision and named Zelzah in 1910, after a biblical oasis, for a well in the area. The Zelzah depot stood at what is now Parthenia Street and Reseda Boulevard. On January 13, 1910, the large balloon America landed on the Zelzah ranch after a 31-mile flight from Huntington Park, and by April the Scandia Land and Loan Company was advertising Zelzah Acres at $250 an acre as "the richest soil in California." Sources Wikipedia: Northridge, Los Angeles