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62-526: The Burro Flats site is a painted cave site located near Burro Flats, in the Simi Hills of eastern Ventura County, California , United States. The Chumash-style "main panel" and the surrounding 25-acres were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, with a boundary decrease in 2020. The main panel includes dozens of pictographs in a variety of colors. The cave is in the mountains, near

124-616: A crucial wildlife corridor to the Santa Susanas, has been proposed for public open space parkland after the closed site's cleanup completion. The population of red-legged frogs is small and isolated, and was impacted by the Woolsey Fire swept through the area in November 2018. The Simi Hills were inhabited for over 8,000 years by Paleo-indians and Chumash-Venturaño Native Americans for settlements and hunting grounds. The Chumash had

186-574: A public company. Nevertheless, NAA continued with new designs, including the T-28 Trojan trainer and attack aircraft, the F-82 Twin Mustang fighter, B-45 Tornado jet bomber, the FJ Fury fighter, AJ Savage , the revolutionary XB-70 Valkyrie Mach-3 strategic bomber , Shrike Commander , and T-39 Sabreliner business jet. The Columbus, Ohio division of North American Aviation was instrumental in

248-481: A single large site, although Rozaire's 11 "site" numbers continued to be cited by many researchers. Fenenga said that, "Because of its magnitude, the complex of features which are integral to it, the dramatic physiographic location, the unmodified natural landscape, and the fine state of preservation [it is] one of the major examples of aboriginal American art, one of the most important archaeological sites in America [i.e. in

310-413: Is also an important member of the native plant habitat community here. The Simi Hills is the principal, and much wider, of only two terrestrial wildlife corridors linking the coastal Santa Monica Mountains with the inland Santa Susana Mountains , Topatopa Mountains , and San Gabriel Mountains , all of the transverse ranges fauna community. The Simi Hills are a critical wildlife corridor linkage for

372-553: Is now part of Boeing . On December 6, 1928, Clement Melville Keys founded North American as a holding company that bought and sold interests in various airlines and aviation-related companies. However, the Air Mail Act of 1934 forced the breakup of such holding companies. North American became a manufacturing company, run by James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger , who had been recruited from Douglas Aircraft Company . NAA did retain ownership of Eastern Air Lines until 1938. In 1933,

434-806: The B-25 Mitchell bomber , the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane , the XB-70 bomber, the B-1 Lancer , the Apollo command and service module , the second stage of the Saturn V rocket , and the Space Shuttle orbiter . Through a series of mergers and sales, North American Aviation became part of North American Rockwell , which later became Rockwell International , and

496-624: The GA-15 observation plane and the GA-16 trainer, followed by the O-47 and BT-9 , also called the GA-16. The BC-1 of 1937 was North American's first combat aircraft; it was based on the GA-16. In 1940, like other manufacturers, North American started gearing up for war, opening factories in Columbus, Ohio , Dallas, Texas , and Kansas City, Kansas . North American ranked eleventh among United States corporations in

558-700: The General Motors Corporation purchased a controlling interest in NAA, and merged it with the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation , but retained the name North American Aviation. Kindelberger moved the company's operations from Dundalk, Maryland to Los Angeles, California , which allowed flying year-round, and decided to focus on training aircraft, on the theory that it would be easier than trying to compete with established companies on larger projects. NAA's first planes were

620-568: The Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) for open-air testing of rocket engines from 1947 to 1990, and the site of experimental nuclear reactor experiments with four nuclear accidents between 1959 and 1969; these projects and accidents were declassified in 1989. The first accident, in 1959, was the most serious with a full meltdown. The extent of the accident is unknown due to instrument limitations, other than that it released extensive radiation. More radiation

682-501: The S-II second stage of the Saturn V . The fatal Apollo 1 fire in January 1967 was initially blamed on the company in the press, although a Congressional Hearing later ruled otherwise. In September, it merged with Rockwell-Standard, and the merged company became known as North American Rockwell . During this period the company continued its involvement with the Apollo program , building

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744-623: The US Navy and US Marine Corps for four decades. The Buckeye's name would be an acknowledgment to the state tree of Ohio , as well as the mascot of Ohio State University . The North American F-86 Sabre started out as a redesigned Fury and achieved fame shooting down MiGs in the Korean War . Over 9,000 F-86s were produced. Its successor, the North American F-100 Super Sabre , was also popular. Some 6,656 F-86s were produced in

806-511: The X-15 , a rocket-powered aircraft that first flew in 1959. In 1959, North American built the first of several Little Joe boosters used to test the launch escape system for the Project Mercury spacecraft . In 1960, the new CEO Lee Atwood decided to focus on the space program , and the company became the prime contractor for the Apollo command and service module , a larger Little Joe II rocket to test Apollo's launch escape system, and

868-492: The evergreen coastal live oak ( Quercus agrifolia ), the deciduous valley oak ( Quercus lobata ), and the scrub oak ( Quercus dumosa ). Riparian zone plants include California sycamores ( Platanus racemosa ) and arroyo willows ( Salix lasiolepis ). Spring wildflowers include the redbush monkey flower ( Mimulus aurantiacus ), Plummer's mariposa lily ( Calochortus plummerae ), and canyon sunflower ( Encelia californica ). poison oak ( Toxicodendron diversilobum )

930-561: The Burro Flats area was acquired by the Henry Silvernale and William Hall families, who named their property "Sky Valley Ranch." Area historic research by Bob Edberg has shown that William Hall's family was familiar with the local Native American community, and it is likely that the local Native American community continued to have access to the area, at least until Sky Valley Ranch was acquired by North American Aviation (the predecessor to

992-636: The Columbus plant grew from 1,600 in 1950 to 18,000 in 1952. The cancellation of the F-107 and F-108 programs in the late 1950s, as well as the cancellation of the Navaho intercontinental cruise missile program, was a blow to North American from which it never fully recovered. Atomics International was a division of North American Aviation which began as the Atomic Energy Research Department at

1054-778: The Command and Service modules for all eleven missions. Within two years the new company also was studying concepts for the Space Shuttle , and won the orbiter contract in 1972. In 1973, the company changed its name again to Rockwell International and named its aircraft division North American Aircraft Operations. Rockwell International's defense and space divisions (including the North American Aviation divisions Autonetics and Rocketdyne) were sold to Boeing in December 1996. Initially called Boeing North American, these groups were integrated with Boeing's Defense division. Rocketdyne

1116-599: The Conejo Valley. The Simi Hills further block these winds, which bring cool weather in both summer and winter from the San Fernando Valley . The southern lower hills are mostly covered in grasslands and oak savanna. The northern rocky hills area is primarily chaparral shrubland and oak woodlands . The Simi Hills are part of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion . The oaks ( Quercus spp. ) include:

1178-554: The Downey plant in 1948. In 1955, the department was renamed Atomics International and engaged principally in the early development of nuclear technology and nuclear reactors for both commercial and government applications. Atomics International was responsible for a number of accomplishments relating to nuclear energy: design, construction and operation of the first nuclear reactor in California (a small aqueous homogeneous reactor located at

1240-820: The NAA Downey plant), the first nuclear reactor to produce power for a commercial power grid in the United States (the Sodium Reactor Experiment located at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory ) and the first nuclear reactor launched into outer space by the United States (the SNAP-10A ). As overall interest in nuclear power declined, Atomics International transitioned to non-nuclear energy-related projects such as coal gasification and gradually ceased designing and testing nuclear reactors. Atomics International

1302-545: The P-51 into what many consider to be the best American fighter of the war. Labor troubles became a grave issue in 1941. During the 22 months from August 1939 to June 1941 Stalin and Hitler supported each other as war raged in Europe. In the U.S., local union officials opposed American aid to Britain's war against Germany. They called strikes in war industries that were supplying Lend Lease to Britain. The United Auto Workers (UAW) won

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1364-776: The Santa Monica Mountains to these and other Transverse Ranges further east. The undeveloped native habitat provides routes that protect larger land wildlife of the Santa Monicas from genetic isolation. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is a proposed vegetated overpass spanning the Ventura Freeway at Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills, California . Large sections of the Simi Hills are protected by parks and open space preserves. The Santa Susana Field Laboratory property,

1426-539: The Santa Susana Field Laboratory) in 1954. Indeed, it is quite possible that the name "Sky Valley" may be an English translation of the old Indian name for the Burro Flats area. The polychrome "main panel" paintings came to the attention of the general public due to the work of the ASASC. This was largely due to two of the crew members: the artist Charles La Monk, who made full-scale reproductions of several of

1488-637: The Simi Hills typically experience rainy , mild winters. Snow is rare in the Simi Hills, even in the highest areas. Summers are warm and dry and wildfires do occur here. Cool winds from the Pacific Ocean come from the Oxnard Plain and blow into the inland areas through the Santa Clara River Valley and the Conejo Valley , though some low hills, such as Conejo Mountain , block these winds from

1550-465: The Simi Hills. In the first half of the 20th century, there were four large movie ranches in the Simi Hills for filming motion pictures on location. The gated community of Bell Canyon began development of geographic Bell Canyon in the 1968. To the north of U.S. 101 , east of Thousand Oaks , and west of Simi Valley the early 1960s suburban expansion of metropolitan Los Angeles brought the development of small to significantly sized parcels of land in

1612-545: The Simi Hills. Hillside subdivisions regraded natural contours into terraced lots, changing the Hills viewshed, drainage patterns, and habitats in those areas. The extensive planned new community projects at Jordan Ranch and Ahmanson Ranch were eventually stopped by local citizens and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy keeping extensive Hills acreage natural in open space parks. The Simi Hills were home of

1674-447: The State of California site numbers CA-VEN-151 to CA-VEN-161; the Burro Flats painted cave itself thus became CA-VEN-160. Rozaire also performed new excavations in the same area where the ASASC had worked some years earlier. This was at what Rozaire had recorded as CA-VEN-151. These two "sites" are adjacent to each other, but are distinct; there was no archaeological deposit in the painted cave,

1736-512: The USSR on June 22, the Communist activists suddenly became the strongest supporters of war production; they crushed wildcat strikes. Post-war, North American's employment dropped from a high of 91,000 to 5,000 in 1946. On V-J Day , North American had orders from the U.S. government for 8,000 aircraft. A few months later, that had dropped to 24. Two years later in 1948, General Motors divested NAA as

1798-488: The United States, the most produced postwar military aircraft in the West, as well as another 2,500 elsewhere. To accommodate its Sabre production, North American opened facilities in a former Curtiss-Wright plant in Columbus, Ohio . It also moved into a former Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft plant at Downey, California , and in 1948, built a new plant at Downey. By the end of 1952, North American sales topped $ 315 million. Employment at

1860-586: The United States] and it certainly meets the criteria for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places ." The area that was first described by Rozaire in the 1960s, and later by Fenenga in 1973, was listed on the National Register in 1976. The listing is called "Burro Flats Painted Cave," which is of itself actually only one site-locus. The 25 acres that were listed include at least 24 loci, many of which include pictographs, petroglyphs, and cupules. In

1922-703: The balance of the natural world. Upstream were healing springs and are rock outcrop 'grinding stones.' The Burro Flats Painted Cave , an example of the Rock art of the Chumash people , is nearby. The Juan Bautista de Anza expedition passed through the area in 1769, being the first European sighting of the Simi Hills. The U.S. National Park Service administers the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail which enters at Moore Canyon in El Escorpión Park and crosses across

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1984-483: The best-preserved Native American art in Southern California. Archaeologists estimate the paintings to be several hundred years old. The site was used to predict and celebrate the winter solstice . In 1971, Fernandeño Indians asked NASA (the property owner) to safeguard the site. At the time, Fernandeño tribal leader Rudy Ortega Sr. said, "We really know very little of our heritage. ... The paintings are one of

2046-415: The bi-lingual Chumash/Fernandeno village of Huwam/Jucjauynga. The Burro Flats painted cave and the rest of the former Santa Susana Field Laboratory are not accessible to the public. Among the pictographs are two human figures wearing feathered headdresses. There are also "raked anthropomorph " motifs, possible comet figures, and many more naturalistic elements. The Burro Flats cave pictographs are some of

2108-596: The border reduction, it is referred to as the "Burro Flats Site", the title-case version of the "Burro Flats site" found in many sources. The work by the ASASC, Rozaire, Grant, and Fenenga, focused on and described the Burro Flats cave art and the archaeological components of the site. The research begun in 1979, by the archaeologist John Romani, Edwin Krupp (the Director of the Griffith Observatory ), and others, showed that

2170-433: The central Transverse Ranges System. They lie almost entirely within southeastern Ventura County , with some southern and eastern foothills within western Los Angeles County . The Simi Hills are on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley . The Simi Valley lies to the north, and the Conejo Valley lies to the southwest. The San Fernando Valley communities of Chatsworth , West Hills , and Woodland Hills are in

2232-610: The eastern hills and adjacent valley floor in Los Angeles city and county . The cities of Agoura Hills and Westlake Village are also located in Los Angeles County, generally southwest of the Simi Hills. The cities of Thousand Oaks (to the west) and Simi Valley city (to the north) are in the hills and adjacent valleys within Ventura County. The two nearby mountain ranges are: the higher Santa Susana Mountains adjacent on

2294-580: The election over the International Association of Machinists and represented all the employees at the North American factory in Inglewood, California. UAW negotiators demanded the starting pay be raised from 50 cents an hour to 75 cents, plus a 10 cents raise for the 11,000 current employees. The national union had made a no-strike pledge but suddenly a wildcat strike by the local on June 5 closed

2356-459: The entire former Santa Susana Field Laboratory to the National Register of Historic Places (the nomination is pending, as of May 2019). In order to guard the pictographs, the exact location of the cave is kept secret. Archeologists are allowed to occasionally visit the site for research purposes only – no casual visitors are allowed, and only members of the local Native American community are granted regular access. The Sky Valley/Burro Flats area

2418-454: The established village of Hu'wam in Cañon del Escorpión (Bell Canyon). It was a multicultural 'crossroads' destination, where Chumash, Tongva , and Tataviam peoples traded and lived beside Bell Creek below Escorpión Peak , at the present day Bell Canyon Park . This peak in the Simi Hills (aka: Castle Peak) is one of nine alignment points in Chumash territory and is essential to maintaining

2480-722: The exclusive development and production of the A-5 Vigilante , an advanced high speed attack aircraft that saw significant use as a naval reconnaissance aircraft during the Vietnam War , the OV-10 Bronco , the first aircraft specifically designed for forward air control (FAC), and counter-insurgency (COIN) duties, and the T-2 Buckeye Naval trainer, which would serve from the late 1950s until 2008 and be flown in training by virtually every Naval Aviator and Naval Flight Officer in

2542-422: The few physical links to our heritage. We hope one day to interpret their stories for our people." Tribal leaders expressed concern about damage that could result from vandals or weather and asked NASA to enclose the cave in glass, but this was never done, in order to keep the site and surrounding area as pristine as possible. However, the site and surrounding area was fenced off, to keep unauthorized people out of

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2604-525: The floor of which is bedrock. The artifacts that Rozaire recovered were added to the ASASC collections, and they are now also in the possession of the Autry Museum. Of the Burro Flats cave art, Rozaire noted that they are most like "those in the west-central coast ranges of Santa Barbara, Kern, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties." As such, the painting were composed in what is now called the Chumash-style. This

2666-490: The former Field Laboratory to be "excess government property" and will divest its holding, following area clean-up. Those acres will most likely become permanent open space also. The Chumash tribe has requested the return of the site to the tribe. The Santa Ynez Chumash have suggested that the general area be renamed The Sky Valley/'Alapay a 'altuqipin Traditional Cultural Property, and the tribe has nominated

2728-598: The headwaters of the Los Angeles River , by name its beginning with their confluence in nearby Canoga Park . 90% of the Santa Susana Field Lab property drains into the Los Angeles River via tributaries. Peaks in this region include Simi Peak , 2,403 ft (732 m), Chatsworth Peak , 2,314 ft (700 m), and Escorpión Peak (aka: Castle Peak), 1,475 ft (450 m). Because of its low elevation,

2790-656: The immediate area. In 1978, the pictographs were the subject of the documentary film, "Cave Paintings of the Chumash Indians." The Santa Susana Field Laboratory has been closed for many years and is undergoing a complex cleanup. Historical Resource studies and site protection are part of the process. Boeing transferred an easement to the North American Land Trust which requires their property to remain as open space and protected from residential and agricultural development by future owners. NASA has declared its part of

2852-590: The northeast across Santa Susana Pass ; and the Santa Monica Mountains running nearby along the south. The hills provide the complete or partial watersheds for several year-round creeks and numerous seasonal streams. They include Las Virgenes Creek (tributary of Malibu Creek ), Moore's Canyon Creek, Bell Creek , Dayton Creek, Woolsey Canyon Creek, Brandeis Creek, Runkle Canyon Creek, Arroyo Simi , Palo Comado Creek, Cheeseboro Creek, and Arroyo Calabasas (northern fork). Bell Creek and Arroyo Calabasas are

2914-461: The paintings, and who published a short report on his work in 1953, and Gordon Redtfeldt, who made several field sketches at this time. La Monk's paintings and Redtfeldt's sketches were circulated in the archaeological community, and knowledge of the existence of the site and the paintings began to spread. In 1959–1960, Dr. Charles Rozaire performed the first general survey of the area and he recorded eleven more-or-less distinct "sites." These were given

2976-472: The plant that produced a fourth of the fighters. The UAW national leader Richard Frankensteen flew in but was unable to get the workers to return. So Washington intervened. With the approval of national CIO leadership, President Franklin Roosevelt on June 8 sent in the California national guard to reopen the plant with bayonets. Strikers were told to return immediately or be drafted into the US Army. They sullenly complied. However, when Germany suddenly invaded

3038-415: The range. The Rim of the Valley Trail Corridor is in the planning stages and includes the Simi Hills open space parklands and proposed new areas. North American Aviation North American Aviation ( NAA ) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter ,

3100-420: The site (complex) was utilized to predict and observe both the winter and summer solstices . This fact about its past use attracted peoples' attention, and generated a new level of interest in the site. Additional research in the early 1990s refined previous descriptions of the 25-acre National Register of Historic Places-listed site complex, which was re-recorded, generally following Fenenga's 1973 definition of

3162-417: The site boundaries, as CA-VEN-1072. The Burro Flats "main panel" (i.e. Rozaire's CA-VEN-160) thus became CA-VEN-1072, Locus 10. A replica of the pictographs can be seen on a six-foot-high wall in the magazine area of Simi Valley Library. Simi Hills The Simi Hills are aligned east-west and run for 26 miles (42 km), and average around 7 mi (11 km) north-south. The Simi Hills are part of

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3224-475: The site. The thousands of artifacts recovered are at the Autry Museum of the American West . At about the same time Brinkop visited, members of the local Native American community told the anthropologist John Peabody Harrington that there had been "a very large rancheria" at Burro Flats, and that "There are painted caves" near the old village (John P. Harrington Fernandeno Reel 106 notes; transcripts of Harrington's 19-teen notes were not published until 1986). In 1939

3286-425: The southern Hills through Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve and Cheeseboro/Palo Comado Canyon Park to the Conejo Valley . In 1845 the land grant for Rancho El Escorpión , beside the Peak and named for it, was issued to one Chumash and two Tongva people and a rare instance of Native Americans being grantees, by Mexican Governor Pío Pico . The Rancho El Conejo was to the west, and included that end of

3348-508: The value of wartime production contracts. North American's follow-on to the BT-9 was the T-6 Texan trainer, of which 17,000 were built, making it the most widely used trainer ever. The twin-engine B-25 Mitchell bomber achieved fame in the Doolittle Raid and was used in all combat theaters of operation. The P-51 Mustang was initially produced for Britain as an alternative to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk , which North American had declined to produce under licence. The derivative A-36 Mustang

3410-413: Was a member of the Pierre Agoure family, for whom the Agoura Hills area is named. Brinkop made several simple field sketches of the cave art in 1914, and he presented his drawings to Dr. Hector Alliott, the then Director of the Southwest Indian Museum, in Los Angeles. Almost 40 years later, the Archaeological Survey Association of Southern California (ASASC) performed extensive archaeological excavations at

3472-411: Was confirmed by the noted rock art expert, Campbell Grant, who visited the site in the mid-1960s. Grant recorded the main panel in detail and gave it his number Ventura-4, and he described it as his Ventureno (i.e. Eastern Chumash) type site (see Rock Paintings of the Chumash 1965). The area was examined again in 1973 by the archaeologist Franklin Fenenga, who consolidated all 11 of Rozaire's "sites" into

3534-435: Was developed as a ground attack aircraft and dive bomber. This was done, in part, to keep the airframe in production as the US Army Air Corps had not yet decided to purchase the type as a fighter. A suggestion by the RAF that North American switch the P-51's powerplant from its original Allison engine to the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine may have been one of the most significant events in World War II aviation, as it transformed

3596-471: Was eventually merged with the Rocketdyne division in 1978. Autonetics began in 1945 at North American's Technical Research Laboratory, a small unit in the Los Angeles Division's engineering department based in Downey, California . The evolution of the Navaho missile program resulted in the establishment of Autonetics as a separate division of North American Aviation in 1955, first located in Downey, later moving to Anaheim, California in 1963. The division

3658-405: Was involved in the development of guidance systems for the Minuteman ballistic missile system. In 1955, the rocket engine operations were spun off into a separate division as Rocketdyne . This division furnished engines for the Redstone , Jupiter , Thor , Delta , and Atlas missiles, and for NASA 's Saturn family of launch vehicles . North American designed and built the airframe for

3720-402: Was not with the group, which was led by William H. Brewer. Brewer's history of his explorations can be found in "Up and Down California in 1860–1864" (2003:45-46 University of California Press). Brewer's party explored a large area in a short amount of time, and he does not specifically mention any native "rock art." The first non-native person known to have visited the site was Walter Brinkop, who

3782-415: Was part of the Rancho San José de Nuestra Senora de Altagracia y Simi , and was used exclusively for cattle and sheep grazing throughout the Spanish and Mexican periods, and well into the American Period, until the mid-20th Century. The Josiah D. Whitney Expedition arrived in February 1861. They were exploring and mapping California which had been acquired by the United States a decade earlier. Whitney himself

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3844-411: Was released in the 1959 event than in the Three Mile Island accident 20 years later. The groundwater under portions of the Simi Hills, contaminated with toxins and radionuclides that were also historically used at SSFL, has been and is a key concern in new development decisions and the SSFL property's future limited to parkland use after an impending cleanup, initiating preservation of more open space in

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