Historical Marker · No. 681
Paradox Hybrid Walnut Tree
Whittier, Los Angeles County · California
Erected by Whittier Area Community Beautiful; Grand Parlor Native Daughters of the Golden West; Whittier Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), 1963
Luther Burbank crossed the Northern California black walnut with the English walnut and named the result Paradox in 1893, for a vigor that outruns its yield. The trees shoot up and out and bear poorly, which is the paradox. This one went into the ground in 1907, planted by George Weinshank under Professor Ralph Smith for the University of California's experiment station, and its crown now spreads about a hundred feet. The groves it was meant to improve are gone. The Native Daughters and the DAR saved the tree in 1955.
What the plaque says
Paradox Hybrid Walnut Tree Planted in 1907 as an experiment for the University of California. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 681 Dedicated 1963 By Whittier Area Community Beautiful Grand Parlor Native Daughters of the Golden West Whittier Chapter, Daughters American Revolution
Where it stands
33.97390, -118.04603 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 9.2 miThe fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.
- Domínguez Rancho Adobe — 12 miThe first Spanish land grant in California contained the whole harbor, and in 1846 fifty Californio lancers turned back three hundred Marines on it.
- Chavez Ravine — 13 miThree Mexican American neighborhoods cleared for public housing that was never built, then traded to a ballclub.
- Colorado Street Bridge — 14 miBeaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.