ST. ANDREW’S ABBEY, VALYERMO, CALIFORNIA – THE BACKSIDE STORY

In the small Southern California town of Valyermo, southeast of Palmdale, California – there lies a Benedictine Monastery by the name of Saint Andrew’s Abbey.  The Abbey was initiated in 1956 (the year I was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood, CA – which is now the Scientology Headquarters).

What does the Saint Andrew’s Abbey have to do with my geology blog.  Two things. Dr. Levi and Dorothy Noble and the San Andreas Fault.  Before 1956, the St. Andrew’s Abbey property was the Hidden Springs Ranch.  This was owned by renouned geologist Dr. Andrew Levi and his wife Dorothy who lived there from 1910 for most of their married lives.  Dr. Noble died in 1965 near Auburn, New York.

Levi Noble did some amazing field work on the Palmdale segment of the San Andreas Fault and first noticed some of the fault scarps from the 1857 Fort Tejon Great Earthquake.  Noble was also a rancher and with his wife, ran the Hidden Springs Ranch at a profit.

Noble also did geological work along the fault at the Mormon Rocks, the Grand Canyon, the Tehachapis and Death Valley.

There are lots of materials on the Abbey and the life of Levi Noble.  I have included some pictures from their ranch days and the Abbey is known for their ceramics.  Thanks to Katie Wagner for her inspiration and information and something that connected with me after reading a book about the history of the San Andreas Fault ("Earthquake Storms" by John Dvorak).  

The backside story:  This particular segment of the San Andreas runs from Wrightwood, CA which is the highest elevation of the fault at 6,862 ft. above sea level, to Palmdale, CA.  The fault is located just back or on the southern boundary of the Abbey or the old Hidden Ranch.  

Dr. Kerry Sieh did his landmark research at Pallett Creek just west of the Abbey, to discover how often and regularly this segment of the San Andreas produces large earthquakes in Southern California.

No doubt that as a result of the Great Fort Tejon Earthquake of 1857 that the ranch was jolted and lurched around 10 feet to the southeast relative to the westward movement of the San Gabriel Mountains just south of the fault line.  The 10 feet of movement would have been immediate.

St. Andrews Abbey is definitely worth a visit and while you’re there, check out the fault features in this area of Southern California.

A screen shot from Google Earth Pro.  The black line from the left to the middle lower right is where the fault line passes just south of the Abbey, north center of the above picture.

The Abbey lower front, with the San Andreas Fault from Wrightwood, California top-left (highlighted in yellow).