The Arroyo Seco

The Arroyo Seco, Spanish for dry wash, drains the southwestern San Gabriel Mountains and flows through Pasadena to its confluence with the Los Angeles River. The arroyo s banks became a transportation corridor of trails, railroads, and highways and an enclave for industrialists and artists. For more than a century, its very name evoking more than a stream, it has been a Los Angeles County region overlaying municipalities, eras, and cultures. Eight museums are located in or around the arroyo. Famous attractions included Busch Gardens and Cawston Ostrich Farm, as well as a real-life field of dreams, Jackie Robinson Stadium, and the granddaddy sporting field of them all, the Rose Bowl. The nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory s storied principals used this wide dry wash to launch the forerunners of space probes."