I must admit I’m not an Upton Sinclair expert. Hardly. But I am familiar with "The Jungle,” which was published in 1905 and 1906. Sinclair intended his novel to expose the dire circumstances in which industrial laborers found themselves. Instead, the novel’s graphic description of unsafe and unsanitary conditions in the meat packing industry caused Congress to take action. It passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, both in 1906. People were outraged and disgusted by what they read, leading to lasting changes to the food industry.

​Well, you get Canyon Park: The Sequel.  But unlike some movie sequels that are pretty awful, the City of Monrovia got a sequel that is true to the original but oh-so-much better.
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​Canyon Park became “official” in 1911, yet the area had been utilized for decades prior.  Hibbard and Polly Rankin settled in the Emerson Flat area around 1874.  Around 1886, L.H. Emerson, for whom Emerson Flat is named, settled in the Sawpit Canyon area.  For many years, Monrovians enjoyed hiking and camping in Canyon Park, even though getting there was difficult because there was no road.  In1911, Taylor Renaker, member of a pioneer Monrovia family, started a group of volunteers building that
road.  Thus began the “official” Canyon Park.