1media/IMG_0669.jpg2013-10-24T20:59:07-07:00Our visit7revpar2013-10-24T21:57:53-07:00As we make our way down garbage mountain, a student asks the guide about the genesis of the name "Sunshine Canyon." She speaks of a story surrounding the Los Angeles legend, Gene Autry. Autry was an American performer who gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Our guide told us that Autry once own a ranch on the property where the landfill now stands. Since Autry was knows a the "sunshine cowboy," the name of sunshine was bestowed upon the landfill.
How fitting that Autry, the quintessential representative of America (white, male, athletic, famous), gave the landfill its name. And so I leave you with a favorite Autry cover song appropriate for our excursion.
