The lay of the land at nature center

When Arline Huff Howard looks out at the fields in the Huntington Central Park, she doesn’t see the vibrant-colored grass or the disc-golf course.

She sees the land the way it was when she and her family lived on the 40-acre ranch on the land. Instead of the Shipley Nature Center, she sees the pond and stream where she and her sisters caught tadpoles.

She sees a mesa ? dubbed Huff’s Hill ? that vanished to make way for the 405 Freeway. She sees sprawling walnut orchards and crops of lima beans, celery and other vegetables, which would later be sold at a Los Angeles produce market. She remembers the sea of oilfields backed by the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

“It’s changed so much,” Howard said at her downtown home. “When I drive down Goldenwest, I don’t see all the tall houses; I still see what I saw as a kid.”

On Saturday, the Friends of Shipley Nature Center is having its first Spring Festival from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the land Howard used to call home. Organizers hope to make it an annual event. The day will be dedicated to educating residents about the Shipley Nature Center and the native wildlife around it.

The center was opened in 1974 and the nonprofit group has been helping restore the ecological site, bringing back native fauna and flora where invasive plants had taken over.

In 1903, Howard’s grandfather, Samuel G. Huff, purchased the land that would later be the site of the park and the Shipley Nature Center. Samuel Huff, who is credited as Surf City’s first doctor, moved his family onto the land, which had a house and barn. Box 164, which is now where Goldenwest Street and Talbert Avenue meet, marked the end of the unpaved country road that led to the ranch house.

Howard was born in January 1929, the fourth of four daughters, to Ralph and Alice Louisa Huff.

“When Arline was born she was my baby,” said Howard’s older sister Agnes Jahn, who now lives in Visalia, Calif. “Except when she had dirty diapers.”

When Samuel Huff decided to move off the land, he sold it to Howard’s father, and the family moved into the ranch house.

Howard said she remembered always wanting to play, especially in the girls’ playhouse, which was complete with a fireplace and outside barbecue. They would play doctor and nurse, mother and father, and other childhood games not unlike those played today.

When it was time to enroll in school, Howard went to Huntington Beach Elementary School, but soon transferred to Ocean View because the bus driver at the former said he didn’t want to make the trek to pick the Huff girls up. The Huffs lived in the country, and they sometimes wished they lived in the city.

“What I missed was the companionship of other kids,” said Howard’s sister May Robson. “Other kids would walk home from high school, and we all had to take the bus.”

The Depression hit Huntington Beach residents hard, and the Huff family lost a lot, Howard said.

“Mom used to make our underwear out of flour sacks,” Howard said. “That’s when we had the chicken egg ranch. My folks lost a lot, and my grandparents lost a lot.”

In 1933, the Huffs survived a devastating earthquake, which cost Southern California $40 million and 115 lives.

“I was standing on the back porch steps and I could see [Goldenwest] Street waving,” Howard said of the quake. “Beerow ran away. Dad was nervous and took us to grandma’s house because of the gas lines on Goldenwest.”

Beerow, the family dog, was found later on Beach Boulevard, unharmed.

By the time she was 18, Howard was working at Eader Bakery, where she met Marcus Howard, whose dad owned the grocery store next door. The two were married in 1951, just one year before the Huff family would move off the hill that bore their name. In 1954, just two years after the Huffs moved out, the land was purchased by the state of California through eminent domain, and the dirt from Huff’s Hill was used to help build the 405.

“It was a good life,” Robson said. “It was nice to be able to stand on the hill and it seemed like you could see forever.”

Today Howard sits on the board of the Huntington Beach Historical Society, and she is constantly collecting old photos and keeping records of the town as it grew.

“If I don’t do it, I’m afraid I don’t think anybody is going to do it,” she said as she thumbed through one of her numerous scrapbooks filled with vintage photos of Surf City. “I just like the old history.”

Saturday will feature a breakfast and other activities, concluding with a tour. For more, call (714) 842-4772 or e-mail ShipleyNature@yahoo.com.hbi.27-arlinehuff-CPhotoInfo5L1QAT9R20060427iyavnqncLINDA NGUYEN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Arline Huff Howard, member of a pioneer family in Huntington, shows off a Native American spoon found on their ranch. Shipley Nature Center, located on the land where Huff once lived, holds its Spring Festival from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.