Crest & Harbison Canyon
Crest
According to authorities, as of 2010 about 10,500 people live in Crest and nearby Dehesa, another small community. The median household income for the 3,562 households in both places is estimated at almost $94,822 a year.
Southwest of Alpine the attractive mountain foothill community of Crest tops a ridge south of Interstate 8. The town’s name is derived from the north section, known as La Cresta, and the southern end that was dubbed Suncrest. Bunches of granite rocks stand out amid the oak and coastal sage scrub.
The mountain top community was subdivided into resort-style developments during the 1920s. Eventually legendary movie star Gregory Peck owned a summer home in Crest, which has spectacular views of the region. Twenty miles east of the Pacific Ocean and 1,640 feet above sea level, residents and visitors can gaze north and east into the mountains, west to see the Pacific, and south to take a look at Mexico.
Crest has withstood the effects of two major wildfires in the last 50 years. The Laguna Fire blazed through in 1970 and the deadly Cedar fire roared across the community in 2003.
Activities and businesses in Crest include a county park, a branch of the San Diego County library, an automotive parts store and a pizzeria and deli.
Harbison Canyon
Harbison Canyon is a community of about 1,300 mostly middle-class residents.
A store and a few other business interests that include a nudists’ resort. The buzz in Harbison Canyon, west of Alpine, is from a small, useful insect that helped sweeten the nation in the late 1800's. Kumeyaay Indian relics can still be found near the stream that runs through the park and canyon in the little rural community made famous by John Stewart Harbison, known as the “King of the Beekeepers.”
It was much less settled when Harbison, the third child of a Freedom, Penn., couple, arrived. Following his father’s interests when he came West in 1869, Harbison had 110 colonies of bees with him aboard the “Orizaba” when it docked in San Diego. Five years later the beekeeper, his wife and daughter moved with their bees to a homestead near the Sweetwater River in the eastern end of San Diego County. The settlement in the valley between steep walls with massive outcroppings was to become known as Harbison Canyon. Within seven years Harbison was the largest honey producer in the world, operating 2,000 to 3,000 hives. He also sold bees to other residents in the county, which became the largest honey-producing county in California. That made the state the largest honey producer in the nation. Harbison died at the age of 86 in 1912.
The small community in an oak-lined mountain valley was subdivided into small lots in the early 1900s. Most of the initial development consisted of little cottages or cabins that could be used for weekend retreats from the heat and pressures of San Diego’s urban areas. Despite the ravages of the Laguna Fire in 1970 and the Cedar Fire in 2003, the town has kept its country atmosphere.
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