Terra Cotta, California
Coal, along with clay deposits, was found on the site by John D. Huff in the late 1880s, and the Southern California Coal and Clay Company was formed to mine them. The town site of Terra Cotta was laid out and was given a post office on October 26, 1887. In May 1893 its post office was closed and moved to Lake Elsinore. A plant for the manufacture of sewer and water pipes was built using the coal to fire ceramic pipes in the four kilns. The finished product had to be shipped by wagon six miles through Lake Elsinore to the La Laguna rail station at the mouth of Railroad Canyon until 1896 when a spur line was built through Lake Elsinore and Terra Cotta to the new clay deposits in Alberhill. The coal mined was also used locally as fuel for the stamping mill at the Good Hope Mine and was shipped elsewhere in the state.
Dombes
The clay till which also goes by the now rather old-fashioned but still useful name of boulder clay, is usually very sticky when wet and hard when thoroughly dry. This made arable use of the land with medieval implements impossible and it was unsuitable for pasture most of the time. Usually, such land was left as woodland but here, enterprising landowners seem to have taken it on when nobody else wanted it and attempted to make it produce income by excavating lakes for the raising of fish.