Chino Hills’ Green Mist

What was the Green Mist? Sounds like a Stephen King novel or a John Carpenter movie, but the Green Mist was actually a Chino Hills phenomena.

Here’s what the indefatigable “Hal Linker” has to say:

“In Chino there was also the legendary Green Mist. This was before Chino Hills was called Chino Hills and decades before incorporation. The Green Mist was located out on old Aerojet Road, a narrow winding two-lane affair. It was said that the headlights of the cars traveling on the old 71 Expressway created an effect of a Green Mist against the hills.

“As with all legends, there are variations to the story, some more spooky than others. Needless to say, it was an enticing way for guys to get girls to go to a remote location with them in pursuit of the mysteries of life. It wasn’t coasting uphill, but it was usually edifying.”

Anybody else want to weigh in?

* Update, April 2015: The blog “Badge 415” (“The Human Side of Police Work”) posted a reminiscence about the Green Mist, forwarded to me by reader David Sutherland. The writer talks in part about running into a worker from the former Aerojet years ago who told him the plant used to blow up human cadavers with land mines to see how much damage would be done; ditto with cows.

The writer continues:

“That’s when he said the one thing that solved the mystery of Green Mist for me. During his story he told me how they exploded different gases to do tests. He said, ‘Sometimes there was fog and it would turn green from the gas. It was a green fog.’ That was the Green Mist! The mystery was solved.”

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