Named for William Alexander Spinks Jr. (1865-1933), billiards legend and avocado enthusiast. Born in San Jose, CA and growing up in Eureka, NV, “Billy” Spinks was orphaned at twelve and was frequently jailed for petty larceny as a teenager. By 1885, he was playing pool in Montana; in 1891, he won his first Pacific Coast Billiards Championship. What followed was a sterling career in the sport – indeed, Spinks’s record for most points scored in a row still stands. Today’s pool players can also thank him for inventing, with William Hoskins, modern cue chalk: that little cube of blue stuff found on every pool table. That happened in 1897, six years after Spinks married the Swedish-born Clara Alexandria Karlson (1871-1949). Apart from cue chalk sales, Spinks made money in oil with his big brother Clarence, enough so that in 1908 he and Clara could retire to a ranch east of Monrovia. Here Spinks cultivated several types of avocados, including an eponymous variety. Spinks Canyon was named by 1925, Spinks Canyon Road in 1958.
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