Ontario once had a mule car that coasted downhill

Ontario has one of the better early-transit stories in Southern California. In 1887, the city had a “gravity mule car” on Euclid Avenue. The idea was clever and almost funny in the best way.

Mules pulled the car uphill from Holt toward Twenty-Fourth Street. That was the hard part. For the trip back down, engineer John Tays added a pull-out trailer, so the mules could ride while gravity helped carry the car downhill. The animals did not have to drag the whole load both ways.

The line only lasted until 1895 before electric streetcars replaced it, but it tells you a lot about early Ontario. This was a planned colony town trying to make a long, straight avenue work for homes, farms, business, and visitors. The mule car was not a toy. It was a local answer to a real problem: how to move people along a rising road before modern transit was ready.

Today, Euclid Avenue still feels different from many Inland Empire streets because it has that older planned shape. When you know about the mule car, the broad road becomes easier to read. It was built for movement from the start.