USA > California > Los Angeles County > Pasadena > History of Pasadena, comprising an account of the native Indian, the early Spanish, the Mexican, the American, the colony, and the incorporated city, occupancies of the Rancho San Pasqual, and its adjacent mountains, canyons, waterfalls and other objects of interest: being a complete and comprehensive histo-cyclopedia of all matters pertaining to this region > Part 48
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GRAND CANYON .- This comprises that portion of the great mountain gorge from above Millard Falls up to Crystal Springs, and the Alpine Club house station on the Mount Lowe Electric railroad. It is the portion which bore the old Spanish name of "Canyon el Blanco," from the white rocks that form its north wall. About half a mile below the club house is GRAND CANYON FALLS, 92 feet high, deeply recessed by erosional wear in the great ledge of reddish syenite rock.
ALPINE FALLS .- A few rods west, below the Grand Canyon Falls, a narrow, deep-gorged branch canyon enters from the north with a very high fall, which I did not succeed in measuring, but thought it must be at least 130 feet high in its front line of single leap ; and I have not been able to learn of anybody ever attempting to measure either of these falls, or write any account of them, before. They are now (August, 1895) very difficult of access ; but the Alpine Club will make a footpath to reach them, both above and below, from their club house. When I first visited these falls in July, 1893, there was a little water passing over ; in August, September and October they are usually dry precipices, but during the rainy season they are grand mountain cataracts.
CHAPMAN'S GLEN, where the famous Yankee "pirate prisoner" got out pine timbers for the old church at the plaza in Los Angeles. [See pages 43 to 52.] Hon. Stephen C. Foster told me that he once went with some Spanish hunters up through La Canyada ; and Tejunga canyon was pointed out as the place where timbers were cut for "building the old church." This was true, but they were for the old church at San Fernando Mission-not at Los Angeles. [See footnote, pages 46-47.] May 27, 1895, I stayed over night at E. W. Giddings's house. then the next day walked up the water- course of Millard canyon from its mouth clear to Crystal Springs, in order to satisfy myself whether it was a preposterous supposition that Chapman had brought timbers down that way. And I had spent the whole day twice before on the same errand, December I and December 26, 1894. Then, again, August 25, 1895, Mrs. Reid made the hard and dangerous climb with me from Crystal Springs down around the Grand Canyon Falls, into the
25
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Glen, and saw the decayed old stumps and logs which still remain as relics of Joe Chapman's prisonership there, one of the stumps measuring 3 feet and 8 inches in diameter. She was the first woman who ever trod that wild historic spot, or viewed those lofty Grand Canyon and Alpine Falls.
GIDDINGS TRAIL CANYON .- This is the first branch or tributary of Millard canyon ; and the Giddings trail follows up its southeast wall to the summit ridge, which was in 1886 flagged, staked, and claimed for name as " Giddings Peak." [See article "Giddings Trail."] This canyon starts at "Grizzly Point" of the Mount Lowe literature and drops rapidly down southwesterly into Millard canyon. The upper trolley section of the Mount Lowe Electric Railroad crosses the heading of Las Flores canyon first and this Giddings Trail canyon next. [See article, " Giddings Peak."]
NEGRO CANYON .- This is a comparatively small but bountiful water- bearing canyon, opening southwestward into the Arroyo Seco, and which took its name from a colored man named Robert Owen, who got out wood from there in the early sixties. The Centennial History of Los Angeles County, p. 44, says of him :
" Robert Owen, familiarly called by Americans 'Uncle Bob,' came from Texas in December, 1853, with 'Aunt Winnie,' his wife, two daughters, and son, Charley Owen. They survive him. He was a shrewd man of business, energetic and honorable in his dealings; made money by govern- ment contracts and general trade. He died, well esteemed by white and colored, August 18, 1865, aged fifty-nine years."
This canyon was government land, beyond the bounds of any land claimed by anybody else. Uncle Bob had secured a contract to supply fuel to the United States officers and soldiers at Los Angeles, and here is where he chopped down trees for that fire-wood supply. Instead of spending his money getting drunk and gambling, as others did, he saved it and bought up cheap vacant land at Los Angeles, which became highly valuable as the city spread over it, and made him the richest colored man ever known in the county. The first religious services ever held in Los Angeles county by colored people were at his house, in 1854. His property was on San Pedro street and new Los Angeles street. "Uncle Bob" was a slave in Texas and hired his time, saved money, and bought his own freedom ; then kept on and sent money back to buy his wife and three children. [Two grand- sons of this man own the Owens block on Broadway near Third street, Los Angeles, and other valuable properties.] The water supply for the Las Casitas settlement is piped down from Negro canyon. The mountain trail which two sons of the historic "old John Brown," who gave his life for the Negro race, commenced to build from Las Casitas to Brown's peak, ran partly in this same " Negro canyon."
DEADMAN'S CANYON .- This is another small branch of the Arroyo Seco, next north of Negro canyon. In 1873 a very old Indian lived in a
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cabin alone here, getting out wood for Jesus Rubio (Marrone) after whom Rubio canyon is named. One day the old man was found dead, nobody knowing just when or how he died. And the canyon took its name from this circumstance. Old Mr. Brunk, who was one of the men who found the dead Indian there, always claimed that he had been murdered ; but I don't believe it.
BROWN'S CANYON .- This is a small branch of the Arroyo Seco, next below Negro canyon, and is on the mountain homestead taken up by Owen and Jason Brown in 1886, after Jason had sold his land where the Las Casitas Sanitarium now stands. It was on the east wall of this canyon that they started their trail to Brown's peak, but which never reached the sum- mit.
THE ARROYO SECO CANYON .- Arroyo Seco is Spanish for "dry creek," and this great branch of the Los Angeles river has been called by that name almost ever since Los Angeles was founded as a pueblo [town] in 1781. The reason was, that it was a running stream during the winter, but always went dry during the summer and autumn seasons. In the days of the Spanish rule it was their most famous hunting ground ; and here were often captured wild cats, mountain lions, or bears, for the bloody sport-pens of Los Angeles ; for bull fights, bear baiting, etc., were lawful sports, even on Sunday, up to 1855-and on week days as late as October 26, 1872, when the last great public bull fight occurred there. The old accounts give two cases at least where bears were lassoed in the Arroyo Seco by one hind foot and one forefoot, and then dragged bodily over the ground down to Los Angeles (by the riatas being attached to the pommels of the horsemen's saddles) and there put into the bear pit to fight with dogs, or a bull, or wild cats. Pasadena lies on the east bank of the Arroyo, and extends across to its west hills, where extensive grading and improvements were made by Mr. C. W. Scoville from 1887 to 1893. The following item from the Valley Union of February 26, 1886, gives some idea of the condition of things prior to 1886, where all is now so changed by dams, bridges, retaining walls, county road, private winding drives, substantial dwellings, etc .:
"There has been more inquiry lately [February, 1886] for Arroyo lands, or wood lots, which extend from the Arroyo Drive across the great gulf and up the half mountainous hills on the west side of the stream. These hills are as full of local names as was old Judea. Jumbo Knob and Jumbo canyon belong to Charley Watts. There is undeveloped water in this canyon. The Fremont Trail and Wildcat canyon are on Mrs. Hood's lots. Buzzard Cliff and Gold-hunter's canyon are on Dr. Reid's lots. Near the head of this canyon are some old gold diggings. The gold dirt assayed only $4 or $5 per ton, and hence wouldn't pay for working. Fern canyon is on Johnson's land, but opens down on the west end of B. F. Ball's and J. F. Steen's wood lots. It is a sort of gap through the hill range, and would furnish the shortest and easiest route for a road from Pasadena to
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Eagle Rock. [Just where the county road now runs .- ED.] The vast Ar- royo gorge from F. R. Harris's lot on the south, up to Mundell's chain of lots on the north, is called Giant's Glen, and is a weird, wild, romantic place to ramble in."
The above-named ownerships have all changed. Jumbo Knob remains in its place, looking like the famous big elephant's head lying at rest, with his trunk reaching down almost to the Arroyo in search of water, the same as before. But the buzzards have been driven from their ancient cliff; and Fremont's trail [although Fremont never rode within ten miles of it], and Wildcat canyon and Giant's Glen have all been obliterated by Mr. Scoville's extensive improvements. [See " Fremont's Trail," page 68.]
Along the banks of the Arroyo, from Lincoln Park far up into the mountains, there are numerous springs, from which Pasadena derives her water supply. These are all mentioned and described by name in another place. But the most notable point in the Arroyo Seco is
DEVIL'S GATE,-which was so named by Judge B. S. Eaton in 1858 ; and the reason for it he writes me thus :
"From its resemblance to a point of that name on the Sweetwater creek, the last water that is seen running east and finding its way into the Gulf of Mexico, as seen from the old California trail by which I came to California with ox teams in 1850. This Arroyo Seco break through the spur of the Verdugo hills corresponds so perfectly with that of the Sweet- water, that when I first saw it I was carried back to my trip over the Rockies."
COTTONWOOD CANYON .- On the west side of the Arroyo Seco, between Devil's Gate and Linda Vista, there is a small canyon where N. G. Yocum made two tunnels in 1887, obtaining a small supply of water, and it was then called Yocum's canyon. In 1892 it was taken by the endorsers of a certain promissory note, through their trustee and attorney, W. S. Wright, who organized the "Cottonwood Canyon Water Co.," and gave the place this name because some cottonwood (?) trees [California poplar] were growing there. This company was incorporated October 29, 1892. [See " Water Companies."]
WILDCAT CANYON .- This name was given by the early settlers to the canyon where the Scoville drive meanders up the west Arroyo hills to Scoville Heights ; and the old Garfias trail (miscalled "Fremont's trail ") was on the ridge that formed the north side of this canyon.
FERN CANYON .- The gap through the Arroyo west hills where the county road from Scoville's bridge leads through onto the Johnson farm, was given this name by Hon. Delos Arnold in the spring of 1881, from his finding some rare ferns there ; and the name remained.
SAN RAFAEL CANYON, OR CREEK (Johnson's creek) .- This descends from the west and enters the Arroyo Seco nearly opposite the foot of West
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Columbia street. It is the outlet of Johnson's lake (formerly called Beau- dry's), and forms the principal drainage of the great Johnson farm on the hills west of Pasadena. The bed of this canyon for half a mile or so is a mortar-like puddingstone or conglomerate,-called also ".cement rock,"- the same as the notable Eagle Rock, about two miles northwest from this point ; and the exposed conglomerate here at the mouth of the canyon is an eastward extension of the same ledge or stratum of this peculiar kind of rock from which the Eagle Rock is an outcropping or uplifted head ; and this same conglomerate ledge has been traced and identified across the country as far eastward as Titus's artesian well, a mile or so south of La- manda Park. In San Rafael canyon there is a small but pretty waterfall - Puddingstone Falls-with a fine specimen of a pothole at their foot. In this connection it is proper to give an account of the Eagle Rock above referred to; and I here quote from the Valley Union of November 22, 1884 :
EAGLE ROCK .- " About three miles over the hills westward from Pasa- dena stands a monster of a bald, rounded, weather-beaten rock which has been called by various names, but it is best known as Eagle Rock, and gives its name to Eagle Rock creek, Eagle Rock valley, Eagle Rock settlement. It is probable that very few of our readers know why this name was given it. although many Pasadenians have visited it as one of the natural curiosities of this region. The west side of the rock presents a face of perhaps 150 feet in height, and in this face are two recesses called the upper and lower cave. The lower cave can be reached by climbing along on slight pro- tuberances of rock, although it is a somewhat difficult and dangerous passage ; Mrs. Dr. Reid climbed there a few weeks ago, and says she wouldn't attempt it again for a corner lot ; but the upper cave is inaccessible. Over a year ago some adventurers made a rude ladder and climbed up it from the lower to the upper cave, and left the ladder there as a testimony of their daring and prowess. It was a constant bait of temptation to other young fellows to risk their lives by attempting the perilous ascent, and finally it was pitched over the precipice and destroyed. The overhanging portion of the rock which forms the roof of the two caves, is so shaped that from some points of view it presents a well defined appearance like the outspread wings of an eagle, and that is what gave it the name of Eagle Rock. This peculiar appearance is well seen from the west hill-side, half a mile or more down the valley from the rock, and is also seen from Mr. Edwin Brown's place, about two miles distant."
THE TUNNEL .- Within a mile above Puddingstone Falls is the BEAUDRY TUNNEL, 160 paces long, through the range of hills which form the south wall of this canyon. It was made by Prudence Beaudry, who formerly owned the Johnson ranch, and resided there. In making it he had three objects in view : Ist, To provide an easy and direct road from his farm to Los Angeles, instead of going a long way around, with heavy up-and- down-hill hauls. 2d, To pipe water down to Los Angeles or its northerly suburbs from a lake that he produced by using the material excavated from the tunnel to build a dam across the canyon, the dam serving also as road-
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way. 3d, The chance, which was at that time deemed fairly good, of finding coal in these hills. Only the first object was ever realized. This tunnel is wide and high enough for a loaded hay wagon to pass through, or a covered carriage without lowering the top. I examined it, and paced its length, in 1885- 160 paces, or about 480 feet.
COLUMBIA HILL .- When the colony lands were first subdivided, a con- siderable body of hill-top land south of West Columbia street and west of Sylvan Drive or Avenue was reserved "for church, school and reservoir purposes." But all except a reservoir site was afterward sold to A. O. Porter and others. [See "Annals of the Schools," and "Sierra Madre College " for its later history.] It was called "Columbia Hill " from the fact that West Columbia street ran from Orange Grove Avenue on a winding grade down its north side to a junction with Arroyo Drive. The highest part of the hill is now occupied by the fine residence of Chas. D. Daggett, Esq. (the old school or college building made over), while other portions of it are occupied by residences of John Wadsworth, Chas. R. Foote, and others.
GRACE HILL .- The body of land now known by this name was in one of the four fifteen-acre shares selected by Judge B. S. Eaton, when the orig- inal colony lands were allotted by. free choice, January 27, 1874. Judge Eaton sold it to a Mr. Chapman. In the winter of 1883-84 Charles Legge bought from Chapman ten acres, which included the main hill or its highest part, and in five weeks after its purchase he sold it for One Thousand Dol- lars MORE than he paid for it. This was the first big gun of the "boom," and for a while Charley Legge wore the champion belt as a real estate oper- ator. The purchaser of this splendid building site was a Mr. Himebaugh, who made some slight improvements in the way of landscape gardening, and named it " Grace Hill," after his daughter Gracie. He next sold it to Geo. W. Stimson, who made further and quite elaborate landscape improvements, and put it into the real estate market for sale at $25,000. Here it hung un- taken for three or four years, Mr. Stimson meanwhile keeping an expert gardener, Alfred Ellis, in charge of it ; and it grew more beautiful every year. Finally Wm. Stanton, from Pittsburg, Pa., bought it, and built the noble dwelling which is now his family home on that eminence, from which there is such a superb and far-reaching outlook in every direction.
RAYMOND HILL .- This foothill peak formerly belonged to what was known as the Marengo ranch, or Bacon's ranch. In 1883 Walter Raymond examined sites for his contemplated great hotel project, at San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside, but finally settled upon this Bacon hill at Pasa- dena as coming the nearest to his ideal of anything he had seen ; and he accordingly purchased it, with a tract comprising about fifty-five acres. The hill was then much higher than now, as it had to be cut down thirty-four
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feet to get a large enough area on top for the hotel buildings and grounds ; and although it seems to loom up so loftily, the present top of the Raymond hill is just level with the sidewalk at corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Col- orado street.
OAK KNOLL .- See page 344.
THE OLD MILL .- In his work entitled " All About Pasadena," Prof. Holder says : "As to the age of El Molino [the Mill] no one knows, and there is no exact record of its builders ; so in a way it is as mysterious as the mill in Newport, Rhode Island." This is all a mistake; but he was led into it by sundry errors about the Old Mill in the Farnsworth book, pub- lished in 1883. This stone grist mill was built during the rigorous, ener- getic, work-driving administration of Father Jose Maria Zalvidea, while he served as official head of the San Gabriel Mission and brought it to its climax of industrial and commercial success, from 1806 to 1826. The padre's "Old Mill " building was 24x55 feet, with walls of solid masonry from three feet to four feet nine inches thick, and was erected in 1810 to 1812 .* There were two great arches in the lower story (east front) where the water-wheel was placed ; and in the upper story, or grinding room, there were two small windows protected by iron bars and heavy shutters. The original roof was of tiling. The Indians had been portioned off into about thirty classes of work people, with Claudio Lopez as major-domo over all, and a minor-domo or task-master, armed with rawhide whip, [see page 34.] over each class, wliose business it was to see that every man and woman worked daily, ac- cording to rule. But the Indians so frequently revolted against their hard overseers, or escaped to the mountains as hostiles, that rigid guarding and severe punishments became necessary, as well as provision for a stronghold against attacks of the "unconverted " Indians. Therefore the San Gabriel Mission church as it now stands, as well as this mill building, seem to have been made with a view to their serving as castles in time of possible need .; And some parts of the mill, both above and below, were undoubtedly used also as a jail or house of correction for the more obdurate offenders.
In March, 1829, a Boston gentleman, Mr. A. Robinson, spent two or three days at San Gabriel, having some trading business with Father Sanchez there-for his Boston trading ship was then lying at San Pedro harbor with a cargo of goods from Yankeeland. Mr. Robinson was a man of culture ; spoke and read the Spanish language; and remained seventeen years engaged in ship trade and land travel up and down the coast. In
* *
* Hugo Reid, in speaking of Father Zalvidea, says: "He it was who planted the huge vineyards, laid out the orange garden, fruit and olive orchards ; built the mill and dam ; made fences of lunas [broad-leaved cactus] round the fields ; brought water from long distances ; " etc.
¡A spring flows out from beneath the heavy buttress at the northeast corner of the mill ; and some writers, following the cue given by Miss Alice P. Adams in 1883, have made a great mystery out of it. But the explanation is simple enough. In case the Spanish soldiers and priests should ever find it necessary to take refuge in the inill as a fort and withstand a siege by hostile Indians, this spring could be reached by excavation from within, for a water supply. It was a wise precaution, but never hap- pened to be needed.
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Corner buttress.
Wheel chambers.
Spring under this corner.
THE OLD STONE MILL.
As sketched in "Land of Sunshine," July, 1895.
1846 he published at New York a book entitled "Life in California." On page 33, speaking of his first visit at San Gabriel, he says: "On the declivity of a hill is erected a molino, or grist-mill, surrounded with fruit trees and flowers. A beautiful lake lies calm and unruffled in front, and all around fresh streams are gushing from the earth, and scattering their waters in every direction. It would be a magnificent spot for a summer retreat, and much reminded me of many of the beautiful locations to be met with in the vicinity of Boston."
In the centennial "Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County," pub- lished in 1876, there is a reference to the "Old Mill" which was written by Hon. J. T. Warner, a native of Connecticut who settled at Los Angeles in 1831, while the San Gabriel Mission was still flourishing in full vigor, under Padre Sanchez's prelatical rule. And Warner says :
"At an early period in the history of San Gabriel, a water-power mill for grinding wheat was constructed and put in operation in front of and near the Mission building. At a later period a new grist-mill was built by the Mission, and placed about two miles from the Mission proper .* This was also operated by water power. The building in which was placed this mill is now the property of E. L. Mayberry, and is used for a wine cellar. A water-power saw-mill was also built by this Mission, and was located near the last mentioned grist-mill. These were the only mills made or used in California, either for grinding or sawing, in which water was the motive power, or in which a wheel was used, for more than half a century after the founding of the first Mission in continental California. In these two grist- mills the revolving mill-stone was upon the upper end of a vertical shaft,
* This is a mistake. The old stone mill was built first, under Padre Zalvidea, in 1810-12. The mill opposite the church was not built until 1821-22. Joseph Chapman was the carpenter and millwright who built it, and Claudio Lopez was then major-domo. See pages 42 and 51 .
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and the water-wheel upon the lower end, so that the revolution of the stone was no more frequent than that of the water-wheel."*
The grinding stones from this old mill were laid up for a horse-block at the south front of Hon. J. DeBarth Shorb's residence, "San Marino," ; and can be seen there yet-1895. They are 21/2 feet in diameter and 7 to 8 inches thick. The kind of stone is volcanic tufa, said to be found some distance up the San Gabriel canyon. The water from Los Robles canyon or creek (the same that has been called " Mill Spring creek," and "Willowdale creek,") was conveyed in a ditch along the side of the bluff on the Stone- man and Richardson farms to the upper side of the mill, where it flowed into a funnel-shaped cement cistern or fore-bay about 12 feet deep. From the bottom of this cistern a narrow spout-flume extended through the thick stone wall into the brick-arched wheel chamber, and the water poured through the spout horizontally against the buckets of the water-wheel. A vertical shaft extended from the water-wheel up into the second story, where it bore the millstone on its upper end to do the grinding work. The water from Mill canyon was also brought by a ditch into the fore-bay of this mill. After the water had been used here it flowed by a cement ditch into the dam or lake, to serve the sawmill and other works below the dam. I visited this Old Mill, with Ex-Gov. Merrill and Hon. Delos Arnold of Iowa, in January, 1884. But I went there again May 23 and July 25, and August 30, 1894, and other times, to re-examine and measure some parts. The curious fore-bay, with its adjunct reserve cistern and their inflow conduits are still to be seen at the up-hill side of the building; while in the lower story the wheel chamber is intact, with its recesses in the side walls for holding the heavy timbers to support the water-wheel on its vertical shaft ; the hole in the arch for the shaft to pass up through; the inflow water flume, etc., are plainly to be seen. There are two arched wheel chambers, but only the south one was ever supplied with a working wheel, for the reason that the earthquake of 1812 cracked the north fore-bay before the wheel work was completed ; and the crack has been widened a little by several "quakes " in later years.
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