John Muir and the Woodcutter

When we think of the famed naturalist John Muir, we usually think of him in terms of Northern California, locales such as Yosemite. But Muir did spend time in the Los Angeles area and made some treks into the San Gabriel Mountains above us. One of these forays, in 1877, is recounted in Muir’s book “The Mountains of California.”  It gives us a rare first-hand account of one of the itinerant woodcutters who were, in many cases, the first settlers in the Crescenta Valley and who sometimes left their names on the canyons.

The woodcutters were often drifters. In the 1870s, they would camp in the canyons above the claimed land in the valley below, and cut firewood to feed a growing Los Angeles. They could make a few dollars off a wagon load of firewood at the wood market located then around 1st and Los Angeles streets in Downtown Los Angeles, then move on to another canyon.

Muir visited Pasadena in the summer of 1877 and stayed on the ranch of his old classmate from the University of Wisconsin, a Dr. Conger. Conger tried to talk the roaming John Muir into purchasing an orange grove in Pasadena and settling down, but to no avail. Muir had destiny ahead of him.

The summer of 1877 was particularly hot and dry. One afternoon, Muir set off from Pasadena across Altadena towards the San Gabriel Mountains (then called the Sierra Madres). He intended to spend a few days in the mountains. It was a blistering shade-less trek uphill toward Eaton Canyon and by sundown he had reached the mouth of the canyon. It was here that Muir came across the rude camp of an itinerant woodcutter, perhaps around where the Eaton Canyon Nature Center is today. Muir sat down with this “strange, dark-looking man” and explained that he was “anxious to find out something about the mountains.” The woodcutter invited Muir to stay with him in his tiny cabin located next to a small spring covered with wild roses at the edge of the canyon.

As it became dark the woodcutter explained that he was out of candles, so the two men sat in the dark. The woodcutter, in a mixture of Spanish and English, told Muir of his life. He had been born in Mexico to an Irish father and a Spanish mother. He had for many years roamed aimlessly, working as a miner, a rancher, a hunter and many other things, never settling down. But here in Eaton Canyon, he hoped to plant roots, to “make money and marry a Spanish woman.” His first venture would be to sell water to Pasadena and he already had dug a water tunnel into the mountain.

Here’s Muir quoting the woodcutter: “My prospect is good and if I chance to strike a good strong flow (of water), I’ll soon be worth $5,000 or $10,000. For that flat out there (the flood plain of Eaton Creek), that flat is large enough for a nice orange grove and the bank behind the cabin will do for a vineyard and after watering my own trees and vines, I will have some water left to sell to my neighbors below me. And then I can keep bees, and make money that way too, for the mountains above here are just full of honey in the summertime. You see, I’ve a good thing. I’m all right now.”

Muir left the man the next morning, somewhat skeptical of the man’s prospects, but wishing him well nonetheless, and continued his trek through the San Gabriels.

This is a typical back-story of the many woodcutters who roamed the foothills, and were, in many cases, the first white settlers of our valley. They were single men, drifters and dreamers who sometimes did indeed settle and thrive. This in essence is the story of Theodore Pickens, considered our first white settler, who stayed on, sold water, raised bees and planted fruit trees. We know Pickens’ story because he stayed but the stories of the countless other drifters who camped in our canyons are lost forever.

  mike lawler