Starr Barnum, One of La Cañada’s Pioneers

Starr Barnum – what a great name, worthy of a rock and roller or a film persona – is actually the name of an early La Cañada resident who is often mentioned in histories of La Cañada. Starr is a family name, passed down through the generations. In fact, the Barnum ranch was named “Ad Astra” (To the Stars).

The Barnum family came to La Cañada from Connecticut in 1891 when there were just 50-some families living in the rural community of La Cañada. They purchased 40 acres of citrus orchard in what is now upscale Alta Canyada, at the top of Alta Canyada Road. Their property was bounded on the north by what was then called the “grant line,” the northern boundary of the Verdugo Rancho. The next year, 1892, the land above them became the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve, the first federal reserve (national forest) in California. (Today it’s Angeles National Forest.)

In a 1972 interview, Starr recalled, “Dad helped our friend Mr. Dunham set out all the palm and olive trees in 1892 on Palm Drive where his (Dunham’s) house was, and all the trees on Alta Canyada, too. The land bordering our ranch at that time was all sagebrush. The Hall family cleared it and set it out to wine grapes. I remember my mother asking Mr. Hall if he thought it worthwhile. It was, since their wine was known far and wide.”

It was during Starr’s boyhood years that he was drawn to the idea of becoming a forest ranger. John Opid at that time was a forest ranger for the new San Gabriel Reserve.

“I remember Opid riding through the ranch,” recalled Starr. “He used to ride the lower part of the forest down to our ranch boundary. He was a fireguard in the summer for the Forest Service. The Forest Service only paid $90 a month and a ranger had to own his own horse and his equipment on that money.”

John Opid retired in the ’teens and in 1914 opened Opid’s Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains. Opid’s and Switzer’s were the two most famous mountain resorts of that era.

Drought struck the valley from 1897 to 1900, and the Barnum family, with young Starr in tow, returned to Connecticut. But that dream of working in the forests stayed with Starr. As soon as he turned 18, he joined a logging outfit in northern California, working a logging train engineer.

“But working 18 hours a day on the mountain railway was rough,” he said. “My health got ragged and I needed something easier.”

He was back in La Cañada again when WWII finally gave him the chance to have his dreamed-for ranger position. He patrolled Big Santa Anita Canyon, above Sierra Madre.

“We used burros to pack into the canyon in those days from the station below. I rode lookouts in the back country and policed deer hunters,” he recalled.

Starr did this job happily through the war years. But after the war, when he was tasked with fighting fires, his enthusiasm waned. He moved to the Antelope Valley where he farmed wheat.

But Starr returned often to the Cañada Valley because of his great love for local history and his large collection of memorabilia, which he shared often in the old local paper, the Ledger. One particular gem was a 1912 stagecoach schedule. It advertised service between La Crescenta and Los Angeles by horse-drawn tallyho. The route started at Honolulu and La Crescenta avenues. It went up the hill to the La Crescenta Post Office at La Crescenta and Foothill Boulevard, then east on Foothill to the La Cañada Post Office. It then began the journey down Verdugo Canyon on North Verdugo Road, past today’s Glendale College, on to San Fernando Road and finally to downtown LA. It ended at 530 South Los Angeles Street, an old brick building that is still there. Forty-five cents for a round trip or, for the daily commuter, 10 rounds for $2. This line was replaced by the Glendale and Montrose Railway, an electrified trolley line.

The march of progress goes on. So much has changed.