Canyon Name Origins – Rowley Canyon, Haines Canyon

 
We continue east across the San Gabriel Mountains, exploring the name origins of the canyons that empty into the Tujunga Valley and the Crescenta-Cañada Valley.

Rowley Canyon – The next canyon heading east is Rowley Canyon, which, like Zachau, is almost entirely obscured by the massive Seven Hills development. The history of the pioneering Rowley family is covered beautifully by Tujunga historian Marlene Hitt in her book “Sunland and Tujunga: From Village to City.” The Rowleys are some of the earliest settlers in Tujunga, arriving in 1882. They homesteaded the land below Rowley Canyon, roughly where Hillrose Avenue heads east from Tujunga Canyon Boulevard. They set up a tent and some beehives that they had brought by wagon from Los Angeles, following the rough trails laid out by the woodcutters that were frequenting the canyons above Tujunga. The Rowleys were ambitious town-builders, establishing the first general store and initiating mail service to the area.

Mrs. Rowley became the teacher for the scattered families of the Tujunga area when the first teacher quit mid-year.

Marlene Hitt writes: “The boys in the school were rough; some carried weapons like guns or knives and would wield them if the teacher attempted discipline. Needless to say, the first teacher quit halfway through the year. But Mrs. Rowley’s father had been a sergeant in the Civil War and she knew from growing up how to handle such upstarts.”

The Rowleys had two boys who had all sorts of adventures growing up in the then-wild Tujunga Valley, many of which are recounted in Marlene’s book. The Rowleys later built a comfortable stone house on Hillrose that apparently is still there.

Haines Canyon – Lots to write about, but unfortunately none of it is about its name. Probably, Haines was one of those early woodcutters who simply harvested the Bigcone Douglas fir trees that lined the well-watered canyon and then moved on.

Haines Canyon today has a lot to offer. The well-established trail/fire road that follows the streambed up is easily hiked, with beautiful foliage and trees along the way, and it continues all the way up to Mount Lukens. The debris basin at the canyon mouth contains a year-round pond, in which I’ve actually seen people fishing.

Historically, Haines Canyon had a dependable water flow. The stream was channeled and piped to bring water to Tujunga via the Haines Canyon Water Company. Apparently because of this, a small community (gone today) developed high in the canyon, which carried the unlikely name of Azteca Park. Also, an extensive sand and gravel open-pit mine was dug at the canyon mouth in the early ’30s. This open pit has an interesting story attached to it.

Like all the canyons of the San Gabriels, when it rained hard a mixture of water, rocks and mud gushed out of Haines Canyon, flooding the town below. But in the big flood of New Years 1934 the gravel pit was there to interrupt the deadly flow coming out of Haines Canyon. While every other canyon poured rocks and mud into the neighborhoods below, the big gravel pit caught and held the debris flow, saving the residents below the canyon. This example is said to have been the inspiration for the debris basins that were built everywhere after the ’34 flood.

I mentioned that Haines Canyon, along with a few other canyons above us, were named after woodcutters who came for a couple of seasons and then moved on. Those familiar with our relatively barren hills might ask: “What wood?”

Listen to this description from Phil Begue, who bought the water rights to Haines Canyon in the 1880s: “At the mouth of Haines Canyon there was a large grove of Douglas spruce trees, about an acre and a half. Some of the trees were as large as four feet in diameter. Spruce trees of similar size grew the whole length of Haines Canyon.”

In fact, most of the canyons above us had stands of fir trees. The trees were cut down for firewood and they never grew back. Modern humans have been hard on our mountains.

  mike lawler