Canyon Name Origins – Pickens Canyon, Theodore Pickens

Pickens Canyon can be considered the birthplace of La Crescenta, as it was here that the first American settler Theodor Pickens built his home, and it was from here that Benjamin Briggs founded our community. Pickens Canyon is the largest of the canyons above the Crescenta Valley, and had the most reliable water source. Its watershed was fed by several side canyons, apparently supporting a year-round stream flow down across the valley. While a surface stream no longer flows into the valley, drinking water is still extracted today from higher up in Pickens Canyon. Pickens Canyon has no roads in it, but is bracketed by Briggs Avenue on one side and Ocean View on the other.

Pickens Canyon was named for Theodor Pickens. Note the absence of the “e” on the end, which is the traditional European spelling. Not a lot is known about Pickens before he came to the valley. Born in Kentucky, he was 29 when he first arrived in the valley in 1871. As far as we know, the valley was uninhabited at that time, owned by a couple of LA-based American lawyers who had gained the land as payment for legal services. Pickens probably didn’t know that and first inadvertently settled on their land, along a flowing stream, that is today Pickens Flood Control Channel. He soon found out he was on claimed property and, in 1873, moved farther up the stream, past the property line. He settled a flat terrace above the stream that we now know as Briggs Terrace. He applied for a land patent on 160 acres that was granted in 1878.

Pickens paid $2.50 an acre, and did the required land improvements. He set up a bee-keeping operation, planted two acres in barley, and another five acres in orchards. A tiny one-room cabin was constructed overlooking the stream. It was located a few feet east of today’s intersection of Shields and Canyonside. He lived there alone for 10 years, tending his bees and orchards, and probably hunting. It must have been a quiet, solitary life. Interestingly, his tiny cabin remained there for nearly 100 years as Briggs Terrace grew up around it. In the1960s, the owner of the property it sat on was concerned about preserving such a vital part of our history. She (the property owner) had connections with the county fire department and cut a deal with them to have the cabin moved to Henninger Flats. Henninger Flats sits high on the flanks of Mount Wilson, where the fire department has its reforestation operations. There the cabin rests today as a small museum, only accessible to hikers.

Pickens also owned the water rights to the best water source in the valley. In 1878 he sold his water rights to Jacob Lanterman. Lanterman and Williams had purchased the entire valley, La Cañada and Crescenta Valley, but had no reliable water sources. Lanterman gave Pickens $1,250 and 40 acres of land. Pickens also went into partnership on Verdugo Lodge, the first health resort in the valley, although he doesn’t seemed to have lived there. He sold his 160 acres of land in Pickens Canyon to Benjamin Briggs in 1881, and moved down the hill to La Cañada. He spent the rest of his years in various pursuits – a little farming, playing cards and hunting with a regular group of friends who called themselves “The Coyotes.” He even married for a short time.

He ended his days as manager of a resort in the Arroyo Seco and died in 1923 at the age of 82. He is buried in Altadena’s Mountain View Cemetery under a headstone carrying his nickname, “Daddy” Pickens.

In recent history he has been known as “Colonel” Pickens, a Union Army veteran, thanks to histories penned in the 1950s and ’60s. But, just like “General” Shields, there is no record of his military service. History’s a detective story, with lots of twists and false leads. There is lots to write about Pickens Canyon, and next week I’ll get into the years that Dr. Benjamin Briggs lived there.

  Mike LALWER