The Granite Quarry at Devil’s Gate The mining and quarrying of minerals and stone has gone on in our local mountains since Europeans first arrived – gold, graphite, gravel and granite. One significant gravel quarry existed in the 1880s at Devil’s Gate in the Arroyo Seco at the eastern edge of La Cañada. Local […]
Montrose Search and Rescue – Busy Thanksgiving Weekend The pressure on the Montrose Search and Rescue team increases on holiday weekends. This account of two rescues on Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend in 1986 shows how this brave rescue team often sacrifices its holidays to save lives. At the same moment that particular Sunday, […]
Getting Into Action Late last month, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed, with a 4-1 vote, a motion that asked the California Legislature to alter the way the state defines “gravely disabled.” The motion was put forth by Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Mark Ridley-Thomas after Supervisor Barger spent time on skid row and […]
In January 1988, two different Boy Scout troops were getting experience in cold-weather camping in the San Gabriel Mountains when an unexpectedly powerful storm blew in, dropping a heavy covering of snow. Troop 108 from Culver City had parked their cars on a turnout of Angeles Crest Highway and then hiked about a mile down […]
The first Crescenta Valley Community Association meeting of 2018 was lightly attended. We were expecting some of those who have been commenting on social media about the Welcome to Glendale monument signs to attend but only one newcomer came. Glendale has added a Facts vs. Rumors entry to its website regarding the project, http://www.glendaleca.gov/government/departments/management-services/communications-community-relations/rumor-page. Tom […]
Montrose Search and Rescue – Ice Rescues Last week I wrote about the treacherous “ice chutes” that sometimes trap unwary visitors to our snowy mountains each winter. These slick, nearly vertical toboggan runs form in the turnouts along Angeles Crest Highway. Motorists sometimes stray too near to the edges and slide into the ice […]
Finding Bipartisan Consensus It is easy to hate Washington right now. On the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration as President, the government shut down. It was another completely unavoidable black eye for the Administration and Congress. It is worth examining how we got to this point. Several months ago, the new fiscal year was […]
Montrose Search and Rescue – Little Girl’s Parents Disappear Down an Ice Chute Our San Gabriel Mountains are treacherous enough with their steep mountainsides of slippery broken granite but in the winter, a whole new range of dangers introduces iteslf. A very deadly one is the phenomenon of “ice chutes.” After each of our […]
Finding Bipartisan Consensus It is easy to hate Washington right now. On the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration as President, the government shut down. It was another completely unavoidable black eye for the Administration and Congress. It is worth examining how we got to this point. Several months ago, the new fiscal year was […]
Montrose Search and Rescue – Little Girl’s Parents Disappear Down an Ice Chute Our San Gabriel Mountains are treacherous enough with their steep mountainsides of slippery broken granite but in the winter, a whole new range of dangers introduces iteslf. A very deadly one is the phenomenon of “ice chutes.” After each of our […]