Vietnam Memorial Names – Jack Downs, John Sweet, Loren Engstrom Jack Dennis Downs, April 6, 1968 – Little is known of Jack’s early years growing up in Tujunga. The only photo we have of him is from the Verdugo Hills High School yearbook. He was drafted in October 1967, and sent to Vietnam as […]
Vietnam Memorial Names – Callen Courtemanche, Richard Ramsey, Michael Sheahan These three men all died in the famous Tet Offensive, in which the North Vietnamese attacked military bases in the south in an all-out effort. These three locals died within a month of each other, and it was this heartbreaking loss that probably inspired […]
Vietnam Memorial Names – Norman Kidd, Greg Kelly, John Lee This continues our review of the lives of the men on Montrose’s Vietnam Memorial. Norman Richard Kidd, May 26, 1967 – Norman grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He was active in high school, captain of the basketball team, and vice president of the senior […]
Vietnam Memorial Names – Patrick Quinn, Stephen Burlingame, Robert Chapp This continues our review of the lives of the men on Montrose’s Vietnam Memorial. Patrick Owen Quinn, Nov. 25, 1966 – Patrick Quinn was well known in the community. Two people have already contacted me who knew him personally. Patrick attended La Crescenta Elementary […]
Vietnam Memorial Names –Michael Najarian, Fred Beckermann, James Bauder This continues our review of the lives of the men on Montrose’s Vietnam Memorial. Michael Anthony Najarian, June 18, 1966 – Michael Najarian, known to his friends as Tony, was a La Crescenta resident, growing up on the 3700 block of Altura Avenue, and working after […]
Vietnam Memorial Names – William Hail, Jerry Murphy, Gary Nelson “Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land.” These words are on the Montrose Vietnam Memorial, and that is what we will do in the next few weeks. We will give you the stories behind each name on […]
Progress In Our Valley – 1925 Again, turning the pages of old newspapers, we find an article in July 1925, extoling the up-and-coming features of La Cañada, Flintridge, La Crescenta and Tujunga. (In parentheses, I’m noting what those features are today.) La Cañada. Things were happening on the eastern borders of La Cañada. Devil’s […]
The Rattlesnake Murders For those of you who have read “Murder and Mayhem in the Crescenta Valley,” this story will be familiar as it was written up by Gary Keyes for that book. But this murder was so bizarre, so twisted, that I just had to cover it again. In 1935, Robert James and […]
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 – 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 […]