Canyon Name Origins – Pickens Canyon, Benjamin Briggs In this column, I’m straying from my original intention to reveal the origin of the names of the canyons on the San Gabriel Mountains side of the valley. I already told you about Theodor Pickens, for whom Pickens Canyon is named. But I can’t let the […]
Canyon Name Origins – Goss Canyon Goss Canyon has some very interesting history attached to it. Goss Canyon is at the very top of Rosemont, fenced off from public access by a CV Water District fence as they have storage tanks there. Its name honors one of the early successful manufacturers in Los Angeles, and […]
Canyon Name Origins – More on Shields Canyon, Eagle Canyon More on Shields Canyon. I felt like I rushed through my description of “General” Shields two weeks ago when I was describing the origin of the name Shields Canyon. Shields was such a character that he really deserves a little more room. Again, I fall […]
Tujunga Ghost Stories I’ve been writing the last few weeks on the origins of the names of the canyons on the north side of our valley and stories surrounding them. Let me take a short break from that in honor of Halloween, and I’ll relate a few ghost stories from Sunland-Tujunga. I recently picked up […]
Canyon Name Origins – Ward Canyon, Quail Canyon, Shields Canyon Ward Canyon – Ward Canyon is presumably named for the Reverend Samuel Ward, the son-in-law of La Crescenta founder Benjamin Briggs. The Rev. Ward married Briggs’ daughter Irene in 1876, before Briggs came to La Crescenta. The Wards were missionaries in Persia and spent […]
Canyon Name Origins – Cooks Canyon, Dunsmore Canyon As we move into the Crescenta Valley, my info comes from one of our best local history researchers, Jo Anne Sadler, and her book “Crescenta Valley Pioneers & Their Legacies.” Cooks Canyon – This canyon is the first one encountered when heading east over the La […]
Canyon Name Origins – Blue Gum Canyon, Blanchard Canyon Blue Gum Canyon – We covered Haines Canyon last week, so the next canyon heading east is the small Blue Gum Canyon. I’ve never been up in Blue Gum, but it looks like it’s a well-treed canyon. It has a small debris basin at the end […]
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 […]
The Other La Tuna Canyon Fire – In 1955 As we look back on the La Tuna Canyon Fire of 2017, we recognize that it was a fire of historic proportions for Los Angeles. But history shows us that a fire of similar proportions was fought on the exact same ground 62 years ago in […]
Montrose Search and Rescue – Finding a Crashed Airplane on Catalina Island Because the Montrose Search and Rescue team is so highly regarded, it is often called out to exotic locations far from home. Such was the case in February 2009 when a small plane on a sightseeing run to Catalina Island disappeared on its […]