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 Crescenta border. Who Cook was is again unknown, most likely a woodcutter. It’s a gorgeous, deep, shaded canyon with a small flowing stream and, I’m told, a little waterfall up higher in the canyon. The well-wooded canyon can be accessed via the Rim of the Valley Trail out of Deukmejian Park. On a ridge overlooking Cooks Canyon there is a very old stone cistern, which undoubtedly was filled with water from Cooks Canyon for summer use on the orchards below. It’s visible on the hillside from the intersection of Boston and Arnell.

Dunsmore Canyon – Dunsmore Canyon is one of the more storied canyons locally. Originally called Las Flores (“the flowers”) Canyon, it was purchased in 1874 by Frank Dunsmoor, a commercial beekeeper. Dunsmoor (misspelled as “Dunsmore”) was a Civil War vet, wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run. The Dunsmoor family moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles in 1873 and then, in 1874, to the Crescenta Valley where they bought the canyon and set up a beekeeping business. While living in the canyon, one of their children died, a 6-year-old girl named Pinky. In 1883, they moved to Glendale to be closer to schools. They sold Dunsmore Canyon to La Crescenta founder Dr. Briggs, who three years later flipped the property to an LA winemaker, George Le Mesnager. It’s through the Le Mesnager family, not the Dunsmoors, that the large part of the history of Dunsmore Canyon was charted.

The energetic George Le Mesnager immigrated to Los Angeles from France in 1866 when he was a young man. He was intensely patriotic to his native France, and when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, he returned to France to fight. He came back the next year, and immersed himself in the thriving French community in Los Angeles. He started a successful winery with grapes grown around the Downtown LA area. As his winery business grew, he expanded his vineyard acreage, purchasing Dunsmore Canyon in 1883, and a few years later more acreage in Verdugo Canyon, roughly today’s Sparr Heights and Oakmont Golf Course. George got in big trouble by skirting several liquor laws and, in 1893, his wine business was shut down in a spectacular raid. The crafty and dynamic Frenchman moved on to other ventures, while operation of the vineyards was passed to his son Louis. George had one last blast at French patriotism when WWI broke out and the old man, now in his 60s, insisted on enlisting as a private in the French Army. He was wounded in battle and decorated several times.

It was during this period that the stone barn we see in Deukmejian Park today was constructed, completed around 1915. The massive rock structure served as a staging area for the grapes grown in the canyon. When Prohibition shut down the Los Angeles winery, the family continued growing grapes in the canyon, but made their money by selling water to the growing Crescenta Valley below. Rusting old water pipes can now be found throughout the canyon.

In 1937, Louis Le Mesnager and family moved into the barn, and lived there until 1960. The canyon was sold for development, but was eventually purchased by Glendale for a park. The final payment was scraped together by then Gov. Deukmejian, and so the park was named for him.

Today Dunsmore Canyon is alive with hikers and nature lovers. The old barn will soon open as a nature center/community room, and trails branch through the park and a demonstration vineyard produces heritage wine. The canyon thrives.

The name Dunsmore also has thrived. Despite Frank Dunsmoor having the canyon for only nine years, his misspelled name lives on, not only in the canyon, but also in a street, park, school and flood control system in the valley below.

  mike lawler