Trails of the Angeles. John W. Robinson

      Humans in the San Gabriels

      Humans have entered the San Gabriels in almost every conceivable manner. We have come into the mountains for a multitude of reasons. And we have come in great numbers. Few mountain ranges anywhere have been so viewed, swarmed over, dug into, and built upon by the human species.

      What draws us to the mountains? Is it curiosity? The promise of adventure? The excitement of hunting and fishing? The chance of a better livelihood? The quest for mineral wealth? The longing to redeem and revitalize oneself, away from the hustle of urban life? The need for something spiritual or ego-satisfying? The long pageant of humans in the San Gabriels reveals all these motives, along with some that are not so readily identified. The fascination of the canyons, the ridges, the peaks, and the little flats that lie deep in the mountains has attracted human visitors since humans first made their home in Southern California. People have come to the mountains, have seen, have lingered, and in many cases have remained for life.

      One might suppose that the San Gabriels would be worn out (ecologically) by all this human activity. Some parts are, particularly in the front range. Fortunately, though, there are other areas where human impact has been minimal, where nature still rules—thanks to the protective efforts of a handful of people who, for a variety of reasons ranging from enlightened self-interest to aesthetic values, have fought to save the mountains and the forests for the benefit of all. Humankind is not totally shortsighted, although we often appear to be.

      The first humans in the San Gabriels were American Indian peoples of Shoshonean stock—Gabrielinos in the southern foothills, Fernandeños in the western canyons, and Serranos in the eastern and northern high country. (These tribal names were assigned by anthropologists. The groups named Gabrielinos and Fernandeños were associated with Missions San Gabriel and San Fernando, respectively. However, the indigenous name Tongva is preferred by American Indian activists and Gabrielino descendants. Serrano is derived from the Spanish word meaning “mountaineer.”) Other tribal groups in the Liebre–Sawmill–Sierra Pelona country were the Alliklik and the Kitanemuk peoples, also Shoshonean. Though their homes were generally below the mountains, these peoples depended heavily on the San Gabriel range. The mountains supplied them with food, water, and materials for building and hunting. For food, they hunted deer and rabbits and gathered acorns and pine nuts. They took water from the streams that gushed down from great heights. Chaparral was an abundant source of many necessities. Manzanita berries were pressed for cider, and the leaves were smoked. Greasewood provided arrow shafts for hunting. Yucca fibers were used to make nets and ropes.

      To obtain these materials, and to visit and trade with other peoples across the range, American Indians made the first footpaths into the mountains. According to Will Thrall, foremost collector of San Gabriel Mountains history, who personally searched out these ancient routes at a time when they could still be followed, the main Shoshone trail across the range ascended Millard Canyon, traversed behind Mount Lowe to Red Box Saddle, descended the West Fork of the San Gabriel River to Valley Forge Canyon, climbed up that canyon to Barley Flats, went down and across the head of Big Tujunga Canyon and up to Pine (Charlton) Flat, and continued on to the west end of Chilao. Here, the trail forked. One branch followed the high country northeast to Buckhorn, and then went down the South Fork of Little Rock Creek to the desert. The other branch dropped northwest into upper Alder Creek, and then ascended Indian Ridge (where traces of the old footpath can still be seen) to Sheep Camp Spring on the west slope of Mount Pacifico, and dropped down Santiago Canyon to Little Rock Creek and along it to the desert. Another cross-range trail ascended the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, climbed over Windy Gap, and descended the South Fork of Big Rock Creek to the desert. For perhaps two or three centuries before the arrival of the white settlers, these and many shorter canyon trails were trod by hundreds of American Indians every year.

      The arrival of the Spaniards changed life in the pleasant valleys below the mountains forever. In 1771, along the grassy banks of the Rio Hondo, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was founded, and soon thereafter, the Gabrielinos were incorporated into the mission community. Mission San Fernando Rey de España, founded in 1797, became the home of the less-numerous Fernandeños. At the height of mission activity—around 1800—these two outposts of the cross numbered some 2,000 American Indians in their widespread flocks.

      Several decades later came the era of the great ranchos, bringing a pastoral way of life to the valleys. These spacious cattle ranches that spread out below the south slopes of the range bore the familiar names of San Fernando, Tujunga, La Cañada, San Pascual, Santa Anita, Azusa de Duarte, and San Jose.

      The Spanish and Mexican Californios used the mountains very little except as a source of water. When there were buildings to be constructed, woodcutters sometimes took timber from the lower canyons. Vaqueros did some hunting in the canyons and foothills. Grizzly bears, numerous in the range then, were stalked and captured, and then dragged to the bull ring in the Pueblo of Los Angeles to be sacrificed in brutal bear-bull contests.

      There is no evidence that the Spaniards ever penetrated into the heart of the mountains, although they certainly explored the fringes. Gaspar de Portolá and Pedro Fages, on their epic journey northward in 1769, toiled through the narrow canyon of San Fernando Pass and found “high, barren hills, very difficult for beasts of burden” before dropping into pleasant Newhall Valley. On another path-finding trip in 1772, Fages crossed the eastern end of the range in the vicinity of Cajon Pass and continued northwest below the northern ramparts of the mountains, discovering the Joshua trees. Fray Francisco Garcés, the missionary-explorer-martyr, explored both sides of the range in 1776. Fray José María Zalvidea almost circled what is now Angeles National Forest in 1806.

      It was the Spaniards who gave the mountains their name—two names, in fact, that have existed side by side until relatively recent years. In 1776 Garcés referred to the range as Sierra de San Gabriel, borrowing the name of the nearby mission, and this name was used in Spanish records frequently in ensuing years. But the mission padres usually referred to the range as Sierra Madre (“mother range”). Both San Gabriel and Sierra Madre were in common usage until 1927, when the U.S. Board on Geographic Names finally ruled in favor of the former. Today San Gabriel Mountains is almost universally accepted.

      With the coming of the Anglos—from the 1840s onward—the San Gabriels began to receive more attention. Prospectors, hunters, bandits, homesteaders, and squatters were pioneers in unveiling the secrets of the mountains. These hardy individuals first entered the wooded canyons, and then forged their way over the ridges and into