Once at the Dawn Station site, I took a break in the shade at the foot of the trail to
the gold mine and hoped my dreams to get the structure rebuilt would go through. The seed
had been planted early in 1997 and brought up again in October 1997 on a workday on Mt.
Lowe. The SMLHC liked the idea of having a rest stop half way up to the tavern for hikers
and bikers and for me especially the structure would just about complete my Dawn Mine
experiences.
 |
Forest Service Volunteer John Harrigan measures and sets
stake for the Dawn Station waiting structure, while Lee Varnum looks on. |
After an orange slice or two I took off down the "Trail to the Gold Mine."
The trail was a bit airy in parts complete with washouts, rockslides, and the occasional
fallen tree trunk but before long things were going quite well. One particular item of
interest; along this trail is the artists vantage point of the beautiful painting of
Millard Canyon hanging in the Altadena Library. On this day one could see down the
length of the canyon and all the way out to the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles. On to
the gold mine I went, stopping briefly at the home site of the Ryan’s, owners of the
mine in much earlier days. I sat on the peninsula their house was built on and just
listened for a while to the sound of the water falling over a small four-foot fall. I
passed on visiting the mine. After all six times last year was enough.
An hour later I was above Millard Falls hearing the echoes of dogs barking and hikers
laughing in the spray.
January 10, 1998 the SMLHC went up to Inspiration Point to repair
shingles that had blown off the shelter. Despite the drenching rain storm the night before
four volunteers showed up to work. Besides the roof we also secured the flag pole along
the little trail to Easter Rock and then hauled rock down to the Dawn site for another
days work there. Brian, John, Jim and Jake did the days work.
December 1997 Thanks to photos provided to me by Charles Seims and one in
my own collection taken by Ralph Melching, our own SMLHC member John Harrigan
was able to put together a fantastic set of plans to work from for rebuilding the Dawn
Station waiting structure. In January 1998 two nice donations came in from Alpine
Division Scale Models and Tim Friend. Thanks a lot fellas!
 |
Site for the proposed Dawn Station Waiting
structure. Photo taken January 1997. |
January 24, 1998 members of the SMLHC, Brian Marcroft, John Harrigan,
Scott Nielson, Lee Varnum, Bill Crouch, Kent Hamel, and Jake Brouwer
measured and than leveled out the platform area for the Dawn Station. It was a good 5-hour
workday and a lot was accomplished.
A reminder to all Mt. Lowe and Thaddeus Lowe collectors. DON’T GIVE UP! There
are items to find around nearly every corner, just be aware and LOOK. In January I
came up with a Civil War book from 1895 that had two pictures of Lowe’s balloon and a
full-page picture of Lowe’s gas machines. ($15.) Also found were a Scientific
American 1893 with a description of the new Scenic Mt. Lowe Railroad and a narrative about
its power sources. ($5.) A brochure of the Alpine Tavern found on the WWW. ($8.)
February brought to the Southland a good deal of rain and a wonderful covering of snow
on Mt. Lowe. A few trips were made up to the Dawn Station waiting structure site and a few
more donations trickled in.
On February 16, 1998 the San Gabriel Valley Tribune did a nice piece on our
plans for the Dawn structure. Shortly afterwards donations came in from Fred and Edna
Smith, Victor McVey, Joseph and Wanda Drown, Geraldine Davis, and Dave
and Lisa Lewis. Thanks!
March was pretty quiet as far as news goes. Michael Patris notified me that he was
asked to host the opening ceremonies for the Collectors Convention in Pomona in June 1998.
Michael will also be lecturing on collecting Mt. Lowe memorabilia.
Send email to Echowebmaster@aaaim.com to report any problems.
Last modified: February 12, 1999
No part of this paper may be
reproduced in any form without written permission from:
Jake Brouwer
All articles and photos were provided by:
Land-Sea Discovery Group
Copyright © 1999
On New Years Day I decided to take the trek up
the fire road to Dawn Station and then hike into Millard Canyon and on to down to the gold
mine. Even in those early morning hours the drone of dirigibles were present while they
floated above Colorado Blvd vying for position above the Pasadena
Rose Parade. I counted at least five in their number. Before long another peace
breaker came onto the bright blue canvas above me spewing clouds of white graffiti from
its tail. This buzzing biplane wrote out STAR NEWS in giant white letters for all
who would wrench their necks to see. Another message of the day was 007,
the message getting much better reviews than the movie itself in my book.