Rubio Canyon is a quiet and sacred place to me, rarely encountering others, I can slip away into this magical canyon and drift back in time to relish in the revelry of the railway’s heydays.

Quietly passing by the block wall of the trailside home on Rubio Vista, it is mere seconds before I am in the wilds of Rubio Canyon. My worn boots kick up small puffs of dust as I walk the well deteriorated trail, and on occasion I stop to watch a lizard scramble across the trail from one tiny burst of brush to another. A canvas could not be more appropriately sketched, and painted, then the canvas that lies before me. The stark and glistening gray granite walls spiked with the verdure of yucca and Spanish Daggers are brought to an enlightening animation with the gentle and paper like orange petals of the California Poppies.

Submitted by
Alan Leighton
Bochum, Germany, 1999

This is the stairway at the San Gabriel Mission.

Well before the Declaration of Independence was signed far to the east, the area that is now known as Pasadena, and most of Los Angeles County, was occupied by people who later came to be known as the Gabrielino Indians. The term "Gabrielino" came from the San Gabriel Mission, but the Indians themselves had their own local names. Those who lived in what became downtown L.A. were the Yangnas, on the west side were the Tongvas, up in the foothills were the Tujungnas, down by Long Beach were the Puvungnas, and greater Pasadena and the Arroyo Seco was occupied by the Hahamongna.

These people practiced no agriculture in the modern sense, and they domesticated no animals. So how did they survive? They gathered, hunted, and ate these local foods and animals.

Their method of healing was considered fairly advanced, and it included acknowledgment of the spirit world, and rattles, singing, chanting, ceremonies, and the use of steam baths and herbal teas.

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In 1892 Thaddeus Lowe built a dam in the canyon behind Echo Mountain with the permission of the Pasadena Improvement Company; later to become Rubio Canyon Land and Water Association. The idea Lowe formulated to power his rail car was to use the water pressure to recharge some 300 storage batteries via three waterwheels hidden under the floor of the Great Incline and Rubion Pavillion. Although the idea looked good on paper, legal wrangling began when Rubio Canyon Land and Water Association’s predecessor disagreed with the amount of water Lowe wanted to store, citing the need to service their customers.

Mount Lowe Military Academy yearbook found by Jake Brouwer and donated to the Altadena Historical Society.

In March I managed to find a very interesting yearbook. It was the Blue and Gold of 1969. The Mount Lowe Military Academy. This particular volume once belonged to David Penfold. Are you out there somewhere David? We would all love to hear more about the MLMA as would the good folks at the Altadena Historical Society. It was located at 603 West Palm Altadena. This was Volume V. Does this mean it was open in 1964? In the rear of the book are photos of the flood of 1969. For anyone interested in viewing this Altadena treasure, it has been donated to the Altadena Historical Society located on Lake Ave, Altadena.

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