edge, while its relative, the white phacelia, creeps over the rocks
higher up. Downy yellow violets--wild pansies the children call them,
so much larger are they than the Eastern violets--grow on the rich
moist earth by the mountain springs.
Over the scrub oaks the yellow and white honeysuckle winds, while the
clematis drapes other thickets with its graceful festoons of white
blossoms in spring, leaving for the fall the funny seed balls still
clinging to the vine.
Later in the year the wild fuchias and wild astors come unexpectedly
forth when valley flowers have long since given up blooming, keeping up
the reputation of the mountains for having flowers at all times and at
all seasons.
[Illustration: Observation Car on Grand Circular Bridge en route for
Alpine Tavern.]
The Coast Islands From Mount Lowe.
The coast line of the Pacific ocean, as seen from Mount Lowe is
peculiarly fine. On a clear day many islands can be seen from the
summit, where the eye can scan a distance of nearly three hundred miles
along the shore. Some of the islands rise from the surface of the water
only a few hundred feet, their surfaces being high table lands, which
can be cultivated; others are mountains, the highest peaks towering
3,000 feet high, while others are apparently the rocky tops of
submerged mountains.
[Illustration: Log Cabin, Mount Lowe Springs.]
The position of Mount Lowe is such that with one sweep of the eye they
will pass in review on a clear day (which in this region is the normal
condition of the atmosphere), giving a panorama of ocean, island,
mountain and canyon scenery which cannot be equaled on the globe.
Looking from Mount Lowe Over the Valley.
The San Gabriel Valley and the mesa lands lying between the Mission
Hills and the ocean are choice bits of God's creation, as are also the
interior valleys which radiate from them.
This stretch of fertile land, all of which can be seen from some point
of view on Mount Lowe, already contains two hundred and fifty thousand
people, and yet only a small portion of the soil is cultivated. It is
capable of sustaining a population of several million from the products
of the soil alone, not to say anything of its superior location for
manufacturing and commerce. Probably before the new century is half a
decade old more than a million people will have their homes here.
The portion of this region lying immediately at the foot of Mount Lowe
is the most thickly populated section of Southern California. Directly
underneath, within a few miles of its base, is the beautiful city of
Pasadena, with its sixteen thousand people, and just beyond the Mission
Hills, the metropolis of the southwest, Los Angeles, is located, with
one hundred and forty thousand population. These two cities show a
greater annual per cent. of development than can be found in any
other portion of the United States. The upper or western portion of the
San Gabriel valley is cut up into fruit farms, which look from the
mountains like well kept gardens, and the whole scene is one of busy
activity. These cities, towns, orchards and farms give added charms to
the landscape.
[Illustration: Swimming in the Pacific Ocean at Long Beach on New
Year's Day.]
Through a good opera glass or a field glass the celebrated avenues of
Baldwin's Ranch, the Mission San Gabriel, the Convent at Ramona, a
portion of the Industrial School at Whittier, many of the public
buildings of Los Angeles, and other objects of interest may be seen. A
score or more of cities, towns and villages are clearly discernible,
and the course of their streets well outlined. The Puente Hills, the
Mission Hills, the San Rafael Hills and their surrounding mountain
heights, with the peaks of Santiago, San Antonio, San Bernardino, San
Gorgonio, San Jacinto, Santa Monica, Santa Inez and San Fernando are
all in sight, and beyond these fertile valleys and highlands can be
seen the peaceful waters of the Pacific sparkling and glimmering in the
warm sunshine, studded here and there with some of the most beautiful
islands in the world, the headlands of Santa Catalina standing out in a
clear day like the bold cliffs of Gibraltar, and San Clemente, St.
Nicholas, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Ancapa, and Santa Barbara bedecking
the ocean like the isles of the Grecian Archipelago.
From Alpine Snow to Semi-Tropical Sea.
On several New Year's Days I have made this wonderful and memorable
trip. The climatic conditions are so peculiar that within three
hours' time of enjoying a swim in the warm waters of the Pacific one
may be snowballing his friends, sleighriding or tobogganing on the
heights of Mount Lowe. The accompanying pictures give some faint idea
of the unrivaled charm of this unique trip. Sometimes I have started at
the snow in the mountains, but on New Year's Day, 1897, I first took a
swim in the Pacific Ocean at Long Beach. This, "the Atlantic City of
the West," is twenty-one miles southeast of Los Angeles, and the beach
is one of the finest in the world. It has a gentle slope, is of firm
sand, and is equally as good for horseback riding and driving as for
bathing. Its great length of solid sand is what suggested the name,
hence it is an ideal spot for those who love the ocean and the sands.
Here, with several friends, I reveled in the surf and beyond, and then
returned to the hotel with an appetite vigorous and healthy. The
cravings of hunger satiated, the train whirled me back towards the
mountains. Now the electric cars of the Pacific Electric Railway, over
a broad-gauge track, surpass even the steam cars in their speed and
easiness of motion. The green lawns of Long Beach were left behind,
that the eye might feast upon the rich green of the alfalfa fields and
sugar beet ranches. The old Dominguez Ranch was passed, the mesa upon
which the last fight with the Mexicans took place before California was
secured to the United States, and the interesting gardens of the
industrious "heathen Chinee." Never for a moment were we out of sight
of the majestic Sierra Madre Range, while hoary San Antonio (so
inappropriately and disrespectfully called "Old Baldy," by the
uncouth and irreverent), lifted his sentinel head in watchfulness over
the ever-verdant and glorious San Gabriel Valley. To the right and
somewhat to the rear was the cloud banner mountain of Southern
California, Mt. Santiago, while further away to the east were the giant
peaks of San Bernardino, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto.
[Illustration: At the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, New Year's Day.]
On reaching Los Angeles change was made to the Pasadena cars and a
thirty minutes' ride conveyed me to the flower-embowered streets and
avenues of Pasadena, where a score of thousands of citizens and
visitors were assembled to enjoy the annual Tournament of Roses. This
great mid-winter festival fully illustrates the climatic felicities of
this God-blessed region. It is a midsummer fête, where, generally,
flowers are lavishly expended in a wealth of floral decorations that to
an eastern mind seems incredible. Floats, carriages, tally-hos,
bicycles, horses and burros, decorated with choicest flowers, pass in
procession through the streets and avenues, cheered by enthusiastic
visitors. After reveling in the scene, the electric cars whirled
myself, a solitary unit among several hundreds of people, to the
heights of Echo Mountain and Alpine Tavern. Here, taking horse, and
accompanied by a distinguished medical professor of the University of
Minnesota, we were soon on the north slopes of Mount Lowe, where scores
of patches of snow were seen. In the mid-winter air we rode without any
inconvenience from cold, even light overcoats being unnecessary.
Returning to Echo Mountain, we enjoyed there a concert, and then the
doctor and I returned to Pasadena and Los Angeles, respectively, he
delighted with the novelty of his trip, and I satisfied that in no
other country in the world can such a three-hours' New Year's Day trip
be enjoyed than in our "Land of the Sun Down Sea."
[Illustration: Mr. Andrew McNally's Gardens on New Year's Day.]
[Illustration: In the Snow, overlooking Great Bear Canyon, Mount Lowe.]
From the Mountains to the Sea.
Although the trip so briefly described above was taken on New Years'
Day it must not be thought that it is a trip specially confined to that
day. Snow generally is to be found on the north slopes of Mount Lowe
from the end of November (after the first rains) until the middle of
May, so that thousands of visitors may enjoy this unique trip. Stopping
over night at Alpine Tavern, one may revel in the snow in the morning
and be photographed at an elevation of 5,000 feet, taking a sleigh-ride
to Inspiration Point, where he may stand or sit and look over the
blossom covered orange and lemon groves and flower gardens of Pasadena.
In three-quarters of an hour he may be driven in a carriage near those
very orchards and gardens, where snow has fallen but twice in eighteen
years. After dinner, a little over another hour's ride brings him to
the shore of the semi-tropical Pacific, and here he may enjoy a swim,
or, if he prefers, stand on the beach and watch a hundred people
sporting in the warm breakers. This is no unusual experience for the
delectation not only of those who are robust and strong, but even the
delicate may, with perfect impunity, make such a trip, and thus be
enabled to write to Eastern friends, shivering in the rigorous cold of
an Alpine winter, of the pleasures of this almost unbelievable three
hours' journey "from the mountains to the sea."
[Illustration: Outlook from one of the Bedroom Windows, Alpine Tavern,
Mount Lowe, March, 1896.]
DAWN ON MOUNT LOWE.
Looking southward to the sunlands,
On the ocean's ebb and flow,
Keeping watch o'er Echo Mountain,
Dwells the spirit of Mount Lowe--
In the glowing light of noonday,
In the midnight calm and lone,
Gazing outward from the summit
Like a ruler from his throne.
At his feet sits Pasadena,
Framed with fields of fruit and grain
Where the valley of San Gabriel
Slopes in beauty to the main--
Pasadena, decked with roses
And with gems of gold and green,
Resting on the landscape's forehead
Like a crown upon a queen.
And the "City of the Angels,"
On her hills of bronze and gold,
Stands amidst her groves of olives
Like Jerusalem of old;
With the purple Sierra Madres
Smiling downward from the dawn,
As Mount Hermon smiled on Zion,
In the ages that are gone.
West and south the blue Pacific,
Hemmed with surf and fringed with spray,
Bathes in floods of molten silver
Headland, island, beach and bay;
East and north the inland deserts,
With their ever shifting sands--
More unstable than the waters--
Fade in distant mountain lands.
Oh! that vision of the sunlands
Where the skies are ever fair,
And the Autumn woos the Winter
With young rosebuds in her hair--
Where the orange blooms forever
And its leaf is never sere,
And the mocking bird is singing
To his mate the livelong year.
It has haunted me in slumber,
It has gleamed and throbbed again
In my solitary musings,
And in crowded throngs of men;
Like a vanished revelation
Floats the memory back to me
Of that dawn upon the mountain
'Twixt the desert and the sea.
JAMES G. CLARK.
[Illustration: Mount San Antonio, July 4, 1895, As Seen from Mount
Lowe.]
Tri-Crested Summit of Mount Lowe.
No photograph or engraving can give any adequate conception of the
grand proportions of this majestic mountain. Seen from Los Angeles,
Pasadena, or the intermediate or surrounding points, its three crests
are clearly outlined against the sky, and it stands--the proud monarch
of the Sierra Madre range--centrally located and immediately
overlooking Pasadena and the head of the San Gabriel Valley. The bridle
road of the "Mount Lowe Eight" reaches its topmost crest, where there
are delightful mountain parks surrounded by live oaks, pines, firs,
sycamore and other trees.
The climatic and atmospheric advantages of this site for astronomical
and meteorological observations have been enthusiastically expatiated
upon by such scientific experts as President Eliot and Prof. Pickering
of Harvard, Profs. Barnard and Burnham of the Lick Observatory, Prof.
Kent of Chicago and many others. No more suitable site could be
selected in the whole domain of the American continent.
A Forest of Pines.
Along the Alpine division the cars pass through a forest of giant
pines, which covers all the northern slopes of the Sierra Madre. The
symmetrical branches weave a network against the background of blue
sky. These hardy trees grasp the granite rocks with their gnarled roots
and send a lacework of delicate fibres down the almost imperceptible
fissures for nourishment. The roots of pines and oaks have penetrated
the crevices to a depth of twelve to fifteen feet below the surface.
The Name.
The "naming" of Mount Lowe was quite an interesting ceremony. A large
party of distinguished citizens of Los Angeles and Pasadena had ridden
to the summit to see the progress made in the construction of the
railway and bridle roads, and an article written at the time by one
member of the party and published in an Eastern paper, the Anglaise
County (Ohio) _Republican_, says:
"While in the enjoyment of the beauties and grandeur on this
magnificent elevation more than 6,000 feet above the sea,
some one inquired the name of this grand and lofty mountain,
and then it was discovered that until this time this giant
peak, the monarch of the Sierra Madre, was unnamed. One of
the party suggested that whereas Professor T. S. C. Lowe,
the great scientist, had first ridden to the top, had made
the first trip to its lofty summit, was the first man to
have planted the stars and stripes on its highest point, and
was the first man to conceive the project of reaching its
dizzy height with a railroad, and with courage and means to
put such a project into execution, as was now being done, no
more fit and appropriate name could be given this mountain
than the name of 'Mount Lowe.' The motion to so name it was
put and carried without a dissenting vote, and so, there
above the clouds, it was named; and it will continue to be
so named, when every one of the party present at the
christening shall have been laid away in Mother Earth; and
generations yet unborn shall trace its rugged outlines on
their physical geographies and call it Mount Lowe."
[Illustration: "Gut Heil" Loop, Mount Lowe Railway, Looking from Winter
to Summer.]
[Illustration: Rounding Sunset Point, Mount Lowe Railway.]
How to see Mount Lowe.
There are various ways of "doing" Mount Lowe, but many people do not
give themselves time enough to fully enjoy the various attractions
which are to be found along the route. To people of leisure who desire
to thoroughly explore the canyons, enjoy the scenery in all its varied
manifestations, many days can be profitably and most pleasantly passed,
the varied scenery furnishing new enjoyment every day. Those whose time
is limited should come prepared to stop at least twenty-four hours. By
taking an early train Echo Mountain is reached in time to take a ride
over the Alpine division, and also to the summit of Mount Lowe, going
over the bridle roads from Alpine Tavern on saddle animals. The
afternoon can be profitably spent in exploring the many canyons of the
"Mount Lowe Eight," and viewing the sunset from Echo Mountain.
In the evening there can be witnessed the operation of the great
World's Fair Searchlight and telescopic views of the Moon and the
Planets, the great Milky-way, with its millions of Suns as large as our
own; Saturn, with its beautiful rings; Jupiter, with its grand belts
and Moons, and many other celestial objects.
The Lick Observatory at Mount Hamilton is reached by a tedious round
trip by stage of 54 miles without a chance to stop over night at the
observatory. After viewing the splendid telescopic views from Lowe
Observatory, all are invited to inspect the Incline machinery,
elsewhere described.
[Illustration: Observation Car, Descending from Grand Circular Bridge,
Mount Lowe.]
Summer on Mount Lowe.
The Sierra Madre Range has long been regarded as the most beautiful
location in which to escape from the heat of midsummer, or to make the
change of climate and scenery. Heretofore the seashore has been more
largely patronized on account of its ease of access, but many hundreds
of people have annually made pilgrimages to remote mountain resorts
because of the pure air and healthful surroundings there to be found.
The building of the Mount Lowe Railway into the very heart of the
mountains, and the erection of a modern hotel at Alpine has drawn the
attention of the people to these attractions, and the trend of travel
is now turned mountainward. Accommodations at the Tavern are not
surpassed by any on the Coast, and the liberal policy of the company to
those who desire to pass the summer here has so greatly reduced the
expense of living that it costs no more, railway fares included, than
at the seashore, and far less than by traveling long distances where
they can find nothing to compare with this resort.
Other mountain resorts are hard to attain, and the cost in money, time
and exertion places them beyond the reach of most people. But here, all
the enchanting pleasures of mountain life can be enjoyed with the same
ease and comfort and at no greater exertion than in the lowlands. For
those who are affected by the heat and dust of the valley it is an
ideal retreat, where complete exemption is to be had from all
complaints of the respiratory organs, especially asthma and hay fever.
The healthy and robust also find a variety of scenery and exercise
which made life glow with new vigor, attaining in a large degree all
needed rest and recuperation.
[Illustration: Around the Great Fire Place, at "Ye Alpine Tavern,"
Mount Lowe Springs.]
At Mount Lowe Springs the Alpine Tavern affords excellent
accommodations at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the sea, in the
giant pines which crown the summit of the first range, in which, also,
are opportunities for cottage and tent life in a region in which are
found the purest water, air which is perfectly adapted to delicate
lungs, and innumerable opportunities for the physical and intellectual
upbuilding of overtaxed minds and bodies. Here one can find rest and
sleep as they have never slept before, awaking refreshed with the tonic
of mountain air and sweet repose.
The Summing Up.
In closing the history of this remarkable enterprise, one thought
overshadows all others as we contemplate the author and his work.
It is the thought of the unsolved mysteries and sublimities and
beauties of these mountains--their inaccessibility, their
remoteness--had it not been for the persevering efforts of Prof. Lowe.
The dark curtain that had hung for ages over these craggy chasms, these
phenomenal canyons, these magnificent forests, these abysmal depths and
cloud piercing heights, these grottoes and glens, these solitary
habitations of bird and beast would still be drawn down but for his
enterprise and genius--thus shutting out a thousand delights to the
multitudes who have already looked upon them, and the myriads in the
coming century who are yet to rejoice in their glories.
The Beauties of Mount Lowe.
And no words of mine can express the charms, delights and beauties of
Mount Lowe better than the following apt and eloquent summary by Dr. J.
H. Barrows, of Chicago, the well-known President of the Parliament of
Religions at the World's Fair, and later, until his lamented death, the
honored President of Oberlin College, Ohio:
"Thousands of trees grow out of its sold granite slopes;
soft mountain breezes sing luring songs to the trees, the
birds reply in a perfect ecstacy of liquid melody, the
cataracts here and there dash and boom in accompaniment, and
the rippling streams gossippingly carry the joyous news of
the mountain heights and solitudes to the sweet mesas and
plains below.
"Four varieties of scenery are here combined: The beautiful
San Gabriel Valley pastoral scene; the sublime ocean and
pearl-like island views; the Alpine, Swiss, Norwegian and
Himalayan effects, the circle of magnificent peaks from San
Antonio to San Jacinto. Here we have Italy and Switzerland,
both together! Snow and orange groves! Icicles and
heliotrope! Sleigh-riding and rose gardens! Toboganning and
humming birds! Skating and butterflies! Snowy mountains and
pearly faced ocean, hazy islands and Eden's garden, all held
in the bottom of God's hand, in the sight of one man's eyes,
at one and the same moment!"
Other Picturesque Trips on the Pacific Electric Railway.
It was from Mount Lowe that the President of the Pacific Electric
Railway gained his first insight or "oversight" of the vast
possibilities of the region in and around the city of Los Angeles. When
it was suggested to him that the time was not far distant when the
whole of this region, from the mountains to the sea, would be threaded
over with electric railways, he was inclined to regard the suggestion
as chimerical. Time has made his the hand to perform the improbable.
Nowhere in the civilized world is such a suburban and interurban system
of electric railways to be found as radiates from the city of Los
Angeles to the cities, towns, seaside and mountain resorts of this
portion of Southern California. Visitors to the Mount Lowe Railway
should request the conductors to point out from the summit of Echo
Mountain the location of the following places.
Long Beach.
One of the most interesting trips out of Los Angeles is over the
Pacific Electric Railway to Long Beach. This enterprising city is
located twenty-one miles southeast of Los Angeles on the shores of the
Pacific Ocean. Its location is such that the natural advantages make it
the finest seaside resort in California. Taking the cars at the corner
of Sixth and Main Streets, the city of Los Angeles is soon behind us
and we are "spinning" along at sixty miles an hour over the smoothest
piece of broad-gauge track ever built, in cars that are large and
commodious.
[Illustration: Long Beach, Reached by the Pacific Electric Railway.]
Many points of interest are passed en route--the extensive fields of
the Co-operative Colony, vegetable ranches with their picturesque
Mongolian workmen; through the prosperous town of Compton, which is
situated in the centre of a fertile district, where sugar beets, garden
truck, alfalfa and other products of the soil are raised; thence by the
old Dominguez Ranch, famous for the old Spanish bull fights held there,
also the old chapel where every Catholic bishop in this State has held
Divine services. The surrounding Mesa was the field of one of the
fights of the Mexican War.
The track is so straight that the poles, rails and wires converge and
the vanishing point is seen. The miles are slipping by at a rapid rate.
Over bridges, through fields, by shady nooks and deep pools we go. Rich
fields of alfalfa, with their valuable herds of cattle grazing in the
foreground, while in the distance San Antonio rearing its hoary head to
the skies, the sentinel of the tropical San Gabriel Valley, makes a
picture long to be remembered.
Passing over a most attractive lagoon and up a slight grade--the
steepest on the trip--we are nearing the city of Long Beach. Houses
with their beautiful lawns appear on every hand. Situated on the right
is the new high school building, an example of the Old Mission
architecture. Turning from American Avenue on to Ocean Boulevard, the
broad Pacific greets our unobstructed view. Hundreds are enjoying the
bracing air and delightful surf. The large building to the left is the
open air pavilion, in which concerts are given every day in the year,
dances being held tri-weekly. From here the broad pleasure pier runs
out through the roaring surf to the distance of eighteen hundred feet.
Fine fishing is had from this point of vantage, although by going out
in boats one may enjoy the pleasures of deep sea fishing. The world
renowned leaping Tuna and June fish are taken, some running as high as
200 pounds.