CHAPTER THREE: THE HISTORY OF HUMANS AND HUMAN IMPACT
The Native Americans
Perhaps the first humans to visit the San Gorgonio Wilderness were the Serrano Indians, who lived on the southern and northern slopes of the San Bernardinos. Archeologists have uncovered several rancherias that are close to the Wilderness: Yucaipat, located east of present-day Yucaipa, Apuritaimibit, near Seven Oaks on the Santa Ana River, and Kutcaviat, on the upper Santa Ana River near the confluence of Converse Creek.
The Cahuillas also had village sites near the Wilderness, mostly on the eastern side of the mountains near the Whitewater River. During the winter, the Cahuillas and Serranos stayed in their lower-elevation villages, but in the warmer months they traveled into the mountains to gather piñon nuts, berries, and acorns, and to hunt the abundant wildlife that lived in the San Bernardinos. It is probable that some of them ventured into the areas now within the Wilderness boundaries (Bean & Vane, 1981). A network of trails was created by the Native Americans for hunting, food-gathering, and trading. These pathways were used for centuries by desert Indians to trade with peoples living in the San Bernardino Valley and coastal plains (Robinson, 2003). Many of these pathways crossed the San Gorgonio Wilderness boundaries and led up into the meadows and streams of the higher elevations.
Lumbering
The first known lumbering in the San Bernardino Mountains came about from the need for timbers to support the roof of the San Bernardino Asistencia, an early Catholic mission (Beattie & Beattie, 1951). Father Zalvidea of Mission San Gabriel established the San Bernardino Rancho in 1819 in present-day Loma Linda. Its purpose was to establish the Catholic Church’s presence in the San Bernardino Valley and to instruct the local Indians in agriculture and stock raising. A storehouse that was built as part of the rancho most likely had timber beams as roof supports, and it is probable that the padres and the Indians used lumber in Mill Creek Canyon. While there is no direct evidence that lumbering occurred this early in the canyon, a zanja, or irrigation ditch, was dug from the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon to the rancho around 1820 (Robinson, 1989).
In 1831, a trapper named William Wolfskill needed a ship built so he could hunt sea otter off the Los Angeles coastline. He arranged to obtain his lumber from the same sawmill in Mill Creek Canyon (Clarr, 1959).
The Mormon Battalion was initially stationed in Cajon Pass in January of 1847 to prevent passage of marauding Indians or whites. They carried with them back home to Utah tales of the resources of the San Bernardino Valley, leading the way for the Mormon colonists who came in 1851. Later on in 1847 members of the Battalion were ordered to cut timber from the San Bernardino Mountains to fashion a flagpole for Fort Moore in Los Angeles. Historian J.M. Guinn stated,
Contract was let to Juan Ramirez to bring timber from the San Bernardino Mountains. Ramirez, with Indian laborers and an escort of ten Mormon soldiers, repaired to the headwaters of Mill Creek where he found suitable timber. He brought down two tree trunks, one about ninety feet and the other seventy-five or eighty feet long, fastened to the axles of a dozen old carretas, each trunk drawn by twenty oxen with and Indian driver to each ox. (1898, p. 145)
Following the arrival of the Mormon colonists, Mill Creek Canyon again became a prime source of wood. In 1953 a water-powered mill was built on the south side of Mill Creek a little west of Forest Home by Mormons Amasa Lyman, Charles Rich, and Theodore Thorpe (Robinson, 1989). It supplied lumber for nearly 10 years until a flood destroyed it in 1862. Lumbering had been done on both sides of the creek upstream as far as Big Falls, close to the present-day wilderness boundary (Beattie & Beattie, 1951). Mormons Amasa Lyman, Charles Rich, and Theodore Thorpe built a sawmill on Mill Creek immediately downstream from present-day Forest Home in May 1853. They used timber from the upper Mill Creek canyon, and some of the men working the mill may have ventured into the wilderness.
In 1883, a sawmill was established on Raywood Flat, in the southern part of the wilderness, by two men named Frazer and Kelly. Their sawmill operated for a few years, and evidence remains today of their four-mile flume which drew water from the south fork of the Whitewater River (Robinson, 1989).
The lumber industry was responsible for a great deal of damage to the once-pristine forest.
There was little or no regard shown by the lumber men toward practicing any methods of conservation. Only a small portion of each tree was used for lumber and the rest was left to decay. This ruinous cutting also created other problems. Streams were polluted with sawdust from the sawmills and silt from the barren eroding hillsides, with the result that the native trout that habitated [sic] the streams could not survive. (Johanneck, 1975, p. 13)
Since the denuded slopes could no longer hold the soil in place, flooding resulted which caused serious damage in the San Bernardino Valley. Fires also took a great toll up in the forest. Once a fire got started, there was little that could be done except to let it burn itself out.
Ranching
Cattle and sheep grazing developed in the San Bernardino Mountains around the same time as the lumbering. In 1856, surveyor Alvin Stoddard was directed to survey land in upper Mill Creek Canyon. On October 17, 1857, a preemption claim was recorded, with the land to be used for sheep grazing (Robinson, 1989).
Numerous sheep claims also existed on the upper Santa Ana River, extending into the wilderness boundaries. Dr. Benjamin Barton and Matthew Lewis pastured sheep in the area, and Charles F. Martin registered the “Heart Bar” brand in 1884 near present-day Heart Bar Campground. The meadows and brushland of the upper Santa Ana River were used for cattle grazing by brothers James B. and William S. McHaney during the first half of the 1880s (Robinson, 1989).
In 1907, Al “Swarty” Swarthout bought a half interest in the Heart Bar Ranch with Charlie Martin. After several changes in ownership from 1914 to 1921, with Swarthout selling and then buying back his half interest, the other half interest was purchased by San Bernardino businessman J. Dale Gentry. The cattle operations at Heart Bar expanded during the 1920s, since beef was in great demand. Swarty and his cowboys took their cattle through the northeastern part of the wilderness, driving them up Fish Creek, over the divide east of San Gorgonio Peak, and down Mission Creek to the loading pen at the Whitewater Station of the Southern Pacific Railroad, where they were shipped east (Hansen, 1973).
Hunting and Fishing
As early as the 1860s, local residents saw the attractiveness of the wilderness for hunting and fishing. Captain Lorin Shaw Jenks, built an earthen and log dam across a small creek in Barton Flats, and formed a small lake. He dug a ditch from Slushy Meadows (also known as South Fork Meadows) to divert some of the water in the South Fork of the Santa Ana. By 1878, his lake was marked on a survey map of the area and was reported in the Los Angeles Star of January 18,1879 as “the largest fish pond in California” (Robinson, 1989, p. 198). While most of the fishing was limited to Jenks Lake and the Santa Ana River outside the Wilderness boundary, hunters were successful in bagging deer within the Wilderness for many decades.
The upper Santa Ana River became known as a prime trout fishery in 1869. Robinson (1989, p. 197) reported that the San Bernardino Guardian described a party that went “to the head of the Santa Ana and brought back near a wagonload of fish and eight deer.” In 1871, two anglers caught 60 trout in two hours, and another pair of anglers landed 90 trout in a day. He further stated that in 1873, two San Bernardino residents “packed into the basin and caught 300 trout in one day”(Robinson, 1989, p. 197). While the upper Santa Ana still has trout, its native population has all but disappeared, and the fishery is maintained only through periodic stockings by the California Department of Fish and Game.
Mining
In April of 1860, the gold rush began in what is now called Holcomb Valley, northwest of Big Bear Lake. Bill Holcomb started it all with his discovery of the valley while following a wounded bear. Returning to the valley with friends in order to search for more bear, Holcomb and his friends tried their hands at panning, and discovered some gold in their pans (Adams, 1996). Hundreds, perhaps thousands of miners soon descended on the area. As years passed and claims played out and were abandoned, the search for gold moved outward from Bear Valley. Mining occurred east of Broom Flat, close to the northeast boundary of the San Gorgonio Wilderness (Burke, 1992). One well-known mine is located at approximately 9,600 feet on what is now called Mineshaft Flats.
Another mining-related industry that briefly operated near (and possibly in) the Wilderness was marble quarrying. As early as 1888, quarrying took place on the north slope of Mill Creek Canyon three miles above Forest Home. The rock was used for building in Redlands. The Cassin Marble Company purchased the claim in 1891, and in 1908 and 1909 the California Marble Company build a road to the canyon head. The company erected buildings and installed a “tramway from the quarry site, 300 feet up the north slope between Vivian and High creeks down to a rock bin on the canyon floor. Here the marble was loaded for shipment–first into wagons and later into trucks” (Robinson, 1989, p. 209).
An Environmental Working Group assessment of government land use records shows that mining, oil, and gas industries control numerous claims on public lands in or near San Gorgonio Wilderness. Currently, there are two “Tier 2” and two “Tier 3,” control claims within the wilderness boundaries. “Tier 2” control is land controlled by industry, or current mining claims. “Tier 3” control is land on which a claim has been abandoned or the operations are defunct. Fifty-two “Tier 4” control sites exist, which are mining claims formerly claimed by industry (Environmental Working Group, 2006). Today, hikers can see the remnants of two former mines, one located at the aforementioned Mineshaft Flats, and the other, called Mill Creek Mine, located on the north slope of Mill Creek Canyon about 100 yards up a steep slope. Scott Gardner (personal communication, February 11, 2006) stated that all that remains of the mine at Mineshaft Flats is a small (approximately 10 feet x 10 feet) depression, and a few timbers. The Mill Creek Mine is visible today to hikers who continue east up the creek instead of taking the Vivian Creek trail north into the Wilderness.
Hydroelectric Power
The waters of Falls Creek, which end in a 240-foot waterfall now called Big Falls, were once targeted for hydroelectric power. Cyrus G. Baldwin and his associate Arthur W. Burt filed on water rights to Falls Creek (then called the North Fork of Mill Creek) in 1892, and soon realized they would need additional water sources to generate sufficient electricity to make their project worthwhile. They expanded their project to include all the waters along the north side of upper Mill Creek Canyon. In 1898, a line was surveyed for a “gravity flume and pipeline from High Creek to Vivian Creek, Falls Creek, Alger Creek, and Lost Creek, then a penstock down to a proposed powerhouse on the north side of Mill Creek opposite Forest Home” (Robinson, 1989, p. 223). Brothers John and Will Dobbs were hired to tunnel through the west ridge of Falls Creek and to dig a flume westward to Alger Creek. Though the grandiose project eventually failed, remains of the cabin built by the Dobbs brothers can be seen near the original site high up on the north canyon above the east bank of Falls Creek, about a hundred yards downstream from Dobbs Trail Camp. Remnants of the Dobbs’ flume still can be seen along most of the length of the Momyer-Alger Creeks Trail (Robinson, 1989).
The southeastern portion of the San Gorgonio is made up of recently-added lands which came with the passage of the California Wilderness Act in 1984. These lands surround the upper stretches of the Whitewater River, San Gorgonio River, and Mission Creek. In 1906, the Consolidated Reservoir and Power Company, located in Los Angeles, filed on water rights to the Whitewater’s east and south forks. The company planned to divert water into Banning Canyon, build two hydroelectric plants, and flume the water to the Banning Bench to irrigate crop lands. Construction on various portions of the project took place from 1911 to 1917, when the Whitewater diversion conduit was irrigating 2500 acres on the Banning Bench. Two new powerhouses were completed in 1923 in Banning Canyon, but their usefulness dimmed in the last half of the 20th century (Robinson, 1989).
First Ascents and the Influx of Visitors
The first recorded ascent of a peak in the San Gorgonio Wilderness by a non-Native American most likely occurred in the fall of 1852. Colonel Henry Washington, a deputy surveyor for the United States government climbed San Bernardino Peak to erect a monument for survey use. Since the peak could be seen from as far away as Los Angeles, it was chosen as the initial point for the Army Corps of Engineers to establish an east-west base line. Colonel Washington, a deputy surveyor named Gray, and 11 workmen made the climb up the north slope of San Bernardino Peak. About a half mile west of the true summit, they constructed a wooden monument 23 feet, 9 inches in height on November 7. Since the shimmering heat waves from the valley made it difficult to obtain true fixes on distant triangulation points, Colonel Washington lit several fires on the top of the peak, which were seen by the colonists in the valley below. In addition, fires were built at other triangulation points, and the surveying was successful (Robinson, 1989). On November 8, those with spyglasses could see his flag waving on the top of Mount San Bernardino (Beattie & Beattie, 1951). In 1949, as part of San Bernardino’s “Covered Wagon Days,” Colonel Washington’s bonfires were recreated by a group representing the U. S. Army, the U. S. Forestry Service, the San Bernardino Argonaut Club, and including film star (and Highland resident) Edward Arnold. They used magnesium flares, which-misfired, causing a huge explosion that was visible in San Bernardino (Richardson, 1977).
In the present day, all that is left of the monument built by Colonel Washington is a pile of rocks with logs, or wooden posts, set vertically in the middle and about the pile. The tallest one is in the middle. There are some rusted metal pieces on the monument as well. There is also a burn scar, most likely from the magnesium flare explosion from 1949 (Sharon Barfknecht, personal communication, February 17, 2006).
The first recorded ascent of San Gorgonio Mountain was made by W. A. Goodyear of the California Geological Survey and Mark Thomas of San Bernardino on June 2, 1872. While controversy remains as to whether they actually climbed San Gorgonio Mountain or nearby San Bernardino Peak, their attempt is recognized as the first successful ascent of San Gorgonio. By the late 1870s, climbs to the summit of San Gorgonio became commonplace (Robinson, 1989). By 1894, guided groups were being led up both San Gorgonio and its neighbor to the west, San Bernardino Peak. New trails and wagon roads soon followed (Gordon & Saffle, 1996). Most hikers used the route still popular today: starting at Barton Flats, up to South Fork Meadow, southeast to Dollar Lake, and then up the long west ridge of Mount San Gorgonio to the summit. In 1875, a report appeared in the San Bernardino Guardian of July 3 of the first overnight stay at the summit. A party led by Hiram Barton achieved that feat during a week-long excursion into the wilderness (Robinson, 1991). Since pollution was unknown in southern California during the 19th century, climbers could see as far west as Catalina Island off the coast of California, as well as hundreds of miles in all directions (Brown & Boyd, 1922).
Vincent Taylor discovered a little marshy valley under the north shoulder of Mount San Gorgonio in 1883, and dammed its outlet with rock and timber. This formed what is today called Dry Lake. He intended to build a resort cabin, but never did so. Dry Lake in recent years has been wet due to a couple of wet winters. In drought years, the meadow remains dry (Robinson, 1991).
In 1888, Thomas Aker built a tent camp in upper Mill Creek Canyon, and opened it as a resort first called Aker’s Camp, but then renamed Forest Home. He hired Thomas Dobbs and brothers Albert and Martin Vivian to lay out scenic trails up into the mountains for his guests to hike. Robinson (1989) described the fishing in Mill Creek as excellent, and mentions that hunting for deer, bear, and bighorn sheep was also popular.
In 1898, the steep but popular Vivian Creek Trail was built. The trail originates in the upper end of Forest Falls and climbs up the south face of Mount San Gorgonio. Several years before, Peter Forsee had hacked a trail up in the same place, but now Aker, who had built Forest Home in 1888, wanted to stimulate interest among his guests in climbing the peak. He hired a labor crew under the guidance of a Yucaipa man named Albert Vivian. Vivian’s crew used burros to assist in the construction of the trail, and completed it by September (Robinson, 1991).
Brothers Max and Perry Green of the Lake Arrowhead Water and Power Company were responsible for bringing the first crowds of tourists into the San Bernardino Mountains. While hauling supplies to support the building of the dam at Little Bear (now Lake Arrowhead) in 1914, they began carrying passengers in addition to the supplies. More and more people demanded passage into the mountains, so their operation expanded first in number, increasing to five multi-passenger vehicles, then in distance. “In 1915 the Greens extended their route all the way to Big Bear Lake, transporting as many as 400 passengers a week to its popular campgrounds” (Robinson, 1989, p. 141). By 1917, they were running routes all over the San Bernardino Mountains, “including three lines from Redlands–one to Forest Home, a second to Seven Oaks, and the third to Pine Knot Post Office in Big Bear Valley” (Holladay, 1987, p. E4). One can safely assume that some of these passengers disembarked along the way with their ultimate destinations being the trails, ridges, and valleys of the San Gorgonio Wilderness.
The Movie Industry
Even the Hollywood movie industry was a catalyst for bringing people into the Wilderness. “Eyes of the World,” shot in 1917, was filmed by the Clune Film Producers, who erected a set in upper Mill Creek Canyon near Forest Falls. In 1919, Mary Pickford’s production company shot “Heart O’the Hills” in Forest Falls. Portions of “Sutter’s Gold,” starring Edward Albert, were shot at Barton Flats. At least 100 films were shot either in part or wholly in the San Bernardino Mountains, most of them at Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. A few, however, utilized the lower slopes of the San Gorgonio Peak massif, and some scenes may have been shot in the wilderness itself. At any rate, having large numbers of people living and working in such close proximity to the mountains most likely could have led to some of those people venturing into the Wilderness for fishing, hiking, and other forms of recreation (Cozad, 2002).
Recreational Use Expands
The Barton Flats area was developed as a major recreational area during the 1920s. In addition to several huge Forest Service Campgrounds, numerous church and youth-oriented organizations leased sites in Barton Flats and built huge camps. The increasing number of visitors to the area included hikers and climbers who made their way up the South Fork, Forsee Creek, and other trails into the Wilderness. During that time, the Barton Flats area also began to be developed as an underground water storage area. The Tri-Counties Restoration Committee, led by Francis Cuttle, repaired the Jenks Lake dam and rehabilitated the ditch Captain Jenks had dug from Slushy Meadows to the lake. Their work was taken over by the Bear Valley Mutual Water Company in 1927 and has continued the operation to the present day (Robinson, 1989).
In 1923, Harry James led 185 boys from the Western Rangers, a boys’ outdoor club, in a climb to the summit of San Gorgonio Peak. At the summit, one of the boys expressed his concern that the area surrounding the mountain would soon be spoiled by development. James was inspired to propose to the Angeles National Forest Supervisor Rushton S. Charlton that the area be preserved as a wilderness. Charlton had already begun plans for massive development in the San Bernardino Mountains, but his plans were halted in 1929 by the announcement that the San Gorgonio high country would be protected as part of the new San Gorgonio Recreation Area. In the new recreation area, 11,800 acres were set aside where no roads would be allowed and only trails would be used for access by hiking parties. This area was expanded by an additional 20,000 acres in April of 1931, when the San Gorgonio Recreation Area was reclassified as the San Gorgonio Primitive Area (Gordon & Saffle, 1996).
Trail building and campground improvement began in 1933 with the enactment of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s emergency relief measures, which included the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in April. Six CCC camps were built in the San Bernardino Mountains, and three served the future wilderness area: Camp Radford, Mill Creek Camp, and Banning Canyon. The crews of the CCC camps built campgrounds, roads, trails, telephone lines, and firebreaks, and sometimes fought fires. A Forest Service crew from Big Bear Lake led by Ranger Harvey Robe constructed Dollar Lake Trail Camp in August 1934. This camp was the first one created within the primitive area, and contained tables, stoves, and sanitary facilities (Robinson, 1991).
Skiing and the Creation of the Wilderness
By 1931, local skiers had discovered the slopes of San Gorgonio Peak. The first known ski ascent of the mountain was on February 3 by Claremont photographer Loyd Cooper and three Pomona College students, George Gibbs, Bill Cover, and Murray Kirkwood. By 1934, hundreds of skiers were using the north slopes of San Gorgonio. They had to climb by foot up from Barton Flats, carrying their skis, and some camped in tents in South Fork Meadows (Robinson, 1989, p. 229). As recently as 1962 A hut called the Alpenglück existed near the Big Draw; it was outfitted with a stove, wood, blankets and food. In 1964, it was no longer there (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965).
The Edelweiss Ski Club was born on the slopes of Mount San Gorgonio in the winter of 1934-35. It had 15 members at the beginning. In each of the 30 years since its founding [this statement was made in 1964], club members have skied on Mount San Gorgonio and the surrounding mountains. The only known long-term record of snow conditions in this wilderness area appears in its logbook–admittedly somewhat lighthearted and sketchy–which was kept for many years at a crude shelter which the club maintained near the 10,000-foot elevation on Mount San Gorgonio (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965). By the early 1940s, six or seven crude shelters were in existence in the flats and draws below the ski slopes, none of them approved by the Forest Service (Robinson, 1991). Harry James, who in 1994 spearheaded the effort to have the San Gorgonio area named a national monument, noted, “Present conditions in the Valley of a Thousand Springs...are deplorable....One slope of the mountain has been almost denuded of a fine stand of young trees to make way for a ski run. Half a dozen to a dozen shacks and shanties have been constructed through the area as overnight shelters for skiers. There are naturally no provisions for toilets or for the disposition of rubbish and garbage” (Robinson, 1991, pp. 87-88).
Following requests in 1946 from the California Ski Association and the California Chamber of Commerce to open up the San Gorgonio Primitive Area for winter sports development, the Forest Service held public hearings in 1947. On June 18, 1947, Chief Forester Lyle Watts “rendered a decision denying ski development within the wilderness, but deleting 1,400 acres from the Primitive Area just above Barton Flats to allow construction of a road to Poopout Hill” (Robinson, 1989, p. 231). This decision would eventually lead to Congressional hearings in 1964, which were followed by a decision to delete 3,500 acres from the San Gorgonio Wild Area in order to permit ski development. The skiers’ victory was short-lived, however, as passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act restored all of the Wild Area to full protection. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Act on September 4, 1964, and the Wild Area was renamed the San Gorgonio Wilderness (The Wilderness Act, 1964).
The idea that the north slopes of San Gorgonio Mountain should be open to skiing became an issue once again during the 1960s. A hearing was held in San Bernardino in 1965 to receive testimony concerning H.R. 6891, a bill that would have provided for family winter recreational use of the north side of the San Gorgonio Wilderness. Statements were provided by 232 witnesses. Wesley Break, a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, testified about the need to keep the water sources in the San Gorgonio Wilderness pure, and emphasized that the Board was unanimously opposed to the bill. Also in 1965, the California Department of Parks and Recreation proposed turning the Heart Bar area into a State Park, and included in their plans a winter recreation area (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965). Two more attempts were made by the ski developers during the 1960s, but both bills, the Dyal Bill of 1965 and the Johnson Bill of 1967, died in committee before ever making it to the House floor (Robinson, 1989).
Microwave Experiments
In October 1945, the Raytheon Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Massachusetts received a permit from the Forest Service to use the summit Mount San Gorgonio to test high-frequency radio transmissions. The company built “two firmly anchored cabins, with walls of asbestos fiber board and thick insulation” 250 yards west of the summit monument (Robinson, 1991, p. 90). Pack trains from Barton Flat were used to bring up the supplies for the construction of the cabins, and twelve Raytheon technicians moved in. Raytheon had hoped to utilize the summit of Mount San Gorgonio as the main television transmission station for southern California. Pack trains continued to provide food and supplies until they were halted by the first major winter storm. An airdrop was accomplished by a crew in a Douglas C-47 in February 1946. Raytheon then proposed a tramway from Mill Creek to the summit, and a consulting firm, Southwest Engineering, estimated the cost to be $118,000. The tramway was never built, and the crew left the summit in early fall of of 1946 when their experiments were completed (Robinson, 1991).
Aircraft Disasters
Another way that the presence of humans has affected the wilderness certainly wasn’t deliberate. In several locations debris from aircraft accidents can still be seen, scenes that appear incongruous with the concept of a non-mechanized, remote wilderness. At about 10,500 feet on the side of Mount San Gorgonio hikers pass right through the wreckage of a C-47 that crashed during a blinding snowstorm on November 28, 1952. The plane was on its way from Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska to March Air Force Base, about 40 miles southwest of where it crashed. The pilot, Captain George F. Bingham and 12 other men on board were killed. Search efforts were extremely difficult. Over 60 aircraft flew over the wilderness, and when the wreckage was sighted, heavy snowfall made it impossible to retrieve the bodies of the crew. An initial rescue/recovery effort resulted in the crash of a Marine Corps helicopter in the upper North Fork of the Whitewater on December 4. The pilot had dropped off two Air Force men, and was returning for one who had complained of frostbite, when the helicopter hooked a tree with a rotor blade (Robinson, 1991). It wasn’t until the following May that a recovery team could climb to the C-47 crash site. Remnants of the men’s parachutes, boots, winter coats lay scattered among the debris for years (Wilson, 2005). Today, all that remains are the largest pieces of the airplane, as anything small enough to be carried has been taken out by hikers and souvenir hunters (Kendall, n.d.). The helicopter, however, was another story. It was virtually intact, lying on its side, and salvage operations began as soon as the snow had melted. Marvin Greenlee of Compton Airport recruited 25 young Redlands men, who hiked into the North Fork of the Whitewater to the crash site. They lashed the helicopter frame to bamboo poles, “carried it up over Mine Shaft Saddle, down past Dry Lake and through South Fork Meadows to Poopout Hill–three days of strenuous work” (Robinson, 1991, p. 103).
Natalie “Dolly” Sinatra, mother of famous singer-entertainer Frank Sinatra, and three others were killed on January 6, 1977, when their private charter crashed into the 9,700-foot level of San Gorgonio Mountain. They had taken off from Palm Springs International Airport only five minutes before, and were on their way to Las Vegas to attend Frank Sinatra’s opening night performance at Caesar’s Palace. It took two days for the search and rescue personnel to remove the bodies from the wreckage (JayDeeBee Web Datasites, 2005).
In an ironic connection, the son of one of Sinatra’s closet friends was killed in another wreck on Mount San Gorgonio. On March 21, 1987, Dean “Dino” Martin, Jr., son of singer-entertainer Dean Martin, flew his Phantom F-4 jet into a wall of solid granite on the side of the mountain at the 3,600-foot level. Searchers who discovered the wreckage after three days of searching reported that the plane was “literally pulverized into the granite” (Kebabjian, 1997, §1).
On February 23, 1998, a Beech A36 bound for Carlsbad, California crashed on top of the ridgeline a mile and a half southeast of San Gorgonio Peak at approximately 10,300 feet. The plane had taken off from Big Bear Airport in windy and cloudy weather. Two large trees close to the accident site showed major damage on their trunks, and parts of the plane’s wings were observed on or near each tree. The pilot and passenger both died from injuries suffered in the wreck (National Transportation Safety Board Brief LAx98FA09).
Hiking, Backpacking, and Overuse
In 1949, paved roads were built to Jenks Lake and Poopout Hill, further increasing foot and horse travel into the Wilderness. Construction on State Highway 38 began in 1959 and was completed in 1961, bringing thousands of cars daily up Mill Creek, skirting the western flanks of San Bernardino Peak, and winding along the north slopes of the Wilderness above the Santa Ana River Canyon. Throughout the summers until 1963, Boy Scout troops from Camp Tahquitz made extensive use of the Slushy Meadows-Dollar Lake area for their backcountry experiences. Some troops made day hikes to Slushy Meadows or Dollar Lake, while other troops spent as many as 4 days in the backcountry. Most troops, however, hiked from Camp Tahquitz to Slushy Meadows or Dollar Lake, spent the night, and returned to camp the following afternoon. Many of the older boys climbed Mount San Gorgonio as part of their experience.
Beginning in 1964, several factors forced a shift in the use of the wilderness area from the Slushy Meadows-Dollar Lake to the Dry Lake-Fish Creek area. Slushy Meadows was too overcrowded. Troops often hiked for hours, only to find the meadows crammed with 200 and 300 other people. Dollar Lake was running out of firewood. Sanitary facilities were no longer very sanitary. Trails were showing signs of erosion from use and overuse and misuse. Trash and litter were accumulating at an alarming rate. Sydell Braverman, of the deBenneville Pines Conference Center testified, “This last July 3rd some of our leisure weekenders signed the Poop Out Hill Forest Service register at 9:30 a.m. and found that they were signed in near the bottom of the fourth page for that day” (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965, p. 215).
The most common violations of wilderness regulations are the use of wood campfires, shortcutting switchbacks, and littering. It is against regulations to build wood campfires in the Wilderness, and permits are required for campstoves (which utilize propane, butane, or other fuels). Many of the designated campsites have fire scars, and sometimes the ranger or patrol volunteers find actual rock rings with wood coals. These are then broken up, the rocks are dispersed, and fresh dirt is thrown around to cover the black scars in order to make them as disguised as possible.
Shortcutting switchbacks is a common form of damage in the Wilderness. Hikers get in too much of a hurry to either get up the mountain or back down, and shortcut the switchbacks in an attempt to gain time. This shortcutting destroys the vegetation, and requires the placing of logs and brush by the trail crews to prevent further damage. Often, hikers will remove the logs or brush and continue shortcutting (Sharon Barfknecht, personal communication, February 17, 2006).
The best example of littering as present-day human impact can be found in a “Special Report” from the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association. It describes the refuse packed out by two volunteer Rangers, Johnny Brown and Michael Gordon, who hiked up the South Fork Trail to Dry Lake on August 10 and 11, 1996. On that weekend, they packed out over 13 pounds of refuge, requiring two garbage bags. Included in the haul were the following: miscellaneous refuse (toothbrush, cigarette butts, foil, rubber bands, bread bag ties, plastic cheese spreader sticks, batteries, hair comb, tent stakes), 1.42 pounds; food wrappers and plastic bags, 0.36 pounds; toilet paper, 0.64 pounds; clothing (sock, shorts, shirt, towel, dog collar), 1.02 pounds; rope and string, 0.28 pounds; food remnants (bananas, apple cores, orange peels), 0.62 pounds; candles and plastic objects, 0.16 pounds; metal cans (sardine, soda, beer), 0.98 pounds; glass (smashed liquor bottles), 2.16 pounds; and wire (assumed to be left on the summit of Mount San Gorgonio after Raytheon microwave experiments in the 1940s), 5.64 pounds (San Gorgonio Wilderness Association, 1996).
Pollution and Fire
Less direct than the physical presence of humans, but perhaps even more devastating, is the impact that pollution has on the wilderness. The San Bernardino Mountains receive high concentrations of air pollutants due to the prevailing climatic conditions, which transport most of the air pollution from the Los Angeles basin east into the mountains. Chronic ozone injury to ponderosa pines was first identified in the San Bernardino Mountains in the 1950s. Mortality and damage of ponderosa pine and Jeffrey pine peaked with high ozone concentrations in the 1970s, and has declined with improving air quality since 1976. Ozone damage also renders trees more vulnerable to other stressors, such as drought and bark beetle infestations. Pine mortality has been highest during extended droughts. Trees with chronic ozone injury enter periods of drought without the energy reserves required to withstand bark beetle infestations (Stephenson & Calcarone, 1999). A county ordinance that applies to private land in the San Bernardino Mountains prohibits the cutting, trimming, or removal of trees. This has led to a serious “overstock” condition in the forest (USDA Forest Service, 2005a).
Following several years of drought on top of several decades of ozone damage, the San Bernardino National Forest suffered a severe crisis caused by bark beetles. Millions of pines died, leading to dangerous conditions, and in October 2003, a fire that began in Waterman Canyon above San Bernardino burned 95,281 acres, destroyed 976 homes, and killed 6 people (RimoftheWorld.net, 2004).
The more recent Thurman Fire, which started in Mill Creek Canyon at the end of September 2005, burned 935 acres and came within several miles of the eastern border of the San Gorgonio Wilderness (USDA Forest Service, 2005b). This fire and the Old Fire of 2003 were caused by humans, and are examples used by critics to illustrate the (perceived) flawed policy limiting cutting and removal of trees.
Summary
The San Gorgonio Wilderness has a long history of human presence beginning with the Native American Cahuillas and Serranos. Through the centuries, the wilderness has been affected by lumbering, ranching, hunting, fishing, mining, hydroelectric power flumes, surveying, recreational hiking, climbing, and camping, moviemaking, skiing, microwave experiments, aircraft disasters, pollution, and fire. Most of these activities have damaged the pristine quality of the wilderness, which will require careful mitigation, management, and education in order to lessen the impact of humans and human presence.
Perhaps the first humans to visit the San Gorgonio Wilderness were the Serrano Indians, who lived on the southern and northern slopes of the San Bernardinos. Archeologists have uncovered several rancherias that are close to the Wilderness: Yucaipat, located east of present-day Yucaipa, Apuritaimibit, near Seven Oaks on the Santa Ana River, and Kutcaviat, on the upper Santa Ana River near the confluence of Converse Creek.
The Cahuillas also had village sites near the Wilderness, mostly on the eastern side of the mountains near the Whitewater River. During the winter, the Cahuillas and Serranos stayed in their lower-elevation villages, but in the warmer months they traveled into the mountains to gather piñon nuts, berries, and acorns, and to hunt the abundant wildlife that lived in the San Bernardinos. It is probable that some of them ventured into the areas now within the Wilderness boundaries (Bean & Vane, 1981). A network of trails was created by the Native Americans for hunting, food-gathering, and trading. These pathways were used for centuries by desert Indians to trade with peoples living in the San Bernardino Valley and coastal plains (Robinson, 2003). Many of these pathways crossed the San Gorgonio Wilderness boundaries and led up into the meadows and streams of the higher elevations.
Lumbering
The first known lumbering in the San Bernardino Mountains came about from the need for timbers to support the roof of the San Bernardino Asistencia, an early Catholic mission (Beattie & Beattie, 1951). Father Zalvidea of Mission San Gabriel established the San Bernardino Rancho in 1819 in present-day Loma Linda. Its purpose was to establish the Catholic Church’s presence in the San Bernardino Valley and to instruct the local Indians in agriculture and stock raising. A storehouse that was built as part of the rancho most likely had timber beams as roof supports, and it is probable that the padres and the Indians used lumber in Mill Creek Canyon. While there is no direct evidence that lumbering occurred this early in the canyon, a zanja, or irrigation ditch, was dug from the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon to the rancho around 1820 (Robinson, 1989).
In 1831, a trapper named William Wolfskill needed a ship built so he could hunt sea otter off the Los Angeles coastline. He arranged to obtain his lumber from the same sawmill in Mill Creek Canyon (Clarr, 1959).
The Mormon Battalion was initially stationed in Cajon Pass in January of 1847 to prevent passage of marauding Indians or whites. They carried with them back home to Utah tales of the resources of the San Bernardino Valley, leading the way for the Mormon colonists who came in 1851. Later on in 1847 members of the Battalion were ordered to cut timber from the San Bernardino Mountains to fashion a flagpole for Fort Moore in Los Angeles. Historian J.M. Guinn stated,
Contract was let to Juan Ramirez to bring timber from the San Bernardino Mountains. Ramirez, with Indian laborers and an escort of ten Mormon soldiers, repaired to the headwaters of Mill Creek where he found suitable timber. He brought down two tree trunks, one about ninety feet and the other seventy-five or eighty feet long, fastened to the axles of a dozen old carretas, each trunk drawn by twenty oxen with and Indian driver to each ox. (1898, p. 145)
Following the arrival of the Mormon colonists, Mill Creek Canyon again became a prime source of wood. In 1953 a water-powered mill was built on the south side of Mill Creek a little west of Forest Home by Mormons Amasa Lyman, Charles Rich, and Theodore Thorpe (Robinson, 1989). It supplied lumber for nearly 10 years until a flood destroyed it in 1862. Lumbering had been done on both sides of the creek upstream as far as Big Falls, close to the present-day wilderness boundary (Beattie & Beattie, 1951). Mormons Amasa Lyman, Charles Rich, and Theodore Thorpe built a sawmill on Mill Creek immediately downstream from present-day Forest Home in May 1853. They used timber from the upper Mill Creek canyon, and some of the men working the mill may have ventured into the wilderness.
In 1883, a sawmill was established on Raywood Flat, in the southern part of the wilderness, by two men named Frazer and Kelly. Their sawmill operated for a few years, and evidence remains today of their four-mile flume which drew water from the south fork of the Whitewater River (Robinson, 1989).
The lumber industry was responsible for a great deal of damage to the once-pristine forest.
There was little or no regard shown by the lumber men toward practicing any methods of conservation. Only a small portion of each tree was used for lumber and the rest was left to decay. This ruinous cutting also created other problems. Streams were polluted with sawdust from the sawmills and silt from the barren eroding hillsides, with the result that the native trout that habitated [sic] the streams could not survive. (Johanneck, 1975, p. 13)
Since the denuded slopes could no longer hold the soil in place, flooding resulted which caused serious damage in the San Bernardino Valley. Fires also took a great toll up in the forest. Once a fire got started, there was little that could be done except to let it burn itself out.
Ranching
Cattle and sheep grazing developed in the San Bernardino Mountains around the same time as the lumbering. In 1856, surveyor Alvin Stoddard was directed to survey land in upper Mill Creek Canyon. On October 17, 1857, a preemption claim was recorded, with the land to be used for sheep grazing (Robinson, 1989).
Numerous sheep claims also existed on the upper Santa Ana River, extending into the wilderness boundaries. Dr. Benjamin Barton and Matthew Lewis pastured sheep in the area, and Charles F. Martin registered the “Heart Bar” brand in 1884 near present-day Heart Bar Campground. The meadows and brushland of the upper Santa Ana River were used for cattle grazing by brothers James B. and William S. McHaney during the first half of the 1880s (Robinson, 1989).
In 1907, Al “Swarty” Swarthout bought a half interest in the Heart Bar Ranch with Charlie Martin. After several changes in ownership from 1914 to 1921, with Swarthout selling and then buying back his half interest, the other half interest was purchased by San Bernardino businessman J. Dale Gentry. The cattle operations at Heart Bar expanded during the 1920s, since beef was in great demand. Swarty and his cowboys took their cattle through the northeastern part of the wilderness, driving them up Fish Creek, over the divide east of San Gorgonio Peak, and down Mission Creek to the loading pen at the Whitewater Station of the Southern Pacific Railroad, where they were shipped east (Hansen, 1973).
Hunting and Fishing
As early as the 1860s, local residents saw the attractiveness of the wilderness for hunting and fishing. Captain Lorin Shaw Jenks, built an earthen and log dam across a small creek in Barton Flats, and formed a small lake. He dug a ditch from Slushy Meadows (also known as South Fork Meadows) to divert some of the water in the South Fork of the Santa Ana. By 1878, his lake was marked on a survey map of the area and was reported in the Los Angeles Star of January 18,1879 as “the largest fish pond in California” (Robinson, 1989, p. 198). While most of the fishing was limited to Jenks Lake and the Santa Ana River outside the Wilderness boundary, hunters were successful in bagging deer within the Wilderness for many decades.
The upper Santa Ana River became known as a prime trout fishery in 1869. Robinson (1989, p. 197) reported that the San Bernardino Guardian described a party that went “to the head of the Santa Ana and brought back near a wagonload of fish and eight deer.” In 1871, two anglers caught 60 trout in two hours, and another pair of anglers landed 90 trout in a day. He further stated that in 1873, two San Bernardino residents “packed into the basin and caught 300 trout in one day”(Robinson, 1989, p. 197). While the upper Santa Ana still has trout, its native population has all but disappeared, and the fishery is maintained only through periodic stockings by the California Department of Fish and Game.
Mining
In April of 1860, the gold rush began in what is now called Holcomb Valley, northwest of Big Bear Lake. Bill Holcomb started it all with his discovery of the valley while following a wounded bear. Returning to the valley with friends in order to search for more bear, Holcomb and his friends tried their hands at panning, and discovered some gold in their pans (Adams, 1996). Hundreds, perhaps thousands of miners soon descended on the area. As years passed and claims played out and were abandoned, the search for gold moved outward from Bear Valley. Mining occurred east of Broom Flat, close to the northeast boundary of the San Gorgonio Wilderness (Burke, 1992). One well-known mine is located at approximately 9,600 feet on what is now called Mineshaft Flats.
Another mining-related industry that briefly operated near (and possibly in) the Wilderness was marble quarrying. As early as 1888, quarrying took place on the north slope of Mill Creek Canyon three miles above Forest Home. The rock was used for building in Redlands. The Cassin Marble Company purchased the claim in 1891, and in 1908 and 1909 the California Marble Company build a road to the canyon head. The company erected buildings and installed a “tramway from the quarry site, 300 feet up the north slope between Vivian and High creeks down to a rock bin on the canyon floor. Here the marble was loaded for shipment–first into wagons and later into trucks” (Robinson, 1989, p. 209).
An Environmental Working Group assessment of government land use records shows that mining, oil, and gas industries control numerous claims on public lands in or near San Gorgonio Wilderness. Currently, there are two “Tier 2” and two “Tier 3,” control claims within the wilderness boundaries. “Tier 2” control is land controlled by industry, or current mining claims. “Tier 3” control is land on which a claim has been abandoned or the operations are defunct. Fifty-two “Tier 4” control sites exist, which are mining claims formerly claimed by industry (Environmental Working Group, 2006). Today, hikers can see the remnants of two former mines, one located at the aforementioned Mineshaft Flats, and the other, called Mill Creek Mine, located on the north slope of Mill Creek Canyon about 100 yards up a steep slope. Scott Gardner (personal communication, February 11, 2006) stated that all that remains of the mine at Mineshaft Flats is a small (approximately 10 feet x 10 feet) depression, and a few timbers. The Mill Creek Mine is visible today to hikers who continue east up the creek instead of taking the Vivian Creek trail north into the Wilderness.
Hydroelectric Power
The waters of Falls Creek, which end in a 240-foot waterfall now called Big Falls, were once targeted for hydroelectric power. Cyrus G. Baldwin and his associate Arthur W. Burt filed on water rights to Falls Creek (then called the North Fork of Mill Creek) in 1892, and soon realized they would need additional water sources to generate sufficient electricity to make their project worthwhile. They expanded their project to include all the waters along the north side of upper Mill Creek Canyon. In 1898, a line was surveyed for a “gravity flume and pipeline from High Creek to Vivian Creek, Falls Creek, Alger Creek, and Lost Creek, then a penstock down to a proposed powerhouse on the north side of Mill Creek opposite Forest Home” (Robinson, 1989, p. 223). Brothers John and Will Dobbs were hired to tunnel through the west ridge of Falls Creek and to dig a flume westward to Alger Creek. Though the grandiose project eventually failed, remains of the cabin built by the Dobbs brothers can be seen near the original site high up on the north canyon above the east bank of Falls Creek, about a hundred yards downstream from Dobbs Trail Camp. Remnants of the Dobbs’ flume still can be seen along most of the length of the Momyer-Alger Creeks Trail (Robinson, 1989).
The southeastern portion of the San Gorgonio is made up of recently-added lands which came with the passage of the California Wilderness Act in 1984. These lands surround the upper stretches of the Whitewater River, San Gorgonio River, and Mission Creek. In 1906, the Consolidated Reservoir and Power Company, located in Los Angeles, filed on water rights to the Whitewater’s east and south forks. The company planned to divert water into Banning Canyon, build two hydroelectric plants, and flume the water to the Banning Bench to irrigate crop lands. Construction on various portions of the project took place from 1911 to 1917, when the Whitewater diversion conduit was irrigating 2500 acres on the Banning Bench. Two new powerhouses were completed in 1923 in Banning Canyon, but their usefulness dimmed in the last half of the 20th century (Robinson, 1989).
First Ascents and the Influx of Visitors
The first recorded ascent of a peak in the San Gorgonio Wilderness by a non-Native American most likely occurred in the fall of 1852. Colonel Henry Washington, a deputy surveyor for the United States government climbed San Bernardino Peak to erect a monument for survey use. Since the peak could be seen from as far away as Los Angeles, it was chosen as the initial point for the Army Corps of Engineers to establish an east-west base line. Colonel Washington, a deputy surveyor named Gray, and 11 workmen made the climb up the north slope of San Bernardino Peak. About a half mile west of the true summit, they constructed a wooden monument 23 feet, 9 inches in height on November 7. Since the shimmering heat waves from the valley made it difficult to obtain true fixes on distant triangulation points, Colonel Washington lit several fires on the top of the peak, which were seen by the colonists in the valley below. In addition, fires were built at other triangulation points, and the surveying was successful (Robinson, 1989). On November 8, those with spyglasses could see his flag waving on the top of Mount San Bernardino (Beattie & Beattie, 1951). In 1949, as part of San Bernardino’s “Covered Wagon Days,” Colonel Washington’s bonfires were recreated by a group representing the U. S. Army, the U. S. Forestry Service, the San Bernardino Argonaut Club, and including film star (and Highland resident) Edward Arnold. They used magnesium flares, which-misfired, causing a huge explosion that was visible in San Bernardino (Richardson, 1977).
In the present day, all that is left of the monument built by Colonel Washington is a pile of rocks with logs, or wooden posts, set vertically in the middle and about the pile. The tallest one is in the middle. There are some rusted metal pieces on the monument as well. There is also a burn scar, most likely from the magnesium flare explosion from 1949 (Sharon Barfknecht, personal communication, February 17, 2006).
The first recorded ascent of San Gorgonio Mountain was made by W. A. Goodyear of the California Geological Survey and Mark Thomas of San Bernardino on June 2, 1872. While controversy remains as to whether they actually climbed San Gorgonio Mountain or nearby San Bernardino Peak, their attempt is recognized as the first successful ascent of San Gorgonio. By the late 1870s, climbs to the summit of San Gorgonio became commonplace (Robinson, 1989). By 1894, guided groups were being led up both San Gorgonio and its neighbor to the west, San Bernardino Peak. New trails and wagon roads soon followed (Gordon & Saffle, 1996). Most hikers used the route still popular today: starting at Barton Flats, up to South Fork Meadow, southeast to Dollar Lake, and then up the long west ridge of Mount San Gorgonio to the summit. In 1875, a report appeared in the San Bernardino Guardian of July 3 of the first overnight stay at the summit. A party led by Hiram Barton achieved that feat during a week-long excursion into the wilderness (Robinson, 1991). Since pollution was unknown in southern California during the 19th century, climbers could see as far west as Catalina Island off the coast of California, as well as hundreds of miles in all directions (Brown & Boyd, 1922).
Vincent Taylor discovered a little marshy valley under the north shoulder of Mount San Gorgonio in 1883, and dammed its outlet with rock and timber. This formed what is today called Dry Lake. He intended to build a resort cabin, but never did so. Dry Lake in recent years has been wet due to a couple of wet winters. In drought years, the meadow remains dry (Robinson, 1991).
In 1888, Thomas Aker built a tent camp in upper Mill Creek Canyon, and opened it as a resort first called Aker’s Camp, but then renamed Forest Home. He hired Thomas Dobbs and brothers Albert and Martin Vivian to lay out scenic trails up into the mountains for his guests to hike. Robinson (1989) described the fishing in Mill Creek as excellent, and mentions that hunting for deer, bear, and bighorn sheep was also popular.
In 1898, the steep but popular Vivian Creek Trail was built. The trail originates in the upper end of Forest Falls and climbs up the south face of Mount San Gorgonio. Several years before, Peter Forsee had hacked a trail up in the same place, but now Aker, who had built Forest Home in 1888, wanted to stimulate interest among his guests in climbing the peak. He hired a labor crew under the guidance of a Yucaipa man named Albert Vivian. Vivian’s crew used burros to assist in the construction of the trail, and completed it by September (Robinson, 1991).
Brothers Max and Perry Green of the Lake Arrowhead Water and Power Company were responsible for bringing the first crowds of tourists into the San Bernardino Mountains. While hauling supplies to support the building of the dam at Little Bear (now Lake Arrowhead) in 1914, they began carrying passengers in addition to the supplies. More and more people demanded passage into the mountains, so their operation expanded first in number, increasing to five multi-passenger vehicles, then in distance. “In 1915 the Greens extended their route all the way to Big Bear Lake, transporting as many as 400 passengers a week to its popular campgrounds” (Robinson, 1989, p. 141). By 1917, they were running routes all over the San Bernardino Mountains, “including three lines from Redlands–one to Forest Home, a second to Seven Oaks, and the third to Pine Knot Post Office in Big Bear Valley” (Holladay, 1987, p. E4). One can safely assume that some of these passengers disembarked along the way with their ultimate destinations being the trails, ridges, and valleys of the San Gorgonio Wilderness.
The Movie Industry
Even the Hollywood movie industry was a catalyst for bringing people into the Wilderness. “Eyes of the World,” shot in 1917, was filmed by the Clune Film Producers, who erected a set in upper Mill Creek Canyon near Forest Falls. In 1919, Mary Pickford’s production company shot “Heart O’the Hills” in Forest Falls. Portions of “Sutter’s Gold,” starring Edward Albert, were shot at Barton Flats. At least 100 films were shot either in part or wholly in the San Bernardino Mountains, most of them at Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. A few, however, utilized the lower slopes of the San Gorgonio Peak massif, and some scenes may have been shot in the wilderness itself. At any rate, having large numbers of people living and working in such close proximity to the mountains most likely could have led to some of those people venturing into the Wilderness for fishing, hiking, and other forms of recreation (Cozad, 2002).
Recreational Use Expands
The Barton Flats area was developed as a major recreational area during the 1920s. In addition to several huge Forest Service Campgrounds, numerous church and youth-oriented organizations leased sites in Barton Flats and built huge camps. The increasing number of visitors to the area included hikers and climbers who made their way up the South Fork, Forsee Creek, and other trails into the Wilderness. During that time, the Barton Flats area also began to be developed as an underground water storage area. The Tri-Counties Restoration Committee, led by Francis Cuttle, repaired the Jenks Lake dam and rehabilitated the ditch Captain Jenks had dug from Slushy Meadows to the lake. Their work was taken over by the Bear Valley Mutual Water Company in 1927 and has continued the operation to the present day (Robinson, 1989).
In 1923, Harry James led 185 boys from the Western Rangers, a boys’ outdoor club, in a climb to the summit of San Gorgonio Peak. At the summit, one of the boys expressed his concern that the area surrounding the mountain would soon be spoiled by development. James was inspired to propose to the Angeles National Forest Supervisor Rushton S. Charlton that the area be preserved as a wilderness. Charlton had already begun plans for massive development in the San Bernardino Mountains, but his plans were halted in 1929 by the announcement that the San Gorgonio high country would be protected as part of the new San Gorgonio Recreation Area. In the new recreation area, 11,800 acres were set aside where no roads would be allowed and only trails would be used for access by hiking parties. This area was expanded by an additional 20,000 acres in April of 1931, when the San Gorgonio Recreation Area was reclassified as the San Gorgonio Primitive Area (Gordon & Saffle, 1996).
Trail building and campground improvement began in 1933 with the enactment of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s emergency relief measures, which included the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in April. Six CCC camps were built in the San Bernardino Mountains, and three served the future wilderness area: Camp Radford, Mill Creek Camp, and Banning Canyon. The crews of the CCC camps built campgrounds, roads, trails, telephone lines, and firebreaks, and sometimes fought fires. A Forest Service crew from Big Bear Lake led by Ranger Harvey Robe constructed Dollar Lake Trail Camp in August 1934. This camp was the first one created within the primitive area, and contained tables, stoves, and sanitary facilities (Robinson, 1991).
Skiing and the Creation of the Wilderness
By 1931, local skiers had discovered the slopes of San Gorgonio Peak. The first known ski ascent of the mountain was on February 3 by Claremont photographer Loyd Cooper and three Pomona College students, George Gibbs, Bill Cover, and Murray Kirkwood. By 1934, hundreds of skiers were using the north slopes of San Gorgonio. They had to climb by foot up from Barton Flats, carrying their skis, and some camped in tents in South Fork Meadows (Robinson, 1989, p. 229). As recently as 1962 A hut called the Alpenglück existed near the Big Draw; it was outfitted with a stove, wood, blankets and food. In 1964, it was no longer there (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965).
The Edelweiss Ski Club was born on the slopes of Mount San Gorgonio in the winter of 1934-35. It had 15 members at the beginning. In each of the 30 years since its founding [this statement was made in 1964], club members have skied on Mount San Gorgonio and the surrounding mountains. The only known long-term record of snow conditions in this wilderness area appears in its logbook–admittedly somewhat lighthearted and sketchy–which was kept for many years at a crude shelter which the club maintained near the 10,000-foot elevation on Mount San Gorgonio (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965). By the early 1940s, six or seven crude shelters were in existence in the flats and draws below the ski slopes, none of them approved by the Forest Service (Robinson, 1991). Harry James, who in 1994 spearheaded the effort to have the San Gorgonio area named a national monument, noted, “Present conditions in the Valley of a Thousand Springs...are deplorable....One slope of the mountain has been almost denuded of a fine stand of young trees to make way for a ski run. Half a dozen to a dozen shacks and shanties have been constructed through the area as overnight shelters for skiers. There are naturally no provisions for toilets or for the disposition of rubbish and garbage” (Robinson, 1991, pp. 87-88).
Following requests in 1946 from the California Ski Association and the California Chamber of Commerce to open up the San Gorgonio Primitive Area for winter sports development, the Forest Service held public hearings in 1947. On June 18, 1947, Chief Forester Lyle Watts “rendered a decision denying ski development within the wilderness, but deleting 1,400 acres from the Primitive Area just above Barton Flats to allow construction of a road to Poopout Hill” (Robinson, 1989, p. 231). This decision would eventually lead to Congressional hearings in 1964, which were followed by a decision to delete 3,500 acres from the San Gorgonio Wild Area in order to permit ski development. The skiers’ victory was short-lived, however, as passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act restored all of the Wild Area to full protection. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Act on September 4, 1964, and the Wild Area was renamed the San Gorgonio Wilderness (The Wilderness Act, 1964).
The idea that the north slopes of San Gorgonio Mountain should be open to skiing became an issue once again during the 1960s. A hearing was held in San Bernardino in 1965 to receive testimony concerning H.R. 6891, a bill that would have provided for family winter recreational use of the north side of the San Gorgonio Wilderness. Statements were provided by 232 witnesses. Wesley Break, a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, testified about the need to keep the water sources in the San Gorgonio Wilderness pure, and emphasized that the Board was unanimously opposed to the bill. Also in 1965, the California Department of Parks and Recreation proposed turning the Heart Bar area into a State Park, and included in their plans a winter recreation area (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965). Two more attempts were made by the ski developers during the 1960s, but both bills, the Dyal Bill of 1965 and the Johnson Bill of 1967, died in committee before ever making it to the House floor (Robinson, 1989).
Microwave Experiments
In October 1945, the Raytheon Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Massachusetts received a permit from the Forest Service to use the summit Mount San Gorgonio to test high-frequency radio transmissions. The company built “two firmly anchored cabins, with walls of asbestos fiber board and thick insulation” 250 yards west of the summit monument (Robinson, 1991, p. 90). Pack trains from Barton Flat were used to bring up the supplies for the construction of the cabins, and twelve Raytheon technicians moved in. Raytheon had hoped to utilize the summit of Mount San Gorgonio as the main television transmission station for southern California. Pack trains continued to provide food and supplies until they were halted by the first major winter storm. An airdrop was accomplished by a crew in a Douglas C-47 in February 1946. Raytheon then proposed a tramway from Mill Creek to the summit, and a consulting firm, Southwest Engineering, estimated the cost to be $118,000. The tramway was never built, and the crew left the summit in early fall of of 1946 when their experiments were completed (Robinson, 1991).
Aircraft Disasters
Another way that the presence of humans has affected the wilderness certainly wasn’t deliberate. In several locations debris from aircraft accidents can still be seen, scenes that appear incongruous with the concept of a non-mechanized, remote wilderness. At about 10,500 feet on the side of Mount San Gorgonio hikers pass right through the wreckage of a C-47 that crashed during a blinding snowstorm on November 28, 1952. The plane was on its way from Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska to March Air Force Base, about 40 miles southwest of where it crashed. The pilot, Captain George F. Bingham and 12 other men on board were killed. Search efforts were extremely difficult. Over 60 aircraft flew over the wilderness, and when the wreckage was sighted, heavy snowfall made it impossible to retrieve the bodies of the crew. An initial rescue/recovery effort resulted in the crash of a Marine Corps helicopter in the upper North Fork of the Whitewater on December 4. The pilot had dropped off two Air Force men, and was returning for one who had complained of frostbite, when the helicopter hooked a tree with a rotor blade (Robinson, 1991). It wasn’t until the following May that a recovery team could climb to the C-47 crash site. Remnants of the men’s parachutes, boots, winter coats lay scattered among the debris for years (Wilson, 2005). Today, all that remains are the largest pieces of the airplane, as anything small enough to be carried has been taken out by hikers and souvenir hunters (Kendall, n.d.). The helicopter, however, was another story. It was virtually intact, lying on its side, and salvage operations began as soon as the snow had melted. Marvin Greenlee of Compton Airport recruited 25 young Redlands men, who hiked into the North Fork of the Whitewater to the crash site. They lashed the helicopter frame to bamboo poles, “carried it up over Mine Shaft Saddle, down past Dry Lake and through South Fork Meadows to Poopout Hill–three days of strenuous work” (Robinson, 1991, p. 103).
Natalie “Dolly” Sinatra, mother of famous singer-entertainer Frank Sinatra, and three others were killed on January 6, 1977, when their private charter crashed into the 9,700-foot level of San Gorgonio Mountain. They had taken off from Palm Springs International Airport only five minutes before, and were on their way to Las Vegas to attend Frank Sinatra’s opening night performance at Caesar’s Palace. It took two days for the search and rescue personnel to remove the bodies from the wreckage (JayDeeBee Web Datasites, 2005).
In an ironic connection, the son of one of Sinatra’s closet friends was killed in another wreck on Mount San Gorgonio. On March 21, 1987, Dean “Dino” Martin, Jr., son of singer-entertainer Dean Martin, flew his Phantom F-4 jet into a wall of solid granite on the side of the mountain at the 3,600-foot level. Searchers who discovered the wreckage after three days of searching reported that the plane was “literally pulverized into the granite” (Kebabjian, 1997, §1).
On February 23, 1998, a Beech A36 bound for Carlsbad, California crashed on top of the ridgeline a mile and a half southeast of San Gorgonio Peak at approximately 10,300 feet. The plane had taken off from Big Bear Airport in windy and cloudy weather. Two large trees close to the accident site showed major damage on their trunks, and parts of the plane’s wings were observed on or near each tree. The pilot and passenger both died from injuries suffered in the wreck (National Transportation Safety Board Brief LAx98FA09).
Hiking, Backpacking, and Overuse
In 1949, paved roads were built to Jenks Lake and Poopout Hill, further increasing foot and horse travel into the Wilderness. Construction on State Highway 38 began in 1959 and was completed in 1961, bringing thousands of cars daily up Mill Creek, skirting the western flanks of San Bernardino Peak, and winding along the north slopes of the Wilderness above the Santa Ana River Canyon. Throughout the summers until 1963, Boy Scout troops from Camp Tahquitz made extensive use of the Slushy Meadows-Dollar Lake area for their backcountry experiences. Some troops made day hikes to Slushy Meadows or Dollar Lake, while other troops spent as many as 4 days in the backcountry. Most troops, however, hiked from Camp Tahquitz to Slushy Meadows or Dollar Lake, spent the night, and returned to camp the following afternoon. Many of the older boys climbed Mount San Gorgonio as part of their experience.
Beginning in 1964, several factors forced a shift in the use of the wilderness area from the Slushy Meadows-Dollar Lake to the Dry Lake-Fish Creek area. Slushy Meadows was too overcrowded. Troops often hiked for hours, only to find the meadows crammed with 200 and 300 other people. Dollar Lake was running out of firewood. Sanitary facilities were no longer very sanitary. Trails were showing signs of erosion from use and overuse and misuse. Trash and litter were accumulating at an alarming rate. Sydell Braverman, of the deBenneville Pines Conference Center testified, “This last July 3rd some of our leisure weekenders signed the Poop Out Hill Forest Service register at 9:30 a.m. and found that they were signed in near the bottom of the fourth page for that day” (Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1965, p. 215).
The most common violations of wilderness regulations are the use of wood campfires, shortcutting switchbacks, and littering. It is against regulations to build wood campfires in the Wilderness, and permits are required for campstoves (which utilize propane, butane, or other fuels). Many of the designated campsites have fire scars, and sometimes the ranger or patrol volunteers find actual rock rings with wood coals. These are then broken up, the rocks are dispersed, and fresh dirt is thrown around to cover the black scars in order to make them as disguised as possible.
Shortcutting switchbacks is a common form of damage in the Wilderness. Hikers get in too much of a hurry to either get up the mountain or back down, and shortcut the switchbacks in an attempt to gain time. This shortcutting destroys the vegetation, and requires the placing of logs and brush by the trail crews to prevent further damage. Often, hikers will remove the logs or brush and continue shortcutting (Sharon Barfknecht, personal communication, February 17, 2006).
The best example of littering as present-day human impact can be found in a “Special Report” from the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association. It describes the refuse packed out by two volunteer Rangers, Johnny Brown and Michael Gordon, who hiked up the South Fork Trail to Dry Lake on August 10 and 11, 1996. On that weekend, they packed out over 13 pounds of refuge, requiring two garbage bags. Included in the haul were the following: miscellaneous refuse (toothbrush, cigarette butts, foil, rubber bands, bread bag ties, plastic cheese spreader sticks, batteries, hair comb, tent stakes), 1.42 pounds; food wrappers and plastic bags, 0.36 pounds; toilet paper, 0.64 pounds; clothing (sock, shorts, shirt, towel, dog collar), 1.02 pounds; rope and string, 0.28 pounds; food remnants (bananas, apple cores, orange peels), 0.62 pounds; candles and plastic objects, 0.16 pounds; metal cans (sardine, soda, beer), 0.98 pounds; glass (smashed liquor bottles), 2.16 pounds; and wire (assumed to be left on the summit of Mount San Gorgonio after Raytheon microwave experiments in the 1940s), 5.64 pounds (San Gorgonio Wilderness Association, 1996).
Pollution and Fire
Less direct than the physical presence of humans, but perhaps even more devastating, is the impact that pollution has on the wilderness. The San Bernardino Mountains receive high concentrations of air pollutants due to the prevailing climatic conditions, which transport most of the air pollution from the Los Angeles basin east into the mountains. Chronic ozone injury to ponderosa pines was first identified in the San Bernardino Mountains in the 1950s. Mortality and damage of ponderosa pine and Jeffrey pine peaked with high ozone concentrations in the 1970s, and has declined with improving air quality since 1976. Ozone damage also renders trees more vulnerable to other stressors, such as drought and bark beetle infestations. Pine mortality has been highest during extended droughts. Trees with chronic ozone injury enter periods of drought without the energy reserves required to withstand bark beetle infestations (Stephenson & Calcarone, 1999). A county ordinance that applies to private land in the San Bernardino Mountains prohibits the cutting, trimming, or removal of trees. This has led to a serious “overstock” condition in the forest (USDA Forest Service, 2005a).
Following several years of drought on top of several decades of ozone damage, the San Bernardino National Forest suffered a severe crisis caused by bark beetles. Millions of pines died, leading to dangerous conditions, and in October 2003, a fire that began in Waterman Canyon above San Bernardino burned 95,281 acres, destroyed 976 homes, and killed 6 people (RimoftheWorld.net, 2004).
The more recent Thurman Fire, which started in Mill Creek Canyon at the end of September 2005, burned 935 acres and came within several miles of the eastern border of the San Gorgonio Wilderness (USDA Forest Service, 2005b). This fire and the Old Fire of 2003 were caused by humans, and are examples used by critics to illustrate the (perceived) flawed policy limiting cutting and removal of trees.
Summary
The San Gorgonio Wilderness has a long history of human presence beginning with the Native American Cahuillas and Serranos. Through the centuries, the wilderness has been affected by lumbering, ranching, hunting, fishing, mining, hydroelectric power flumes, surveying, recreational hiking, climbing, and camping, moviemaking, skiing, microwave experiments, aircraft disasters, pollution, and fire. Most of these activities have damaged the pristine quality of the wilderness, which will require careful mitigation, management, and education in order to lessen the impact of humans and human presence.
posted by Cyndi at 1:19 PM
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