ELDORADOVILLE

The San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California are a part of a great barrier that separates the Mojave Desert from the coastlands. They are a transverse range, meaning that they run east west as opposed to the more usual north-south configuration. While James Marshall is credited with the discovery of gold in California on the American River in 1847, it was in the San Gabriel Mountains where the actual first discovery took place. March 1842, in Placerita Canyon, in the Saugus Nehall area, Francisco Lopez y Arballo, while gathering wild onions from around an old oak, discovered gold particles clinging to the roots of the bulbs. In November of 1842 the first gold from the Placerita placers was shipped to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. It is estimated that $80,000 in gold was recovered as a result of this discovery.

The most colorful and historically rich area of all these mountains is the San Gabriel Canyon. Most of this history is about the search for gold, boomtowns, bad men, murders and flood that completely wipe out a town. Everything from Indian pictographs to Navel weapons testing has taken place here.

Exit the 210 Freeway at Azusa Avenue (state route 39) go north into San Gabriel Canyon and travel eleven miles past the Morris Dam complex build in the 1930 s for the City of Pasadena. Turn right at the East Fork Road, cross the bridge and follow the East Fork for approximately four miles to the junction of Cattle Canyon and the East Fork You are now at the former site of Eldoradoville, one of the most exciting towns in the mountains. Gold was first discovered in the East Fork in 1855. Found in placers, early prospectors could pan as much as six to seven dollars a day. By 1859 the Santa Anita Mining Company was established and Eldoradoville began to boom. Starting as a tent town, by 1860 is was permanent enough that there were 400 votes cast for Abraham Lincoln. The town had three general stores, half a dozen saloons and dance halls. There was quite a group of interesting folks here not the least of which were; George Trogden, who had a mail and supply cabin at Iron Fork and is buried there. “Twitchlip Kelly”, “PegLeg Bill Coynes”, Old Man Armstrong, Uncle Jimmy Grayson, “One-Eyed Mountain Charlie”, Soldier Thompson and Two Gun Don Kosenkrantz. Oliver Justice was buried in a coffin he had hand-hewn himself in his pre-dug grave above Iron Fork. John Robb made his fortune sluicing gold from the sawdust swept from the saloon floors.

Hydraulic mining was attempted and H.C. Roberts competed with William G. Ferguson to see who could be the first to bring ditch water down the canyon to the monitors, neither one was successful. The San Gabriel district had a total production, 1848-1957, of about 165,000 ounces of gold. In 1862, the town of Eldoradoville was completely erased by flood, nothing remained. No sketch or photograph of the town has survived. Locals tell a story of a miner and mule taken by the same flood along with several sacks of gold. There is a rumor of a safe being washed away as well. Neither the miner, his mule nor the safe were ever seen again. The town was never rebuilt.

The Bridge to Nowhere is one of the best-known remains found in the San Gabriel Mountains. Back in the 1920s, Los Angeles County planned to build a highway all the way up the East Fork canyon to Mine Gulch Junction. From there the road would climb over Blue Ridge and drop down into Wrightwood. It would be among the most scenic roads in America. Construction began in 1929; County prison work crews did most of the work. By the mid-1930s the highway had reached the Narrows. There it was necessary to construct a concrete bridge high above the waters of the gorge. However, the winter after this task had been completed, a storm arrived on March 1-2, 1938, depositing many inches of rain on the San Gabriel Mountains. The result was a tremendous flood that roared down the East Fork, wiping out everything in its path including more than five miles of the newly constructed highway. Only the bridge was high enough above the waters to be virtually untouched. The uselessness of the project having been demonstrated, the County abandoned their plans leaving a brand new concrete road bridge standing alone in the middle of the wilderness more than five miles from the nearest highway. Years later the County planned another highway up the East Fork. This time they intended to build it high up on the western wall to avoid a repetition of the earlier disaster. Begun in 1954, this second highway was abandoned in 1969 after only 4.5mi had been built.

In January of 2005 the East Fork was again devastated by flood. For some pictures of that flood and a look at the area of the former Eldoradoville, click on www.followscamp.com

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Last Modified 9-7-05