DIVISION FIVE — NAMES. 369 



this ridge to the Eaton gap, thence by way of Grand Basin to the Mt. lyowe 

 bridle road at Castle canyon summit.* 



Muir's Peak. — This is the next peak west, and is the sunrise point 

 seen from Echo Mountain during June and July. This peak is the summit 

 of the great sloping ridge which lorms the east wall of Rubio canyon and 

 west wall of Pine canyon. The first white man ever known to have stood 

 on this peak was the famous John Mtiir, who, in August, 1875, climbed up 

 here from below Eaton canyon falls. [See article on "John Muir's Moun- 

 tain Climb in Pasadenaland, " Chapter 20.] 



Echo Mountain, takes its name from a wonderful echo that booms 

 and rolls and reverberates from the mountain walls that form a sort of semi- 

 circle around and above it, westward, north, and eastward. Directly north- 

 west from Echo Mountain, and plainly visible from Pasadena, is a bold 

 facing of white rocks [feldspathic syenite] that extends up to the crest or 

 summit ridge, along which pine trees are seen ; this mountain facing or wall 

 of white rocks is semi-circular in form, and constitutes distinctively the 

 ' ' Echo Ampitheater. ' ' 



Mount Vesuvius. — A detached spur of the front range a little north 

 and east from Echo Mountain, and perhaps 1,000 feet higher, has been 

 given this name, because for several months in 1893 fireworks were dis- 

 played from its summit every Saturday night at nine o'clock, and always 

 ending with a piece that represented in miniature a volcanic eruption of Mount 

 Vesuvius. These luminous displays were visible not only at Rubio Pa- 

 vilion and Echo Mountain, but also at Pasadena, lyos Angeles, Santa 

 Monica, Redondo, lyong Beach, etc. 



Mount I^owe. — This is the boldest and most bulkish mountain 

 mass seen north of Pasadena, and lies, with its three-wave outline, like 

 some extinct monster of past ages basking lazily on the mountain top. It 

 is the highest one of the Pasadena mountains which can be seen from Pasa- 

 dena, and is commonly spoken of as 6,000 feet altitude ; but Wm. H. 

 Knight, president of the Science Association of Southern California, in- 

 forms me that according to reckonings of the U. S. Geodetic survey, its 

 highest point is 6,100 feet above sea level. It was called " Oak Mountain " 

 by hunters, and the early settlers of Pasadena ; but on September 24, 1892, 

 it was for good and sufficient reasons formally christened " Mount lyowe," 

 and has since become world-famed under that name. Full particulars of 

 this christening will be found in the chapter on the Mount Lowe Electric 

 Railway. On October 11, 1887, Owen and Jason Brown, assisted by Calvin 

 Hartwell, erected a stone monument and flag pole on this summit, and left a 



* As early as 1883-84 Byron O. Clark and H. C. Kellogg had crossed over, and then projected a wagon 

 road up the entire length of Millard and Grand Canyons, thence across to Wilson's Peak. It's " awfully 

 easy" to build mountain roads — on paper. 



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