37© HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



written record claiming it as Brown's Peak.* But afterward the Browns 

 claimed another peak west of Millard canyon for their name, and com- 

 menced building a bridle road up to it from Las Casitas. 



Strawberry Peak [?] — The top of this can be seen like a little old 

 New England haystack peeping over the west shoulder slope of Mount 

 Lowe. It was named by some wags at Switzer's camp in 1886, from its 

 fancied resemblance to a strawberry standing with its blossom end up ; but 

 one of them said, " We called it Strawberry peak because there weren't any 

 strawberries on it." The joke took ; and that burlesque name has been 

 commonly used by the old settlers ; but the peak is waiting some worthy oc- 

 casion for a worthy name.f This lofty peak is really back in the third 

 range of Pasadena Mountain summits — and in front of it is seen a smaller 

 portion of a lower and smaller cone called 



Black Jack Peak. — [It was also called "Little Strawberry peak."] 

 This is simply a spur from the foregoing, but has a distinct pinnacle of its 

 own, very steep, rugged, sharp, and difficult of ascent, and composed en- 

 tirely of a porphyritic rock called "black spar" by the miners. In 1887 

 Owen and Jason Brown climbed to the top of this flinty, hard, barren pin- 

 nacle, but I doubt if any other men have ever been venturously persistent 

 and hardy enough to do it. They called it "Black Jack," as a perfectly 

 natural and fitting name from the color and hardness of its rock substance ; 

 but this name had likewise very vivid historic associations to them, from 

 Black Jack in Kansas, where they with their father fought in June, 1856, 

 what was in fact the first actual battle in our great national struggle against 

 the lawless encroachments of the slave power. [The battle of Osawatomie 

 occurred August 30, 1856 — two months later.] 



Mount Disappointment. — Next westward is a long stretch of moun- 

 tain crest or ridge, not a peak, which obtained its name in this way : The 

 United States surveyors were working their way eastward along the moun- 

 tain ranges ; and from San Fernando range they sighted this mountain as 

 their next highest point on which to establish the government record — but 

 on coming here and testing its altitude they were ' ' disappointed ' ' to find 

 that San Gabriel peak, a few miles farther east, was still higher. Accord- 

 ingly they named it "Mount Disappointment, " and went along to the 

 higher peak to build their monument and deposit their official records. July 

 4, 1889, Mr. Herve Friend, the photogravure artist of Los Angeles, took 

 views from the summit of Mount Disappointment, the first ever taken there, 



San Gabriel Peak. — Called also "The Commodore;" and in the 

 Mount Lowe literature called ' ' Observatory Peak. ' ' Only the tip of it can 

 be seen, as a small ridge extending eastwardly from a point low down on the 



* In July, 1883, I saw this nionunient or cairn standing there yet ; but the written paper had long 

 before been destroyed by wetness or insects ; and the flag-pole had gone to make some hunter's camp- 

 fire. 



tProf. Lowe informs me that he has government authority to give names to any peaks within the 

 itinerary of his great mountain railroad resort. 



