376 HISTORY OP PASADENA. 



water pumped by a hj'draulic ram up into an elevated cistern at his sightly 

 dwelling on the bluff above the Mill. 



Our native Mexican people have traditions of hidden treasure in this 

 and others of the canyons along this range of bluffs. The old-time Mexi- 

 cans of wealth repudiated paper money, and hoarded great chests of silver 

 and gold coin. In 1844 45 occurred the rebellion of lyos Angeles against 

 Gov. Micheltorena, when he was driven back to Mexico; and in 1846-47 

 occurred the war between Mexico and the United States. During these 

 troublous and lawless times the wealthy Mexicans often buried their coin in 

 secret places known only to one or two living souls, with some particular 

 rock, or spring, or tree as a mnemonic landmark by which to find the place 

 again. Sometimes these persons were killed, or driven away, or forgot the 

 exact hiding place — and thus the field was opened wide for all sorts of 

 fabulous stories of hidden treasure. Numerous holes have been dug by 

 Mexicans on the Stoneman place in search of buried money-pots, kegs or 

 chests. And similar search has been made in some of these historic can- 

 yons ; but I find no reliable account of any such hidden wealth having ever 

 been dug up in this region. 



Mill canyon is easily reached by carriage road, and is a very interesting 

 place to visit, because it furnishes a fine stream, and has been more exten- 

 sively developed than any other one of the series of Glacial Terrace springs 

 and brooks. A small unnamed canyon and brook joins it from the north- 

 west near its upper end. 



Wilson's Canyon. — This is one of the largest of the canyons that 

 form an outlet in the lower lip of the great geological basin over which 

 Pasadena is built. When the Pasadena settlement was commenced Mr. 

 Wilson made a private roadway from his L,ake Vineyard ranch house,* 

 winding up through the perennial oaks and pasture lands of this charming 

 brookside to the colony lands north of San Pasqual street and west of Wil- 

 son Avenue ; and for manj^ years this Wilson canyon road was the short cut 

 and romantic route for a carriage drive from Pasadena to San Gabriel, al- 

 though four gates had to be opened and shut within a mile, on account of 

 fenced-in pasture lands and orchards on the ranch. Early in 1884 I made 

 this trip in forty minutes with ex-Gov. Merrill and Hon. Delos Arnold of 

 Iowa, who wished to catch an east-bound train at San Gabriel. This can- 

 yon or picturesque little valley abounded in far-spreading live oak trees, in 

 many of which the curious tree rats of California had their arborial nests or 

 colonies ; and the place was a favorite pic-nic resort for the people of Los 

 Angeles as well as of Pasadena. The head of Wilson's lake is perhaps a 

 quarter mile west from the mouth of this canyon, and its brook originally 

 ran into the lake. For two years past the Biology department of Throop 



* " The Wilson homestead is a large, roomy house, of brick and adobe, costing in 1854 nbout $20 000, 

 nearly half of which, according to Miss Adams, was spent on the roof. Beneath the house is a large 

 wine cellar."— [Prof. Holder's " All About Pasadena," p. 63.] 



