DIVISION FIVE — NAMES. 383 



which segregates Echo Mountain from the main range, and used to be 

 called West Rubio canyon and creek. It is named from a sharp echo which 

 repeats itself in thunderous, rolling, reverberating cadences that gradually die 

 away in the canyon's summit walls, when a gun is fired or a strong bugle blast 

 is given on Echo Mountain. It has its heading in the great semicircle of sum- 

 mit-reaching white rocks called Echo Amphitheater, at the bottom focus of 

 which there is a tunnel and water supply called " Sycamore Springs," from 

 which water is piped for all uses to Echo Mountain House ; and the surplus 

 is thence piped down 1,400 feet to Rubio Pavilion, where it is utilized on a 

 water motor to run electric dynamos for operating the cable incline cars, 

 electric lighting the Echo Mountain hotel, and other uses. 



Castle Canyon. — This is a large branch of Echo canyon, coming 

 down from the summit in a line nearly due south, and has some springs or 

 water tunnels in its course. On its east wall is a conspicuous body of rocks 

 which in perspective very strikingly resemble the ruins of some old Irish 

 castle, with its round and square towers, etc. ; and from this the canyon takes 

 its name. 



lyAS Flores Canyon. — Of this name Judge Eaton writes: " The high 

 point of land running up toward ' Flower Canyon ' was always known among 

 the natives as the Mesa de las Flores — the bench or table of flowers — because 

 its surface during the spring season is completely covered with poppies and 

 may be seen far out on the Pacific ocean." 



In 1885, when the project of making a burro trail to the top of the 

 mountains by way of I^as Flores canyon was being talked up, a writer in 

 the Valley Union of October 16, 1885, said: 



" Senator Arnold of Marshalltown, Iowa, told me that once when he 

 was going by steamer from San Diego to San Francisco he noticed this 

 tongue of land above all the rest along the mountain base and asked the 

 captain of the vessel what point it was. He said it was Eas Flores canyon 

 (known also as Forsyth canyon), and was a land mark by which they could 

 determine their relative position on the coast line, even when they were 80 

 miles out at sea. This was a most interesting piece of information to the 

 Senator, and he told the captain about his intimate friends. Col. Banbury 

 and the Woodburys," residing on that very slope of land. It was called Las 

 Flores, or ' The Flowers, ' because of the wonderful profusion of wild poppies 

 which in their season tinged that whole canyon slope of a noticeable reddish 

 color, even at so great a distance." 



Gold mining operations were commenced in this canyon during the 

 winter of 1892-3 by Wm. Twaddell and associates. [For particulars of 

 which see chapter on Geology.] Echo Mountain forms the east wall of the 

 canyon; and the upper section of the Mount Eowe Electric Railway cross 

 the upper portion of it and then passes around and up along the walls of 

 Millard and Grand canyon. 



Elms's Canyon. — This is a small canyon in the face of the footmount- 



