DIVISION FIVE — NAMES, 395 



CHAPTER XX. 



Mountain Trails, Roads, Etc. — The Wilson Trail.— The Telescope Episode.— John 

 Muir's Mountain Climb in Pasadenaland. — The Mount Wilson Toll Road. 



MOUNTAIN TRAILS, ROADS, ETC. 



Wilson's Trail. — Many erroneous and more or less fanciful accounts 

 have been put forth about ttis now famous and historic first travel-way ever 

 made to the summit of the Sierra Madre mountains. I sought correct infor- 

 mation from Mrs. Shorb and Mrs. Wilson, and they kindly furnished me a 

 letter from Mr. Wm. McKee of San Francisco, written to Mrs. Wilson, 

 August 28, 1887, in which he mentions the first trip ever made up that trail 

 on horseback ; and I here quote his account of the matter. Mr. McKee says: 



"Wilson's Trail up the mountains — when was it built ? It was com- 

 menced early in 1864. In April of that year, Mr. Wilson invited me to go 

 with him to see the trail, and to see the men at work on the road. I was 

 living in town then.* On the day appointed we started for the mountains : 

 took blankets with us, intending to stay there all night. About i o'clock 

 we got to where the men were at work, near the place now called the Half- 

 Way House. 



" I was anxious to go on up to the top of the mountains. Mr. Wilson 

 inquired of the men if they thought we could go to the top of the mountains 

 with the horses. One of the men said he had been there, and that there was 

 a spring of water on the very top ot the mountains. At 2 o'clock we started, 

 leading the horses ; we soon got to the ridge of the mountains, and there 

 found a well beaten bear trail leading to the spring. I thought then, and do 

 still, that that water was the best I ever tasted in my life. We camped there 

 that night. Oh, how beautiful ! Next day we found the relics of the two houses. 

 They were two parallelograms, well marked by a pile of what appeared to 

 be ashes. Removing the ashes, we found the lower logs of the cabins not de- 

 cayed. Americans must have built them. Mr. Wilson said so. Michael 

 White, who came to San Gabriel in 1825, knew nothing of them. f We were 

 the first who ever visited that Wilson Peak on horseback. In referring to 

 this, I shall always remember it as one of the most pleasant trips I ever had 

 with Mr. Wilson ; and we had many. Yours very truly, 



William McKee. 



Some writers have treated this story of the "old cabins ' ' as imaginative; 

 but Mr. McKee, and B. D. Wilson and his stepson, E. S. Hereford, all cor- 

 roborated their existence. Mr. Hereford had charge of the first pack train 

 that ever brought a load of shakes or pickets down that trail, in July or 

 August, 1864. He is still living, and resides at San Gabriel — 1895. 



For ten or twelve years after Pasadena was settled it was reckoned a 



*Mr. McKee resided in I^os Angeles at that time and had been employed bj- Mr. Wilson as private 

 tutor to his children. 



fOf course not. Robbers and hor.se thieves would keep their own secrets. The historic records of this 

 region of country show that from IS35, or down to as late as 1874. it was almost continually infested by 

 gangs of white men outlaws, whose robberies were often charged to Indians. In December, 1840, Gov. 

 Alvarado reported " that a party of adventurers from the United States had stolen three thousand horses 

 belonging to the Missions of San Luis Obispo and San Gabriel, and various private ranches."— 7". H. 

 HitteU in Overland Monthly, November, 1885, page 46s. 



