So far we have covered the main points of the history and construction of the Mount Lowe Railway. Following chapters will cover more of the related stories, but here is where we will bid Adieu to Professor Lowe and his part in the Mount Lowe Railway. The above photo shows a weary Prof. Lowe with his second son Thaddeus (called young Thad) standing in the light of the Searchlight. Within seven years and $600,000 of construction, Prof. Lowe had exhausted all his resources to hold onto the floundering railroad and run it as a profitable venture. By 1898 he had gone into receivership twice and the last of these, to Jared S. Torrance, would be his undoing.

Torrance, a Pasadenan who would eventually have a Southern California city named after him, took over financial management of the MLR, yet Lowe continued to forge ahead with plans and designs on the line that he hoped could win it back for him. In an unprecedented move, Lowe actually applied to the Forest Service for a right-of-way from Crystal Springs to the summit of Mt. Lowe. Torrance, when learning of Lowe's intentions, applied for a similar right-of-way on behalf of the bond holders. The government in reviewing the applications was volleyed into a review of the situation for the fact that this railroad had been built on the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve established Dec. 20, 1892. (This was mentioned in an earlier chapter as being historically significant.) Lowe in his haste to open the line to Echo had never properly sought permission from the federal government to do so.

It was an Act of Congress in February of 1899 that the surveyed 120 acres of railroad properties, to include Rubio Canyon, Echo Mountain, Crystal Springs and the Summit of Mount Lowe, be sold at $1.25 an acre to the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railway Co.1 with J. S. Torrance as its legal representative with permission for a right-of-way to the summit of Mt. Lowe.

This means Lowe was removed from any operational dealing of the Mount Lowe Railroad.

From this point on Lowe's life and career were on a decline. He lost his mansion, his fortunes and most of his holdings, his wife's world collections and furniture were put to auction, and his best friend in finance, Perry M. Green, turned from him in his failings. In 1911 he fell and fractured his hip which confined him to bed for the rest of his life. In January, 1913 he died at his daughter's house in Pasadena and is interred, along with his wife and other family members, at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.

The Lowe monument at the cemetery stands proudly over their grave sites, and in 1996 this author had the honor of portraying him reembodied during a cemetery tour held by Altadena Heritage and the Altadena Historical Society. As I always do at the end of my slide presentations, I delivered a closing salutation in his own words:

"I lost the railroad and with it my fortunes…although I have no regrets, for I realize that many millionaires would sacrifice their fortunes to attain a monument for themselves such as Mount Lowe will be to my name when I have passed away."

Following the Congressional Act that removed Lowe, the railroad became subject for foreclosure and the auction block. Shareholders were seeking to get their investments out of it, and the receivership needed some type of resolve. Much of the intrigue involved the clandestine buying up of outstanding bonds as interested parties prepared to bid on the railroad. On March 28 the MLR would be sold at auction on the steps of the Los Angeles County Courthouse.

The serious parties ended up being Perry M. Green, representing the bondholders; the Southern Pacific Railroad; and Arthur Hawes, representing one Valentine Peyton, a wealthy speculator from Illinois. Hawes, or Peyton as the case may be, won the bid at $190,000. Peyton always wanted the railroad and moved to California to specifically run the operation himself. The Pasadena & Mount Lowe Railway Company 2 was incorporated shortly after the sale.

It would seem as though Lowe's leave would be an albatross around the neck of the MLR. On February 5, 1900 the Echo Mountain House burned to the ground. It's furnishings and carpets were saved, but the hotel was grossly underinsured and was not rebuilt.

1. The Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railway was still the official incorporated name of the enterprise during Lowe's tenure. He never formally renamed it himself.

2. It is historically fortunate that Mr. Peyton, who personally delighted in acquiring the MLR, was not so narcissistic as to rename the railway after himself, but that he reamed in after Professor Lowe.