In 1976, Charles Seims published his book on the Mount Lowe Railway which is a deeply researched and heavily illustrated story of Prof. Lowe, the Mount Lowe Railway, Henry Huntington, and the Pacific Electric Railway. The 6th printing of the book came out in June of 1993 as a Centennial Edition.

This book is the penultimate story behind the social romance of the Mt. Lowe Railway.

In 1977 a vicious fire swept up the Rubio Canyon and burned out two of the last full standing trestles along the Mountain Division route. As kids we used to walk along these trestles to make our way back to the Rubio Pavilion site which still bore concrete signs of its structure.

In 1978 the Pacific Electric Power Station No. 8, the one built at Mountain Junction in 1906, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1992, the Scenic Mount Lowe Railway Historical Committee (SMLRHC), an adjunct of the Pacific Railroad Society in San Marino, CA, began a rigorous project of clearing away brush and debris from the remaining foundations of the Echo Mountain site. Working directly with the forestry archaeologist from the Arcadia offices of the Angeles National Forest, these volunteers were allowed to uncover hidden foundations of structures long come and gone from the hilltop in preparation for the upcoming Mount Lowe Railway Centennial (July 4, 1993).

The volunteers, headed by super-enthusiast Brian Marcroft, were specifically forbidden to dig up, or "excavate" any of the sites, like kitchen pits or basements. The "e-word", as it was put, was not even to be used. However, layers of dirt were allowed to be scraped off of foundations and brush was allowed to be cut away from pilings, stubs and walls that were part of the Echo structures. The word that was officially used in this clearing process was "revealment."

This author published a map (seen right) based on a sketch prepared by Brian Marcroft in conjunction with the SMLRHC as a result of the interpretive project.

At the same time Altadena Heritage, a preservation society, chose this author to head up its Mount Lowe Railway Centennial Celebration Committee.

In 1991 an application was made to have the Mount Lowe Railway placed on the National Register of Historic places. Applicants were forewarned that it is very difficult to list ruins on the Register unless sufficient evidence remains to give a visitor the sense of being able to relate the story to what is left there to see. With the help of Charles Seims' story and abundant photographic evidence, the Mount Lowe Railway was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 6, 1993. The Forestry Service delineated a portion of the National Forest for the purpose of listing the monument site. The map to the left shows roughly the area designated to the monument.

The centennial celebration events were to happen on July 4, 1993, which fortunately was a Sunday. The Historical Committee began its gathering on Echo starting about 7:00 in the morning. Their special guest was Don Macpherson, son of David J. Macpherson the MLR engineer. The trip to the site could only be made by driving up the Chaney Trail service road to the Cape of Good Hope, then walking the sometimes broad, sometimes narrow trail some three quarter miles along the Las Flores Canyon right-of-way. Don Macpherson, at age 92, was bound to a wheel chair, but the volunteers managed to tote and push him and his chair to the site for the ceremony. Unfortunately there was a low cloud ceiling that morning which at 3,200 feet elevation made visibility a little difficult for people deep in the crowd. But the ceremony was a marvel to all those enthusiasts present.

The Altadena Heritage's Mount Lowe Railway Centennial Celebration was held on Macpherson Parkway that same afternoon. The parkway is a stretch of the right-of-way in Altadena where the double tracks came to an end at the upper end of Poppyfields. The County of Los Angeles maintains this stretch of lawn as a park with a monument to Macpherson on one end.

Don Macpherson, who was surrounded by some of his children and grandchildren, was able to attend the event, as well as the daughter of Zoë Lowe, the youngest of the Professor's daughters, with her grandson Kevin Lowe Anderson and his two daughters.1

In 1998, Paul H. Rippens, a retired chief of the Los Angeles County Forestry Fire Department, published his hiker's hand guide to the Mount Lowe Railway. Paul is a collector of Mount Lowe memorabilia, and while in charge of building the new visitor's center at Henninger Flats provided a Mt. Lowe Railway museum. Paul is also a member of the Westerners Club, a historical society that studies the movements west.

This small publication provides a brief history of the MLR as well as a self-guided walking and hiking tour of the complete route.

In 2000, John Harrigan, an electrical engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and a charter member of the Scenic Mount Lowe Railway Historical Committee, USFS, published this extremely technical book on the mechanical and electrical systems of the Mt. Lowe Railway.

The text is in plain language, but the 1890's state-of-the-art technology brought to light in this book is fascinating for the true Mt. Lowe buff. It continues to answer questions about the railroad's more obscure history.

1. A personal aside:

In 1885, in Texas, David Macpherson met a newly arrived immigrant from Yorkshire, England, one Francis Beckwith. He invited him to come to Pasdena, California where he had some property that Beckwith might be interested in for the purposes of establishing a dairy. Beckwith opened the Altadena Highland Dairy in 1887 on a property that went from the corner of Maiden Lane and Mariposa east to present-day Highland Avenue and south to Mendocino Street. Generations of Beckwiths still live in Altadena, albeit through many daughters and grandaughters whose married names have hidden them among the citizenry.

One of them is Linda Salinas, great-granddaughter, a personal friend of mine, who attended the celebration in the park. I had the distinct privilege of closing a loop in local history by introducing the granddaughter of the man who was invited to Altadena by the father of Don Macpherson.

I was also able to arrange for Mr. Macpherson and his extended family, numbering about 12 people down to the grandchildren, to visit the house that he and his father built on Atchison Street when Don was only 20. Mr. and Mrs. Dave Wlaker were happy to have them visit what is now their home, and Mr. Macpherson told tales of the particulars taken in the construction of the home, alot of it based on local weather conditions and the probability of earthquakes.

I hope you have enjoyed this historical review of one of the most fascinating personalities in American history and all his exploits. I am only too happy to have had my parents settle in a community where all this happened so that I could grow up and bring it all to you.

–Mike Manning