CHAPTER EIGHT
The Searchlight
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| One of the more fanciful features of Mt. Echo was the 3 million candlepower searchlight that sat near the point just below the incline powerhouse. Pictured in the photo above, the searchlight stood 11 feet tall with a 5 foot parabolic mirror. Look closely at the reflection in the mirror and one can see an inverted image of the Echo Mountain House with its front porch and dome aligned with the arc-light centerpiece. This is one of the few indicators of where the light stood as most photo shots were taken with the valley floor to the background. |
The light was first a feature of the 1893 Colombian Exposition held in Chicago. see map One of the Directors for the Exposition was Andrew McNally (the aforementioned map printer). Lowe was able to purchase the light and have it brought to Mt. Lowe as a permanent fixture. McNally himself had the Moroccan Smoking Room brought from the exposition and added to his home in Altadena. Known for his penchant of exaggerating, yet willing to sign affidavits to his testimonies, George Wharton James, Lowe's publicist, avowed that he could "…read a newspaper in the light from the searchlight shining through the window of my hotel room on Catalina Island." It has been at least exclaimed that the powerful beam of the searchlight had a 35-mile broadcast. In the photo above, see the reflections in the mirror again. Not only the hotel is visible, but a bystander (who is not the photographer) is picked up in the parabolic reflection. The camera is not visible, but there is another onlooker, upside down and left in the mirror. |
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The newspaper printed a story on the searchlight using the photo above which shows the beam streaking through the night air. The light was shone onto the city below, especially for those who indicated special events such as birthdays. The photo was taken somewhere near the Chalet. It looks down on the Incline (A), and across to a crescent shaped lookout point (B). It has concrete pylons and chain link railing, the ruins of which can still be seen on Echo. At the far right you can see the Echo Mountain House (C) with a lamppost topping the crest. |
The searchlight survived the fire of 1905 and was placed on the top of the stairway to the hotel (lost in a 1900 fire) before it could be perched on the roof of the rebuilt Incline Powerhouse. There it stayed until the forties after which it was vandalized and scattered down the hillside. By the late 20's the searchlight was becoming a public nuisance, at times shining its light on a romantic couple, scaring up a coral of horses, or breaking up a spiritual revival meeting. The community down below respectfully requested curtailing the use of the light. Parts of the lights panels have been discovered in the hillside brush and are being held aside for safekeeping until a time they can be displayed for the public.
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