Beginning in the 1700s, the Spanish Ranchos were established in
the Los Angeles basin below, and hunting trips for deer, mountain
lions, and bear are documented by the Spaniards. The California
grizzly bear inhabited the foothills and valleys at this time. In
the 1800s, gold miners, hunters, and trappers came into the San
Gabriel Mountains and foothills, and many trails were built.
Homesteaders occupied some of the lower ends of Big Dalton and San
Dimas Canyons, and measures by local communities to control floods
occurred in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In the 1920s, Los Angeles County Forester Stuart B. Flintham was
very instrumental in early reforestation and conservation efforts in
the San Gabriel Mountains. Spence Turner became L.A. County Forester
after Flintham's death in 1925, and established an experimental tree
nursery at Tanbark Flats in 1926. L.A. County constructed a dirt
road the entire way to Tanbark Flats, up the San Dimas West Fork, in
1928-29. Prior to that, only mule and hiking trails led to the
Tanbark area. The Flintham Memorial was established in the West Fork
of San Dimas Canyon, in honor of his early reforestation efforts.
Herbert S. Gilman, an engineer from the San Dimas Water Company,
and William A. Johnstone, of the California State Water Commission,
both conservationists, helped to establish the SDEF. Gilman and
Johnstone were later honored for their "pioneering"
efforts: in 1940 San Dimas Peak, the highest point between San Dimas
and Dalton Canyons, was renamed Johnstone Peak; and in 1943 a
beautiful grove of Deodar cedars at Tanbark Flats was dedicated as
the Gilman Grove and a stone marker was erected in Gilman's memory.
The SDEF was officially established in January of 1933, and was
formally dedicated on June 15, 1935 by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service,
California Forest and Range Experiment Station (now known as the Pacific
Southwest Research Station). J. Donald Sinclair was scientist in
charge, and would help to guide the SDEF through its first 25 years.
In addition to the SERA (State Emergency Relief Administration),
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), and WPA (Works Progress
Administration) program workers in the 1930s, the "CO's"
or Conscientious Objectors of the 1940s performed invaluable
construction and research work in the Experimental Forest.
[Some of this information is paraphrased from John Robinson's
"The San Dimas Experimental Forest" and "History of
the Dalton and San Dimas Watershed," which were originally
published in the Mt. San Antonio Historian, Volume 16, No. 3.]
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