He also has other historical books, especially in relation to the various mountain ranges nearby. He has a book entitled The San Gabriels going over the history of the range, especially around the turn of the last century during the ‘Great Hiking Era’.

It’s a great read. I’d like to put up some excerpts. There are so many that its hard to pick any one paragraph, but I’ll try.

In discussion of mines in the San Gabriel Canyon:

Perched precariously on the cliffs above the East Fork Narrows was the Stanley-Miller, discovered by Gordon Stanley and Ben Miller in 1915, worked until 1939. Heavy cast-iron parts for a ball mill were somehow laboriously dragged up the precipitous mountainside and fastened by steel cables to the cliff outside the mine. The airy Wetwater Trail, terror of pack mules with its dripping water, was hacked out of the cliffs above the Narrows to gain access. The Stanley-Miller met a fierce “Gotterdammerung” in 1953, when a forest conflagration burned away the mill supports and heavy equipment came crashing down the mountainside to the bottom of the Narrows, made more dramatic by the loud din of bursting blasting caps.

Click on this link to interact with a topo map with the mines marked.

The marker on the bottom left, “E”, indicates Allison Mine, which we had an extremely successful and fun journey up to in January. Stanley Miller mine “F” certainly has my attention, but being so far from a trailhead I will wait until good night temperatures to do it has an overnighter up the East Fork. Marker “A” indicates the Baldora Mine. It can be accessed from the same Heaton Flat trail that is used for access to Allison mine, as well as link up to the strenuously climb up the south ridge of Iron Mountain. From the end of the trail at the Coldwater/Allison saddle, there is a Coldwater Canyon trail that leads down to – you guessed it – Coldwater Canyon.

From there, any trails on the topo map will be nonexistent. Those trails are so old that they have totally been overgrown by now. However, I have heard access to Baldora mine up Dry Gulch is not too bad of a cross country expedition. I cannot say the same for the two abandoned mines further up.

So for now, we’ll stick with trying to get to Baldora mine. The Heaton Flat trail is tough but not ridiculous, ~ 3000 ft gain in 4.5 miles. We’ll then descend 500 ft or so, and then end up climbing about 1000 ft to get to the mine.

One the way back, there will be some elevation gain but it should be less than 1000 ft. So in total, I estimate

Distance: 14 miles
Gain:4500-5000 ft gain
Terrain: use trail, cross-country, BRUSH (wear pants)
Difficulty: 8.5/10

I imagine the most difficult portions of this hike being the end exploring around the mine…which people do not have to do. And I have no idea how much of the old machinery is left – likely much less than what we saw at Allison Mine. But remember, it is the journey not the destination!

Tentative elevation profile from the saddle to the mine: