A forest ranger looking for fire from a national forest lookout station. | Photo: The Training of a Forester/ Project Gutenberg

In late September 1939, the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains was breached. The aggressive might of the Angeles Crest Highway finally carved its way into the forested flatlands of Chilao, roughly thirty miles from the highway's origin in La Cañada.

Populated by flush strands of big cone spruce, incense cedar, and jeffrey pine, Chilao was host to plentiful picnic grounds and camping sites developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Upon reaching the major recreational area at the then-terminus of the highway, motorists undoubtedly marveled at the ease at which this former isolated wilderness was now accessible to the public.

Not everyone was celebrating the achievement. Louis Newcomb, a pioneer and former forest ranger who had settled in the area in the late 1880s, despised the crowds that the road brought to his once-quiet mountain hearth. Newcomb, in his late eighties by 1939, was a living legend in the San Gabriels. Few people had been a first-hand witness to the transformation of the mountains' wild interior over the past five decades.

A winter stream flowing through Chilao . | Photo: Daniel Medina

Chilao is located near the center of the route.| Source: Map of Angeles Crest Highway.is located near the center of the route.| Source: California Highways and Public Works

Louie Newcomb's cabin on his Chilao homestead | Photo Courtesy of Robyn Newcomb

Newcomb stands second from right | Photo: Louisstands second from right | Photo: mountwilsontrailrace.com