Photo Essay: Stough Canyon & Old Youth Campground

It's amazing how few people have ever heard of - much less been to - the Verdugo Mountains.

Hasn't anyone who lives here ever looked at a map?

When people ask me where I like to hike, after I scoff at the suggestion of Runyon, I rattle off some of my favorite trails in the San Gabriel mountains, Griffith Park, the Verdugos -

"Where's that?"

Doesn't anyone who lives here ever go to Burbank or Glendale?



One of the reasons I love the Verdugos so much is that they're full of relics and ruins.



So upon my first visit to Stough Canyon, with only a couple hours left in the day and threatening skies overhead, I hiked only a short distance into the canyon...





...past wildflowers...





...scenic overlooks...



...with a view of the nearby 5 Freeway [Ed: I guess this is actually the 210?]...



...and lots of spring greenery.



I took a diversion for my return path to my car along the Old Youth Campground Loop trail...



...a single-track hiking-only trail...





...through some pretty thick overgrowth...



...with hopes of finding something that someone might have left behind.



There is one foundation left from the Old Youth Campground, a Boy Scout camp built in the mid-20th century, and vandalized after its closure, burning down to few remains...



...like a chimney...




...plus another graffitied box looming from the hill above.




You can see why it would have been such a good location for a Boy Scout camp...



...because you're so close, yet so high, on a clear day you can see the whole city below.

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The Hills Have Mines

There's not much in the Los Angeles area that you can take at face value. You have to dig a little deeper.



Case in point: Hostetter Fire Road, open only to hikers, dogs, and bicyclists.



It may look like any other emergency access road in the Verdugo Mountains...



...overlooking the 210 freeway and Verdugo Golf Course (including the site of the former Tuna Canyon Detention Station)...

...but it has secrets, ones you can only discover if you know where to look.



And after climbing a bit from the La Tuna Canyon trailhead and where La Tuna Canyon Road splits off, you might find some clues hiding in the brush.



Fortunately, I was with the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley—including some who'd already explored the terrain and figured a few things out.



What we were looking at was some of all that remains of the former Hostetter Mine, including some intact fragments of rails that had once transported ore carts and a wheel of the former funicular, made of solid cast iron. 



An 1891 article from the Los Angeles Times (a printout of which was distributed on our hike) bemoans how Southern California had neglected its mineral resources, despite gold having been first discovered in LA County, and switched all its attention to horticultural resources (presumably, citrus orchards and the like).



The singular exception, of course, was oil.



Of course, you have to acknowledge the challenge of mining SoCal's rugged terrain, which often is so overgrown it has to be cleared first and doesn't have enough water to support mining operations.



With sharp drop-offs making every steep canyon potentially deadly, you really can't blame mining companies for not trying that hard.



Some hikers can't even make it.



But some prospectors did, indeed, try—and a "practically inexhaustible" deposit of graphite was discovered in the Verdugos.



No trace of an actual mine shaft has yet been found in the canyons up there, after the paving gives way to dirt (and what looks like a creekbed).



But there are definite remnants of an industrial operation.



The mine is thought to have closed in the 1920s—it was still operating sometime in the 19-teens.



But by the 1960s, the presence of a graphite mine in the area was nothing more than a "rumor."



Back then, there was a piece of it hiding in plain sight...



...a concrete bunker along Cedar Bend Edison Road, once fully visible from the freeway...

...but now completely consumed and obscured by overgrowth.



According to mining historian Xavier Drenfold, the concrete-and-steel structure was the base of the mill...



...where you can find the old loading area, ore chutes, and even some more railroad track used as rebar.



Still, a lot of questions remain unanswered. But that, too, is typical of Southern California.

Local historian Mike Lawler tells this story better than I do. See his article "More Info on the Mystery Mine of the Verdugos" from the Crescenta Valley Weekly.

Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Verdugo Mountains Open Space Preserve, Along Edison Road
Lost in the Mountains
Becoming Californian
Something's Got to Give

Photo Essay: The Mysteries of Brand Park in Historic Glendale (Updated for 2024)

[Last updated 11/12/24 10:57 PM PT—I got to return to Brand Cemetery, this time with a docent from Glendale Historical Society who unlocked the gate. Some new photos added, with a few more details.]

What draws me to any trail?

Usually, it's some sense of history. Which there is plenty of in LA.

Take Brand Park, for instance. 

2024

Airplane parties were numerous in the days of private flying, and Miradero, the estate of Leslie Brand— who had a strong hand in the establishment of the city of Glendale, just east of Los Angeles—was central to the era of private flying parties. Brand had his own airfield on his private property—just south of the mansion and estate which now constitutes Brand Library in Brand Park—but his estate was also situated close to the old Grand Central, one of the many now-defunct municipal airfields of Los Angeles County.



Climbing the trails behind Brand Library, you can see some of the possible remnants of those private flying days, most notably a light beacon (??), perhaps having served Brand's airfield, perhaps Grand Central.

But there are plenty of other mysteries surrounding the old Brand estate, including some post-Brand city of Glendale developments whose vestiges litter the historic trails.



When hiking behind the library, I discovered some concrete footings that reminded me of the remnants of the Corralitas Red Car Property in Silver Lake...

...which would have been bizarre given the elevation of the Verdugo Mountains back there...

...although apparently there once was a plan to build a funicular in the Verdugos.

Most certainly there hadn't been another incline railway here, but Glendale does have plenty of rail history...



...and Brand himself (the man often referred to as "The Father of Glendale") had been instrumental in a lot of the railway development in the city of Glendale...

...where one of the Pacific Electric lines used to end.

So then...what?



The Parks Department thinks that they look like remnant from some old water line components left over after the systems have been demolished over the years. Apparently, long gone are the water tanks and other piping servicing some of the improvements below, but concrete items like these would have been left behind because they were too heavy to move and wouldn't have had any scrap value.

And there are some pipes still up there.



The interesting thing is, no one really seems to know. "That's Glendale..." said the librarian I visited at Brand Library.



Down below, along the fire road that becomes the Brand Motorway past the Debris Basin, you can find plenty of other ruins—your garden-variety stairs-to-nowhere from once-razed structures, etc. [Ed: Glendale Historical Society docents shared that there were once several outbuildings throughout the property during Brand's time there, which explains some of the structural relics.]

2024

Equally mysterious is the Brand Cemetery...

2024

...which was once the burial ground for the dogs of the family, while they still resided at Miradero (although only one headstone survives, its glassed-in photo stolen at some point.

2024

Leslie and the rest of the family members are now laid to rest there, too—and relatives continue to be buried there. 

The cemetery—and the pyramid-shaped headstone—lie behind a locked gate amidst the ruins, although a 2024 tour hosted by Glendale Historical Society brought visitors right into the graveyard to have a look around.

Elsewhere, there is a graffitied shed (reminiscent of Murphy Ranch) that historians speculate could have once served as a meat locker...

But what the heck is this boat doing there?



For now, much of it remains a mystery.

But that doesn't mean I'll stop trying to figure it out...

Related Posts:

Photo Essay: Brand Park Trails

Christmas at the Doctors House, Saved From Demolition and Moved to Brand Park