A Trip to the Mount Lowe Ruins, June 8, 1958
Stephen Dudley and his late father, Paul Dudley, decided to make a hike of the old Mount Lowe right-of-way and photograph their June 8, 1958, journey. These images are from that trip, and we gratefully thank Steve for sharing them with our readers.
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Marvelous, absolutely marvelous. Thank you.
These are so cool. I ADORE OLD PHOTOS! This is right up my alley (old photos & hiking ). Thanks for sharing 🙂
Fabulous to see this material in color! Thanks a million!
Thanks for the trip in the time machine, great to see it all before the dynamite ruined it.
Wonderful, thank you!
Priceless photographs. I remember the long, large ties on the Incline, from my hike with my father in 1978, just before the 1979 Pinecrest Fire burned all (or most) of them.
Thanks for the photos! Very special going back to a time I can only imagine about.
Wonderful thanks for sharing
Great pictures. My first trip there was Just over 20 years after these. After the fire of 1978. Most all of the wooden remains in the incline area were gone. I had heard most of the tressels in Rubio canyon were still intact till then. I climbed the incline in 1979 and several times after that. The concrete structures had long since been blasted and only ruins to see. The Tavern site was so bulldozed that I cannot orient myself to where the buildings were. It’s great to see the history preserved here
Marc: I saw those huge wooden ties on The Great Incline, on my only hike (down) the Incline, in 1978, as a 12-year-old. I didn’t realize they’d burned in 1979 until 25 years later.
I have been hiking up there since 1974, at 14 years of age and often wondered how things were oriented at the Tavern site, These photos are fantastic
Any photos of it in it’s had day?
Where is this trail?
Only 20 years later and nature had reclaimed a lot! If it hadn’t been blown up, it would have been covered in grafitti anyway!
I graduated from grammar school in 1958 & attended San Gabriel High School. Heard both demolition blasts in ’59 & ’62. Made it up the Incline more than once while ties & stringers were still there. Like walking up stairs on some sections! First time up in mid sixties we saw the wreckage of the Hotel Annex & the foundations of the Cottages. Didn’t know what we were seeing until Seims’ book appeared years later. Hauled it up to the area a couple of times to make sense of things. Really wish I had seen what the Dudleys saw & pictured before its demise.
Turns out that I have had several older relatives & acquaintances who actually rode the Mt. Lowe Railway in its prime, many years before. Have an original postcard from my Great Aunt showing a scene in Rubio Canyon.
Thanks to Steven Dudley fpr the great pics.