Mount Waterman
History
Much land in the San Gabriel Mountains was leased from the US
Forest Service in 1888 to a master trailblazer and cabin builder
by the name of Loise Newcomb. The official name of the hill
is Waterman Mountain.
Robert B. Waterman, pioneer mountain man and a ranger in the
San Gabriel Forest Reserve. Waterman, together with his wife
Liz, and their friend Perry Switzer, completed a three week
hike from La Cañada-Flintridge, California La Cañada to the
Antelope Valley and back again May 1889.
With this epic feat, Liz became the first white non-Indigenous
peoples of the Americas Indian woman known to have crossed the
San Gabriel’s. Along the way, she placed a cairn on this summit
and it was thus christened Lady Waterman's Peak. However, then
current attitudes toward the "weaker sex" didn't deem this a
fitting name.
The peak has subsequently been called by different variants,
all of which leave out the "Lady". To his credit Robert Waterman
made numerous futile efforts to have the full original name
restored.
Humble Beginnings
Lynn Newcomb Sr. and his son Lynn Newcomb Jr. built the first
rope tow at the area in 1939.
Mount Waterman claims to have had the first chairlift in California,
opened by the Newcomb’s on January 1, 1942. The chairlift broke
down during the opening day and riders had to jump off, but
the resort continued operations.
Lynn Newcomb Jr. took over the operation when his father passed
on, and ran the ski area for all but a two-year period, when
it was sold to two San Gabriel Valley businessmen in the 1990s.
Those new owners returned the resort to Newcomb when their ambitious
plans for snowmaking and other improvements at the ski area
fell through. |
