John W. Robinson (1929–2018)
Autor/a de Trails of the Angeles: 100 Hikes in the San Gabriels
Sobre l'autor
John W. Robinson, a retired teacher and historian, is the author of numerous books and articles on California history. He was awarded a Fellows Medallion by the Historical Society of Southern California.
Sèrie
Obres de John W. Robinson
The San Bernardinos: The Mountain Country from Cajon Pass to Oak Glen, Two Centuries of Changing Use (1985) 20 exemplars
Southern California's First Railroad - the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad 1869 - 1873 (1978) 13 exemplars
Billy Holcomb's Discovery 1 exemplars
Switzer's: Genial Resort of the Old Sierra Madre 1 exemplars
Obres associades
Call Of The Mountains: The Beauty And Legacy Of Southern California's San Jacinto, San Bernadino And San Gabriel… (2005) — Pròleg — 9 exemplars
Will Thrall and the San Gabriels: A Man to Match the Mountains (Adventures in Cultural and Natural History) (2004) — Pròleg — 4 exemplars
The Silver of the Sierra Madre: John Robinson, Boss Shepherd, and the People of the Canyons (2008) — Col·laborador — 1 exemplars
Trail map for trails of the Angeles, 100 hikes in the San Gabriels, a guidebook by John W. Robinson — Col·laborador — 1 exemplars
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Data de naixement
- 1929-07-08
- Data de defunció
- 2018-04-24
- Gènere
- male
- Nacionalitat
- USA
- Lloc de naixement
- Long Beach, California, USA
- Lloc de defunció
- Colorado, USA
- Educació
- University of Southern California, Los Angeles, B.A., 1951
Cal State University Long Beach, M.A., 1966 - Organitzacions
- Fellow of the Historical Society of Southern California (2005)
- Premis i honors
- Donald H. Pfluegar Award (Historical Society of Southern California, 1992)
Westerners International’s Coke Award (1990, 1994)
Membres
Ressenyes
Potser també t'agrada
Autors associats
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 28
- També de
- 4
- Membres
- 355
- Popularitat
- #67,468
- Valoració
- 4.0
- Ressenyes
- 3
- ISBN
- 43
On a recent hike up the East Fork with my inquisitive daughter, she stopped, knee deep in the East Fork's refreshing flow, pointed upward to a mountainslope and asked, "what's that pipe doing way up there?" I replied, as if I were an expert myself and had never even heard of John Robinson's "Mines of the East Fork," that there were once goldmines gallore up here, and that the pipes she saw were once used to transport water for the hydraulic mining they did, where they'd basically aim the end of a piece of pipe at a mountainside, and blast water at the mountain with the salivary hopes of finding the mother lode beneath.
"Why?" She asked, apparently not getting what I meant by "mother lode".
"So they could find gold and get rich."
"Oh."
Did anyone get rich from the East Fork back during its 1850s heyday of glory and excitement? Not especially. According to Robinson, even though the total historical yield from the canyon was estimated by the Los Angeles Star at $4 to $13 million, back in the 1850s & 60s, the average person took out only between $2 and $10 per day. Good money back then, true, but since the canyon was regularly flooded each winter, in particular the winters of 1859 and 1862 being extreme inundations (the latter, in fact, completely destroyed and left no evidence that the sprung-up-overnight-mining town of Eldoradoville ever existed) the cost of reconstructing flume lines and replacing & hauling mining materials back up the fifteen miles from the town of Azusa, ultimately proved insurmountable. Gold mining continued, floods or no floods, but even the invention of "mini, more easily transported hydraulics" in the 1890s, met with negligible profit and inevitable failure.
What John Muir meant a century ago to the mighty Sierra Nevada mountain range, John Robinson means to the San Gabriels and the East Fork. Robinson has researched the history and written more authoritatively on the mountains of Southern California than any person past or present and most likely to come. It's unfortunate that so few people besides avid hikers such as yours truly appreciate the mountains near Los Angeles and her swarming suburbs (besides arsonists of course); otherwise, John Robinson, in my book, would be as revered a figure, say, as an Edward Abbey or just mentioned John Muir.
If you ever visit LA, instead of Disneyland, Hollywood-and-Vine, or the beach, find an old out-of-print copy of John Robinson's, "Mines of the East Fork" (or borrow mine!) and explore one of Southern California's uncrowded jewels; one of its best kept historical secrets (I didn't even mention "The Bridge To Nowhere" did I?) and, who knows, grab a pan, sift through river sludge, and you just might strike it rich!… (més)