Mount Wilson Toll Road
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The Mount Wilson Toll Road (1891-1936) is a historic roadway which ascended Mount Wilson via a vehicular passable road from the base of the foothills in Altadena. It was accessible from Pasadena via Santa Anita Avenue which drove right to the front porch of the toll house. The access road is still visible on private property along Altadena Drive in Altadena.
Mount Wilson had always been active with human passage starting from the days of the local Indians. It was Benjamin Davis Wilson who established a proper trail to the summit of Mt. Wilson from Sierra Madre through the Santa Anita Canyon.
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[edit] Inception of toll road
The installation of the Harvard telescope in 1889, which brought its own problems of transporting the instrument up the old Wilson trail, caused an interest in a Mt. Wilson roadway, something more than a trail.
In June 1889, Judge Benjamin Eaton gathered a group of prominent Pasadena businessmen to consider building a wagon road to Mt. Wilson. There were 18 of the men who agreed to contribute capital and on July 12, 1889 they incorporated "The Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road Company." But the company went belly-up before there was any progress on a roadway.
Within a couple of years five of the original investors reorganized and refinanced the project, but since the Harvard telescope had been removed and interest in Mt. Wilson had tailed off, they thought it better to downsize the project from a twelve foot road to a four foot road. By June of 1891, after only five months work, a usable ten mile (16 km) trail was established. In July the new toll road was officially opened to the public and the toll fixed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at 25 cents for hikers and 50 cents for horseback. The new road was called the "New Mt. Wilson Trail" and it soon became more popular than the old Sierra Madre trail. Foot and pack animal traffic became so heavy that in June of 1893 the trail was widened to six feet, making two way travel much easier.
[edit] The Mt. Wilson Observatories
Gradually the Mt. Wilson Toll Road Company acquired control of most the popular lands on the mountain. In 1896 they acquired both Strain's and Martin's camps, and in 1901 paid the United States Land Office $800 for title to 640 acres (2.6 km²) on the mountain top. In 1904 The Mount Wilson Toll Road Company enlarged its holdings to 1,050 acres (4 km²). In 1905 the company entered into a 99 year lease with the Carnegie Institution granting 40 acres of the mountain top for the location of a new observatory, today known as the Mount Wilson Observatory. Those involved with the new observatory were given free use of the toll road and half the water rights on the mountain. In return, the Carnegie Institution agreed that the public would always have access to the observatory.
The Carnegie Observatory renewed interest in Mt. Wilson and brought many visitors to the mountain top. To accommodate the many visitors the toll road company constructed a one story hotel in 1905. Cottages were constructed around the main building for guests staying overnight. In 1913 the hotel was destroyed by fire, but two years later a larger hotel was completed on the same site to include a large swimming pool.
As new, larger telescopes were designed for the Carnegie Observatory, the need for an automobile roadway became necessary. In 1907 the trail was widened to ten feet with most of the work being done by hand with the use of Japanese laborers and mule-drawn scrapers. The road was widened to a full 12-foot (4 m) roadway in 1917 to accommodate the transportation of parts for the 100 inch Hooker reflector telescope.
Despite the advertised access for automobiles, the driving public was discouraged from using the toll road. First there was the fear of encountering large freight trucks servicing the observatories, lest folks phoned ahead up the mountain. Then there were the sharp turns that required most cars to shift to and fro over high road edges in order to negotiate them. Mr. L. L. Whitman of Pasadena who made the ascent in his 1907 Franklin said, "Not for five hundred dollar would I make the trip again." For those preferring not to drive, there was the popular Mt. Wilson Stage Line.
[edit] In its closing years
By the early 1930s a new high speed highway was being built from La Cañada via the Arroyo Seco. The new Angeles Crest Highway was paved and ready for travel into Red Box Canyon and onward to Mt. Wilson from the back side by 1935. The historic Mt. Wilson Toll Road closed to the public in March, 1936 and was turned over to the United States Forest Service.
