Newsletter
Summer 2005
Keeping Historic Millard Canyon and Altadena Crest Trails Open for All
 The City Project, together with the private
firms of Reed Smith and English Munger & Rice, have filed a
lawsuit to preserve public access to the trails in historic Millard
Canyon that begins in the Angeles National Forest and ends at the
Arroyo Seco in Altadena. Property owners in the gated La Viña
enclave have sought to cut off public access to the trails by posting “No
Trespassing” signs and harassing hikers and equestrians.
The suit names La Viña Homeowners Association, the County
of Los Angeles, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy as defendants.
The trails have been used by the public for millennia, beginning with the Native
Americans who traveled seasonally through the canyon from the mountains to the
plains along the Arroyo Seco and the Los Angeles River. In the 1820s, Millard
Canyon was known as Church Canyon because the lumber to build La Placita Catholic
Church was brought from the canyon to the original Pueblo de Los Angeles, the
birth place of the City. La Placita (now also known as Our Lady Queen of Angels
Church) was the first church built in Los Angeles and is now in El Pueblo Historic
Monument. Robert Owens, a slave who bought his freedom and moved to Millard Canyon
around 1850, used local trails to get firewood and building materials down to
the U.S. Army post near the Los Angeles harbor. Owen Brown, son of abolitionist
John Brown, moved to Altadena after surviving his father’s raid on a government
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia in 1859. Owen Brown was buried on
a peak overlooking Millard Canyon.
Plaintiffs Marietta Kruells and Karina Macías are members of the public
and taxpaying residents of the County concerned with the obstruction of their
right to access, use and travel on the open space and trails.
The suit seeks
to keep the trails open for all, and to preserve the rich historical and cultural
legacy of Millard Canyon and the beauty of the site. Los Angeles is park poor.
The trails are needed for hiking and horse back riding, to improve human health
through recreation, to promote spiritual and environmental values of stewardship
of the earth, and for equal access to public resources, whether or not one can
afford to live in a secluded gated enclave. Plaintiff Save the Altadena Trails
filed a similar suit on July 19, 2005, represented by the law firm of Monroe & Zinder. The County of Los Angeles also filed a suit on July
21, 2005.
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