Ambrose Zaro; Enthusiast for Mt. Wilson

Ambrose Zaro, the one-time boxer and security guard who spent nearly his entire 90 years keeping a seven-mile trail on Mt. Wilson navigable for hikers, joggers and bicyclists, has died at his home in Maywood.

The Sierra Madre News reported last week that Zaro, who continued to dig rain troughs and move boulders on the scenic trail despite a heart attack in 1987, had died March 16.

Zaro had first climbed Mt. Wilson as a boy of 14 after he caught a glimpse of the San Gabriels through his binoculars while attending school in downtown Los Angeles. He cut the remainder of his classes that day and hopped a Pacific Electric Car for Sierra Madre, where the mountain trail begins.

Then, as now, hiking was a popular pastime. In 1911, an estimated 40,000 people had walked the trail to the top of the 5,710-foot mountain on a path first cleared by Benjamin Wilson, the grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton. Wilson had envisioned a logging venture but it proved a failure.

As the trail fell into gradual disrepair, Zaro took it upon himself to become its custodian. Originally, he went four times a week, carrying 30 pounds of tools in a knapsack (plus his lunch, which normally consisted of a banana and some wine). There he would replace markers or repair the damage that rain, landslides, an occasional fire and the flood of tourists had caused.

In a 1987 interview with The Times, Zaro said the work never bothered him--even after he was past 80 and had to cut his visits to twice a week and lighten his load--but the 42-mile round-trip from his home was frightening.

“All that traffic,” he said. “Usually I need a couple of beers afterward to relax my nerves.”

Zaro had dropped out of school at age 16, and to support himself (and later his wife, who died in 1985) he delivered telegrams, trained to be a prizefighter--which proved of limited success--and worked as a security guard and shipyard welder.

As word of his efforts spread, Boy Scout troops and other hikers would help him.

As the hiking fad faded over the years, he found himself more alone on the trail, and needed to focus his maintenance efforts only on the beginning two miles.

The appreciative townsfolk of Sierra Madre would have him in to breakfast, provide him with hot showers and dry clothes and hold testimonials in his honor.

He was grand marshal of one Fourth of July parade and received new boots from the grateful community.

Zaro, despite the scars of poison oak and various accidents on the mountain, considered himself a fortunate man.

“It makes me feel good to see mothers and children walking the trail,” he said during the 1987 interview, conducted on the trail. “And look how beautiful this (mountain) is. I’ve had a wonderful life.”

Sierra Madre is accepting donations in his name to the city’s Mt. Wilson trail maintenance fund.