Sierra Madre Takes Trip Down Memory Trail to Honor Hardy Pioneers

When Jim Heasley was 7, he began following pack trains as they moved food and furniture up the seven-mile Mt. Wilson trail to the summer inns and campsites above Sierra Madre.

Later, he spent five years loading and guiding the mule trains up the steep, dusty trails in the San Gabriel Mountains.

“It was a job that suited me,” he said. “No one to bother me, and you were outside.”

Now 81, Heasley will dust off those memories with fellow “old-timers” during Pioneer Days, a celebration in Sierra Madre this weekend that honors the hardy lifestyle of those who settled the area between 1880 and 1920.

“This is a revival of the pioneer spirit and a celebration of our beginnings,” said Judy Webb-Martin, one of the coordinators of the event.

Founded in 1881 by Nathaniel C. Carter, Sierra Madre grew into a bustling town of more than 700 residents by the turn of the century, boasting its own water system, cigar factory and abundant citrus groves.

It has been 50 years since the city last held Pioneer Days, and Webb-Martin said the town’s organizations have been putting together the event for more than a year.

A period parade down Baldwin Avenue and a dance were held Saturday. Lizzie’s Trail Inn, once a gathering place for the pack train drivers at what is now 167 Mira Monte Ave., reopened for the weekend, serving chicken and ravioli just like before it closed in 1948. The prospect of eating there again was so tempting to residents that all of the reservations have been taken.

The City Council decided two years ago to reestablish Pioneer Days, making it the celebration centerpiece of Sierra Madre’s 90th year of cityhood, Webb-Martin said.

Heasley, a resident since 1921, said the event will “resurrect the days when this town was on the map for its trails.”

The trails, which date back to 1864, were carved for pack trains to transport lumber down to the San Gabriel Valley. Later, they were used to transport goods up from the valley to the camps, quiet retreats nestled in the cooler climes of the mountains and visited by city dwellers. Men like Heasley made $20 a month. In 1938, a flood wiped out many of the camps, diminishing the need for the pack trains. Only one company, Lonergan’s Pack Station, still serves residents who live in small cabins along those trails.

As part of a special story hour, the 6-foot, 4-inch Heasley, who never leaves his home without his beige Stetson hat, will recount tales about the cowboys he knew, men who “could kill a fly on the wall just by spitting.” In some early photographs on display in the town recreation center, Heasley is seen on the trails as a gawky, “skinny as a rail” 11-year-old wearing a huge Stetson.

The “old timers” will offer up their stories and slides from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Sierra Madre Recreation Center, 611 E. Sierra Madre Blvd.

Among other scheduled history-related activities is a 5-kilometer walk today in which preregistered participants will pass 17 historical sites, including the Ward Ranch. Established in 1903 by E. Waldo Ward, the ranch is Sierra Madre’s oldest business, said Phyllis Chapman, the town’s historian. The ranch still produces specialty jellies and jams and will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At Lizzie’s Trail Inn, physician Bill White of the Sierra Madre Historical Society will discuss the life of innkeeper Lizzie Stoppel.

“She was a clever lady, a popular lady who could really run a restaurant,” said White of Stoppel, who died in 1939. Photographs of Stoppel and her restaurant will be on display inside the beige and green clapboard structure along with original kitchenware and furniture. For two years, White has been trying to restore Lizzie’s, once so well known that actors such as John Wayne visited. The Historical Society plans to keep Lizzie’s open as a resource center for schoolchildren to learn about Sierra Madre’s trails.

For Heasley, the event offers a chance to taste Lizzie’s fried chicken once again. “I never did like chicken before” said Heasley, “but I always liked hers.”