Many People of Eaton Canyon

Many People of Eaton Canyon. . , Native Presence , Eaton Canyon has been home to and/or utilized by many diverse people since the original Hokan speaking peoples inhabited the area pre-7000 BCE. Displacing the Hokan people, the Uto-Aztecan people, now known as the Tongva (Gabrielino) people, arrived in circa 2000 BCE. Both oral histories and the archaeological record show that Eaton Canyon was likely used by Native Americans for camping and as acorn collecting grounds. , Transition to Rancho Era , After the secularization of the missions in the 1830s, when California was ruled by Mexico, the governor created two large land grants that each contained portions of what we now know as Eaton Canyon. Rancho San Pasqual was created from lands originally granted by the Padres of Mission San Gabriel to Eulalia Pérez de Guillén and Rancho Santa Anita which was land previously settled by Mexican rancheros. , California Statehood Brings New Settlers , In 1850, when California became a state, the population began to grow with settlers mainly coming from southern and eastern United States. Judge Benjamin Eaton, William Allen, Benjamin "Don Benito" Wilson, Charles Fox, and Abbot Kinney, among others, purchased sub-divided portions of the old rancho lands. Statehood also provided the ability for hardworking persons like the Cruz and Gunther families to obtain homestead land grants in Eaton Canyon. , New Settlement Brings New Workers , The Chinese laborers from the railroads found work and lodging in the fields and groves in and around Eaton Canyon and Altadena. From the late 1890s to the early 1900s, Japanese and Latino workers provided the labor to create and later enlarge the Mt. Wilson Toll Road. , photo captions: , · In 1911, Emil Bruno Gunther, a naturalized German, resided in Eaton Canyon with his family and founded Camp Idle Hour which ran from 1915 to 1929. , · This richly illustrated map, produced for the Title Insurance and Trust Company by Gerald A. Eddy in 1937, depicts the Spanish and Mexican land grant properties in Los Angeles County. Eaton Canyon was between the two land grants of Rancho San Pascual and Rancho Santa Anita, which included the Los Angeles County Arboretum. Map courtesy Los Angeles Public Library. , · Japanese Toll Road workers at Mt. Wilson. , · Ladies on the bridge.