Table of Contents
History At Your Fingertips
We're Going To Amboy
The Arrowhead Beside Route 66 by Kara Hewson Nelson
Santa Monica Boasts New Roller Coaster
HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
We have started our new year of planned events which will take us from Santa Monica to
the eastern border of California in easy-to-drive segments over the course of this
year.
February found us meeting in the central location of Azusa with our Founding
President Jennie Avila as hostess.
On Saturday, March 15, we will meet at Rusty’s Restaurant on Santa Monica
Pier. After a no-host luncheon we will leave the pier at 2 pm sharp and start our Cruise
Through History. There will be hand-outs to guide you, much as were available on last
year’s Run To The Heartland.
To encourage attendance by our members living in the Great Inland Empire, we will
socialize at the Mitla Café, 602 N. Mt. Vernon Ave., in San Bernardino on Saturday, April
19. We will have a photo display and some of our memorabilia for sale at that time. We
encourage you to plan to stay for an early Mexican dinner, the specialty of the house.
Continuing our project of traveling "the whole route" we will meet at
the Fair Oaks Pharmacy for lunch on Saturday, May 17, then leave to continue
eastward. Again, handouts will be available to point out historic buildings and areas.
The dates of the San Bernardino County Fair have been from traditionally scorching
August to the more comfortable time of May through June. We will have on
display again a portion of the Mojave Exhibit.
Reserve your space ASAP for the bus trip to the high desert on Saturday, June
21. All the info is to be found in this issue of Roadsigns.
We’re doing things backward in July: We’ll meet at Azusa City Hall
Saturday July 19, receive our handout guides and travel to Upland to a nice
air-conditioned building where Elinore ‘Chi’ Hamilton will tell us about growing
up along the Route in that city.
We’re still planning an event for August.
September will find many of us participating in the Second Annual Run To The
Heartland. Tentative dates are September 19 through 26.
In keeping with the concept of putting "History at Your Fingertips" we will
have our annual membership meeting in Victorville in October.
WE’RE GOING TO AMBOY
Make your reservations today then dig out the sunscreen and your big hat. We’re
going to Amboy on Saturday, June 21.
We’ll have experts guiding us through the Ludlow and Newberry Springs areas also.
Only 42 seats are available on the air-conditioned bus. We will start at 7 am at Union
Station downtown Los Angeles then proceed east for other pick ups. Points of interest will
be designated along the way and commentators will be available to answer questions on
historic lore.
THE ARROWHEAD BESIDE ROUTE 66 by Kara Hewson Nelson
A natural landmark in the shape of a huge arrowhead can be viewed from Route 66 in the
San Bernardino area. Clearly visible for several miles from present day I-215 at Orange
Show Road while traveling north, the prehistoric phenomenon was declared a State
Historical Landmark in 1988.
The Arrowhead may be seen on the face of a mountain north of the valley with the point
in a downward position. Coincidentally, it points to the hot sulfur springs just below its
granite-colored outline. It is difficult to believe it was made by pure chance of a
cloudburst.
A record of the Arrowhead was made by Father Francisco Dumetz in the year 1810. He had
been sent here by the San Gabriel Mission to locate a rancho in the San Bernardino area
and became overwhelmed with the landmark on the mountainside. For some reason he was
reminded of Saint Bernardino, an Italian priest born in 1382. So he named this beautiful
valley after that saint and the name has been anglicized to San Bernardino.
The material of which the landmark is composed is different from the other parts of the
mountain, consisting chiefly of disintegrated white quartz and light gray granite. It
supports a growth of short white sage. This lighter vegetation shows in sharp contrast to
the surrounding dark green greasewood and chaparral.
Approximately 90% of the land area surrounding the mark is owned by the United States
Forest Service; the lower 10% is privately owned.
Wild fires burned the area in 1916, 1922, 1928, 1943, 1953 and again in 1980. Various
efforts to rehabilitate the Arrowhead have been carried out over the past 60 years by
cooperative efforts of the Forestry Service, California Division of Forestry, Pilot Rock
Conservation Camp, the San Bernardino Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Fe Railroad, Boy
Scouts and many other organizations.
Even though it is now closed to public access, it can be enjoyed from afar.
It’s the journey, not the destination.
"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s
sake. The great affair is to move." – from Travels With a Donkey, by Robert
Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894
SANTA MONICA BOASTS A NEW ROLLER COASTER
At the western terminus of Route 66 is the first new roller coaster built on Santa
Monica Pier in nearly 67 years.
