Hidden History of Big Pine Lakes

On a hot day in June, I was standing at the waters edge of a majestic glacial blue lake in the Eastern Sierra known as Big Pine Lakes. Only, this season, the waters edge was nowhere near where it was supposed to be. The unusually dry season didn't provide enough snow melt to fill this lake. This time of year, the mountains should still have snow at this elevation. In seasons past, snow came all the way to the edge of this particular lake and spilled over to the next lake via a short stream connecting the two.

Rock and silt that hadn't seen light in a long time, were left exposed from the low water level. That's where I found myself drawn. I walked the dry stream that should have connected the two lakes. Without the distraction of the beautiful water or the noise and motion of the stream, sights previously unseen started to show themselves.

There are piles of rocks on either side with what looks like hundred-year-old wood beams that must have been part of larger structure in the past. Five to six miles by trail into the Sierra Nevada wilderness at around 10,000 ft elevation. What kind of structure could have been way up here and what motivated them enough to bring these heavy beams all the way up here on a trail that, even today, I feel like I'm going to roll my ankle every other step.

To understand the history of Big Pine Lakes, and whether it was industrialization or recreation that had driven people to build up here, I had to dig deep the complex history of the Owens Valley and its strong connection to Los Angeles.

Water, Power, and Progress

As Los Angeles grew, so did its thirst for water and power. Water and electricity go hand in hand, the force of water coming down from the mountains can be harnessed as electricity through power plants that leave the water unsullied and allows it go on to be used as drinking water.

In 1908, Los Angeles broke ground on an ambitious, hundreds of miles long, aqueduct. In the same year, the first of the Owens Valley power plants was built to help power the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct ¹ — Division Creek Power Plant No. 1. Drivers of the 395 might know Division Creek for the rest area by the same name.

Further up the 395, the road from Big Pine into the mountains and to the trailhead of this particular hike is not unlike the rest of the roads from the valley into the mountains — it follows a stream up the mountain, a tributary of the Owens River. Like a lot of these streams leading into the mountains, a hydroelectric power plant sits near the bottom. Hidden from the road, you'd be forgiven for not knowing about Big Pine Power Plant No. 3, even if you've driven past a hundred times.

I was suspicious that the power plant had something to do with the construction artifacts I had seen at the lakes and that maybe the whole reason thousands of Californians hike this trail every year is because of our industrialization efforts. This is where I was wrong.

High Sierra Tourism

While the valley is filled with the scars and artifacts of the aqueduct, life wasn't all about utility. The town of Big Pine has a window into the mountains displaying the 3 miles long and 1 mile tall Palisade Glacier — at least that's how big it was in 1927 ². The southernmost glacier on the continent became somewhat of a tourist destination. A lodge was built up in the mountains with an even better view of the glacier, aptly named Glacier Lodge. The lodge sits at the trailhead of the Big Pine Lakes hike. It's been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. What stands there today is not very reminiscent of the original.

Glacier lodge was built in 1917, 8 years before that power plant lower on the mountain. Big Pine Campground, situated next to the lodge, was built 4 years before the power plant ³. The combination of the campground and lodge helped Big Pine attract tourists and compete with the growing tourism of Mammoth and Tahoe.

The owners of Glacier Lodge, Walter and Maude Dow, expanded their operations and built another lodge further up the mountain, amazingly, over 5 miles up the hiking trail at Lake 4 sitting near 11,000 feet of elevation. Glacier Lodge Upper Camp, sometimes called Lake Camp, had a proper cabin, tents, a dining room, hot showers, and even a few boats. The upper camp provided both a high sierra lake resort for recreation and provided tourists access to the Palisade Glacier. Camp patrons could ride a horse or mule 2 miles and scramble the last half mile for their chance to touch the glacier ⁴.

On that June day, standing in the cold wind coming off of lake 2, I had imagined workers related to the power plant laboring hard up here. I had never imagined that nearly a hundred years ago, families were rowing wooded boats across this very lake and taking hot showers before sleeping in their accommodations.

The lodge was demolished when the John Muir national forest was created in 1963 but that hasn't stopped the fun. The tourism push by Big Pine in the 1920s has only continued to draw more and more visitors. Big Pine Lakes is a hugely popular trail for day hikes, backpacking trips, and if you're feeling nostalgic, you can still ride pack mules up to the lakes.

Images

Due to copyright concerns I didn't host any images here but the following images paint a picture of the area in the 1920s

• Photo of the original Glacier Lodge
• Photo of lake 4 with lodge across the lake
• Photo of tents at lake 4
• Photo of people at palisade glacier
• Palisade Glacier Pedestal Rock
• Construction tents at lake 2

PS

I had tried to find information about the Big Pine Paiute to see if there was any connection to the lakes, it feels likely that there is, but I was unable to find much information at all. Please contact me if you have book recommendations or other sources worth looking into.