Chantry Flat - The Story

The Story

The story indirectly begins in 1905 with the arrival of Iowa-born Charley Chantry to Sierra Madre, CA. He prospected his way here from the Black Hills of the Dakotas by way of the San Gabriel back country. He erected a sturdy tent cabin in Little Santa Anita Canyon from which he rented riding donkeys to kids staying at nearby Carter's Camp. Soon his stock was packing into any and all of the mountain resorts from his Mount Wilson Stables.

While packing to Sturtevant's Camp, Charley passed through an oak-studded bench 600' above Big Santa Anita Canyon's bottom at the San Olene Gap. With a reliable spring in adjoining San Olene Canyon (a corruption of the original Santa Oline) and the relatively flat land of an ancient slide, Chantry imagined this to be an ideal site for a small ranch. The details of his official occupation of the "flat" are unclear, even from reading John Robinson's The San Gabriels. The 1977 printing suggests that his plans for a home and orchard were thwarted by enactment of the Forest Homestead Act (1906) which forbade such development. The 1991 copy reports that he was granted a permit for 20 acres (81,000 m2) in 1907, that he failed to act on his plans and that he allowed the permit to lapse, returning control to the Forest Service. Glen Owens, author of The Heritage of the Big Santa Anita believes the latter to be true and substantiates his claim with the witness of a Forest Service agricultural permit in Charley's name. Whatever happened when and whether he was permitted, Charley and his dog, Patch, did occasionally occupy a tent here, grazed his stock here, and spent enough time here to have his name permanently attached to the area now known as Chantry Flat (formerly Poison Oak Flat).

Charley died in 1936, one year after Los Angeles County paved a road to his old stomping grounds from the top of Santa Anita Ave. The road in was originally planned as a highway to join the Angeles Crest Highway (state hwy 2) at Shortcut Canyon. The Forest Service never allowed it. It would have been a largely unwelcome introduction of modern civilization and would have obliterated the charm and beauty of both the Big Santa Anita and the West Fork of the San Gabriel River. Los Angeles county was permitted, however, to build a road into Winter Creek. They stopped short with a less intrusive terminus at Chantry Flat. The Civilian Conservation Corps built a campground here which was later remodeled by the Forest Service in 1958 and designated a picnic area. Also in 1958, the USFS built the existing firehouse with barracks and information center, the two 3-bedroom houses to house employees, and installed a water system (315,000 US gallons (1,190,000 l) capacity) drawn from a lateral well (the lateral well was later replaced by the vertical well currently in use.