Photograph by Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Mount Lowe Railway
Built in 1893. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1894.
From the record
“The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in the United States created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated by Thaddeus S.”
Wikipedia article Mount Lowe Railway, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1993 · category: Site · built in 1893.
National Register reference number.92001522- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Then and now
1894 to 1995
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
18941995
Fires near this property
252 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 252 fires within 5 miles of Mount Lowe Railway
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 166,508 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 39 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
63
Equipment and vehicle use
62
Arson/incendiarism
39
Recreation and ceremony
37
Debris and open burning
12
Fireworks
9
Natural
9
Power generation/transmission/distribution
8
Smoking
7
Misuse of fire by a minor
6
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
11 workings within 5 miles of Mount Lowe Railway: 4 past producers, 4 producers, 2 occurrences, 1 prospect.
4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Molybdenum, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Altadena, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 2 flash flood, 1 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Heavy rain produced significant flash flooding and debris flows at the intersection of Lake Avenue and East Altadena Drive. Mud and debris flows resulted in the closure of all three northbound lanes.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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