By Patric Hedlund, based on research by Bonnie Kane, Ridge Route Communities Museum historian

In the 1920s, Glendale Mayor Harry G. MacBain and his circle of friends announced they planned to make a lavish investment to build a modern resort in the mountains north of the San Fernando Valley. His vision was that it would be a joyful place where Glendale families could flee sweltering city summers.

But the story of how a beautiful Chumash Indian campground under a majestic grove of giant oaks was transformed into Frazier Mountain Park nearly always begins with a divorce. The unhappy pair was Marcus and Dessie Cuddy—who owned the meadow that is now the park.

Ridge Route Communities Museum historian Bonnie Kane tells the epic story of the Cuddy dynasty and the land they settled in her A View from the Ridge Route, a six-volume saga about the history of this region. Her sixth volume, coming out this year, focuses on…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Left and right: About 1946 at the ‘upper lake’ in Frazier Mountain Park from the collection of Alma Hensley Newman. Below, left: An advertising flyer from Glendale developers in 1920’s about this exciting new resort…

A group of investors led by the mayor of Glendale had a brilliant plan in the 1920s: to create a mountain getaway for the families of Glendale—so they could escape the ‘frying pan’ summer temperatures of the San Fernando Valley.

Documents from the Ridge Route Museum & Historical Society files researched by The Mountain Enterprise include a map that shows no lake in the area of today’s Frazier Mountain Park in 1881 and a 1924 news story telling of plans to dam Cuddy Creek to form seven Lakes for a country club.

The divorce of Marcus and Dessie Cuddy began the Frazier Mountain Park story.

Mayor of Glendale from 1925 to 1929, Harry G. MacBain acquired 800 acres from Dessie Cuddy to develop Frazier Mountain Park.

Fiesta Days is the Mountain Community’s annual three-day party and reunion, built around Frazier Mountain Park and the pond. Loss of the pond was felt profoundly by all ages. In 2018 a “Dry Pond Fishing Derby” was held, as a vigil.

Metal art sculptor, hunter and fisherman Stan McCuen of Lockwood Valley said seeing the empty pond made him so sad that he decided to do a guerrilla art project at dawn, with family and friends, to remind the town what they had lost. (L-r): Jeff Sap, Cole Jensen, Travis McCuen, Cindy McCuen and artist Stan McCuen as they finished placing fish at about 5:35 a.m. April 28, 2018.

As the 8-year drought continued, and the pond receded, fish began to die

Above: Bonnie Ketterl (Kane), Andrea Kiesner and Mike Westmoreland in 1976, canoeing on Frazier Mountain Park pond during Fiesta Days model sailboat races.

2011 Fiesta Days Fishing Derby at Frazier Mountain Park

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This is part of the April 19, 2019 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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