Vintage Wrightwood photos

[Wrightwood]

Here are a few vintage photos of Wrightwood.

The first one is 1941 post card of Wrightwood's Twin Lakes, with it's old fountain.



The next one is a 1976 photo over looking Apple St.



The next two are water sking on Twin Lakes





If anyone has old Wrightwood photos that you'd like to share, email them and we will get them posted. Click here to email... oldphotos@wrightwoodcalif.com

[WWMtnGal]

[RobertW]

Info on the picture of Twin Lakes with the old fountain:

The little girl circled in the picture is my mother, Billie Morgan.  She is the daughter of Al and Grace Schobert.  My grandparents bought our Wrightwood property in 1939, and lived full time in Wrightwood from 1965 to about 1979.  Since my mother was about 8 years old in the picture and was born in 1933, we estimated the postcard picture was taken in about 1941.  It is an actual postcard.

The two adults next to my mother were of the Risk family.  They owned a cabin right below the lake.  I don't have any other information about them.

My brother and I spent all of our summers and holiday vacations staying with my grandparents in Wrightwood.
We learned to swim in the Burn's pool and spent alot of time swimming with their son's Gary, Chad and Steve.  When we weren't swimming, we were climbing every bit of the the mountains around Wrightwood.  We learned to fish in Jackson Lake.

We spent alot of time with Richard Holme's boys, Steve and Doug, making forts and playing in a tree house that was the center piece of Robin Circle, that we had named "Fort Wilderness".

We have many albums containing pictures of Wrightwood dating back to 1940.  I'll look through them and scan any pictures that may be of interest to the general public.  I know we have pictures of the old Holiday Foods store, perhaps "Dury's", downtown after a major snow storm and pictures of the 1969 mudslide.

If anyone remembers my grandfather, Al Schobert, I'd appreciate hearing from you.  

At 46, while never having been a "full time" Wrightwood resident, Wrightwood is where I grew up, and I still consider it "home".

Robert W. Morgan

[johnNjeri]

Hi Mr. Morgan,

Thank you for your very interesting pictures and stories. You're lucky to have such wonderful memories of growing up in WW. I look forward to your future posts.

[johnNjeri]

Hi Wrightwood,

As my teenagers are fond of saying, all of your photo's are "tight" or "sweet". Some older folks might even say "awesome".  Would I be dating myself if I just said "cool" as opposed to "neat-o"? Ah, heck...your photo's are the "cat's pajamas!" Whatever generation,  I think you get the point.

Keep up the good work!  

[WWMtnGal]

Robert,
    How wonderful that you have such wonderful memories of your childhood and spending your vacations here.  Thank you so much for sharing your memories with us and I will look forward to any other photos you might want to share of days gone by and our village.  Again thank you!

[Wrightwood]

Old bumper sticker from the early 80's

[RobertW]

Twin Lakes use to be a popular hang out.  Notice the "old Fountain" in the far background in this 1948 picture.  
Locals would even swim the lake at night.



Will we have a winter like that pictured in a flyer about Wrightwood in the early 80's?

[Wrightwood]

[RobertW]

I remember the mudslide of 1969 very vividly.  I'm trying to find the picture of my brother and I standing on the roof of that very home in the above posted picture. When I do, I'll post it.  

I was 14 years old and remember standing at highway 2 where the flood channel crossed the highway.  It looked like cement with boulders the size of cars just barely made it under the bridge.  It was pretty scary!  If I remember correctly, the highway was damaged and the town was cut off from Hwy 138 for a period of time. My mother remembers the mudslide of the 40s which took out much of Lone Pine Canyon road.

While the county/state has provided a very nice "spillway" for future mudslides, there was an article not too many years ago in the Los Angeles Times that talked about geologists saying that there is a fissure between the Heath Creek and Sheep Creek mudslides, connecting them.  Geologist believe that eventually the two slides will connect and the mountain between the two will come down, taking out much of Wrightwood.

Let's hope not!

We need rain, but let's hope it comes in manageable amounts, hopefully snow, without a quick thaw as the result of a warm spring.

[WWMtnGal]

Robert,
    Thank you for sharing with us your fantastic photos and your incredible memories.....Let's hope with the extreme dry weather we have had that another flood like that does not happen.  Those pictures of the snow and the floods just remind us of the devistation that mother nature can cause in these mountains.  Let's pray for a safe winter for all!  Again thank you and the Webmaster for the photos and the story to go along with it.

[RobertW]

More Vintage Photos:

More of the 1941 Mudslide.
 These cabins were near Lone Pine Canyon Rd.








The 1969 Mudslide:











Big Pines Rock Arch, c.1930:

Two years later Wrightwood would be successful in the bid to host the 1932 Winter Olympics.  Unfortunately it was a bad snow year and the Winter Olympics were moved to Lake Placid, New York.

[Wrightwood]

[kimffloyd]

Dear Robert,
What fun to see the vintage photos on this website.  I am Joyce Floyd, Secretary at the Wrightwood Historical Society.  We have some copies of the photos you display.  However, there are several that we do not have.  We are always anxious to add to the archives at the Museum.  Would it be possible to get copies?  You may also enjoy seeing the photos that we have.  Do you live in Wrightwood?  The Museum is open every Saturday from 10 to 2.  However, I would enjoy meeting you and showing you the collections that are stored.  My number is 249-5385.  Keep up the terrific work!  What a service to our community!

[RobertW]

Dear Robert,
What fun to see the vintage photos on this website.  I am Joyce Floyd, Secretary at the Wrightwood Historical Society.  We have some copies of the photos you display.  However, there are several that we do not have.  We are always anxious to add to the archives at the Museum.  Would it be possible to get copies?  You may also enjoy seeing the photos that we have.  Do you live in Wrightwood?  The Museum is open every Saturday from 10 to 2.  However, I would enjoy meeting you and showing you the collections that are stored.  My number is 249-5385.  Keep up the terrific work!  What a service to our community!

My family has owned our Wrightwood property since the late 1930s.  The cabin on the NorthWest corner of Pine and Robin was built by my Grandfather and Great Uncle ealier than that.  If the owners of that property would like some picture of that cabin some 50 years ago, we can accomodate them.

My mother grew up in Wrightwood, (they were weekenders and never lived full time there).  Being born in 1955, my recollection doesn't begin until the late 50s.

I am very interested in the history of Wrightwood and have many fond memories of the town in the 60s.

Yes, I believe we can contribute some copies of our Photos.  Most of the photos we have involved relatives and the cabin.  Not much interest to most people.  Personally I have found the photo archive we have of our property very satisfying.  

For example, look what our cabin looked like in 1939:

I took this picture last week:

The trees have gotten alot bigger and the area around us alot more crowded.  

Our cabin is one of the first 100 hundred cabins in Wrightwood.

We have pictures spanning the 60+ years documenting the changes that have taken place.

It was so good to see the picture posted by the webmaster of the "lodge" which was located near where the community building is today.  My mother remembers playing witht the daughter of the family who owned it in the 40s.

We are still weekenders.  My mother, who is in many of the pictures that I have posted will be up this coming weekend.  I believe she will drop in and visit the Historical Museum this Saturday as we have in the past.

I believe my mother and I have had a conversation with you before.  My mother talked about your horse getting loose and ending up on our property.  I believe you lived on Pine and Robin at the time.  (That is if you are the same person we had a conversation with at the museum.)

I will be up in a couple of weeks and would love to see some of the old archives that you have.  By then I should have copies of some of pictures.

[WWMtnGal]

What fantastic photos and stories this posting has provided.  It is so nice to have all of you share your stories and thank you for sharing your photos with us!  I am always interested in seeing the photos of days gone by of our village and the historical aspects of the photos are so wonderful.  Again, thank you for taking the time to share them with all of us.

[Mountain_Witch]

This is just awesome seeing all these vintage photos.
Great Work Wrightwood and RobertW.
Somewhere in the deep dark regions of my closet, I have some pictures that I inherited from my parents. When I moved here, I never really remembered being here ever before although I always had these strange feelings that I had. But then I found out from my grandparents that we were always brought up here to snow play as they used to live in SB. Then I guess before I was even a twinkle in my parents eyes, they used to come up here on their dates.  Heck, I even have a picture somewhere of almost a foot or more of snow on the ground in SB somewhere. But the pictures I really like to see, although they sadden me some, are the pictures of all the creeks and streams that used to run up here year round.
<sigh> Maybe someday, we'll see them run again.
In the meantime, thanks for sharing the photo's and the stories. It's so much fun to look back (sometimes). Sometimes it just makes ya feel like.....well........ not as young as ya used to be.

[rib]

excellent pictures!!
thank you all very much for sharing
i look forward to browsin around lookin for new additions
thanks again
rib

[raddog]

I have lived up here for almost 13 years and I have to say that these photos of Wrightwood are interesting and educational.  The reason I say this is because I love history and I've always wondered what Wrightwood looked like in the past, these pctures give me an idea, thanks for the great pictures

[Wrightwood]

These 50's postcards had previously been posted with incorrect information. With the original postcards in hand I was able to scan them with better detail.

The 1st postcard shows Emil's (sp?) Mountain Store a contractor office and a realty on the far right.



This postcard shows the Mountain Store with the gas station structure added. To the right is Holiday Realty Co.