It is called Wrightwood, a mountain community sitting just below 6500 feet above sea level in the San Gabriel Mountains. Situated in a place known as Swarthout Valley, which was named after its first homesteaders of one hundred and fifty-five years ago, the tall hills block out any hint of the big cities that are only an hour away. Since its conception it had been known as Wrightwood. But what if the name had been all wrong? Sumner Wright was the first property owner up here, and the first to start sub-division for residential plots. In 1940, Wrightwood was still in it's starting stages, as the photo of what would be Pine Street (the main street in town) suggests. You can tell why most of the population in the mountains from the 1920's to 1940 was in Big Pines. The Big Pines area that now holds our local ski runs, once had the most people hanging around...and it was also the first to have a post office.
In early advertising literature and advertisement, Sumner Wright called the area "Wrightwood Mountains" and not "Wrightwood". To this day, no one knows the reason why "Wrightwood Mountains" did not catch on. In the 1920's, visitors traveling here were sold colorful mountains and lake scene window decals, like the one shown above. "Wrightwood Mountains- "In all the mountains-no place like this", were the words on the decals. There may never had been a place called "Wrightwood Mountains"...but there is a Wrightwood. And in all the mountains-there is no place like this.
