Here is the info that Terry Graham wrote:
A BRIEF LOOK AT A MYSTERY
GUFFY
I found that the absolute best places in our mountains for horse camps were Cabin Flats, down in Prairie Fork, Lupine...and of course that nifty place on the southeast rim of Blue Ridge, Guffy's Campground. Even though they were dry camps, you can always find some standing water.
Everyone knows that Guffy's was named after Samuel Guffy, a local 'color' in the annals of Wrightwood history. Accompanying me on my rides with my horse Hank, were books and a journal. This book, pictured here, was one of those books. I got the book way back in 1972, when I was a salty horseback-riding lad back home in Wrightwood.
Mrs. Fisher's book caught my attention back then. It covered a load of information from the early Serranos, the history of the opening of this part of the country in the 1820s, to the Indian/Outlaw raids through Cajon Pass, and touching here and here on the people-the Mountaineers-of early Wrightwood and West Cajon Pass. Even though some of the information turned out to be not exactly correct, it still made for pretty decent reading; including the formation of Big Pines Park, and some information on the cowboys of WW's Circle Mountain Cattle Company.
And of course the mention of an 'old miner' name Guffy.
Pearl's book, in my mind, presented one of the most endearing mysteries to me. Facts would have it that Sunmer Wright met this 'old miner' Guffy, who in turn enticed him to buy, or obtain, the valley that now contains the mountain community of Wrightwood.
Apparently prospector Samuel Scott Guffy built a homestead near present day 'Wright's Lake' in the 1870s, that he later sold to Sumner Wright, the "Father of Wrightwood."
So, who was this man Guffy? I don't think he was an 'old miner,' that's fer darn shore.
Samuel Scott Guffy was one of the first USFS rangers appointed to the new San Gabriel Timberland Reserve (Angeles National Forest). In 1901, in the administration of the San Bernardino and San Gabriel areas records show that 15 rangers were assigned to work in that large area: to name a few-Louis Newcomb and Leroy Baldwin were stationed in the Sierra Madres, while the San Bernardino mountain area (at that time, that area included present day Wrightwood and Big Pines) Samuel Scott Guffy had been assigned.
In 1901, Guffy would of been between his middle 20's and early 30s--- which was the common age for those first appointed rangers.... some were younger. That means in the 1870s, when he apparently built his homestead, he would of been a baby.
Some dates are so misconstrued, and here is another big example: Pearl Comfort Fisher, who lived in Wrightwood, but who is now deceased, had written The Mountaineers. My family knew her personally.
Mrs. Fisher had wrote that Samuel Scott Guffy was an 'old miner,' having arrived in the area with a man named Sessions. William Sessions was part of the Mormon Battalion that came into the area in 1847, with the Swarthout brothers, who later homestead the area that is now called Clyde Ranch in Lone Pine Canyon.
Sessions and his brothers, John and Richard, were all part of Jefferson Hunt's Company A of the Mormon Battalion, along with Hamilton Swarthout, brother of Nathan and George Swarthout.
Now, here's the kicker...In 1847 Samuel Scott Guffy wouldn't of been the apple of anyone's eye. I thought perhaps USFS forest ranger Guffy had a father living in the area, one that he was named after, but I cannot find any other Guffy (or McGuffy), other that Samuel. After all this time, this piece of local history is just another endearing mystery that I am still trying to track down.
