In Search of Black Jack

 

In 1887, Owen and Jason Brown, the sons of famed abolitionist John Brown, climbed an unnamed peak in the front country of the San Gabriel Mountains which they christened Black Jack Peak. The appellation simultaneously referenced the black porphyritic rock of which the peak was composed as well as the 1856 Battle of Black Jack during which John Brown attacked the camp of pro-slavery forces led by Henry C. Pate near Baldwin City, Kansas. The Battle of Black Jack is considered by many to be the first unofficial battle of the Civil War. 

Historian Hiram Reid described Black Jack Peak as a "spur" from Strawberry Peak with a sharp, distinct pinnacle that is composed of "black spar." Beyond that general description, he does not identify the specific peak to which reference is being made.

 

The Hundred Peaks Section of the Sierra Club claims that nearby Mt. Lawlor is Black Jack. According to them, what is now known as Mt. Lawlor was originally named Black Jack, but the name never stuck because of its negative associations with John Brown's bloody Kansas raid. So in 1958, the U.S. Forest Service, at the suggestion of Lloyd Austin of Switzer's Camp, renamed the peak Mt. Lawlor to honor prominent Los Angeles attorney Oscar Lawlor. 

The problem with the Sierra Club's conclusion that Lawlor and Black Jack are one and the same is that aside from the black rock, the former doesn't match Hiram Reid's description. Lawlor has a flat, table-top summit whereas Black Jack has a "distinct pinnacle of its own, very steep, rugged and sharp." Depending upon vantage point, it's also somewhat of a stretch to call Lawlor a mere "spur" of Strawberry. Regardless, the Sierra Club view (which echoes that of famed historian John Robinson) has managed to carry the day and is now the commonly-accepted truth.

Unless you're an adventurous and intellectually-curious fellow named Sean "Cucamonga Man" Green. If you're that guy, you're suspicious. You've scoured the topographic maps and looked through the historical record (such as it is) and you think that John Robinson and the Sierra Club may have gotten it wrong. Instead, you think it possible the sub-peak 5,521 on the south face of Strawberry is in actuality Black Jack. Unlike Lawlor, it can rightfully be characterized as a spur of Strawberry given its location and proximity. It also more closely hues to Reid's description of the peak as a sharp pinnacle, especially if viewed from the Colby Canyon side. The only question is whether 5,521 is composed of black, porphyritic rock. So you organize an exploratory outing to 5,521 to find out and invite a bunch of your old pals to tag along.

We met at Red Box at 6:00 a.m. and started up the Strawberry Peak trail. The group of seven was led by Sean, and included Nate, JeffH, the Iron Hiker, Guy, and Scoops (who sported a bow-tie around his neck in a nod to the hardy hikers of old who trod these trails in wool sport coats and top hats). We followed the Strawberry Peak Trail past the Lawlor saddle to roughly the 5,400' contour where we then left the beaten path and started cross country.  

This is where things got a bit spicey. There is no path proper to peak 5,521. Between us and our objective stood a sea of thorny ceanothus, woody manzanita, deadfall from the 2009 Station Fire, and other spikey shrubbery. This is tough and inhospitable country, a place John Muir appropriately described as "most ruggedly, thornily savage." The only way forward was to create a way forward. So we donned body armor, pulled out the loppers and machetes, and started hacking and clawing our way through the dense overgrowth. As the crow flies, it was only about one-half mile to the summit of 5,521, but the going was slow and sometime painful as we stumbled and were repeatedly stabbed by chaparral yucca that proliferate here. 

Ultimately we reached a minor spur ridge beneath Strawberry where the brush subsided and the way forward became a bit easier. We gratefully sheathed the machetes and then followed some faint game trails all the way to the narrow summit. There Nate informed us that perhaps one-third of the rock was porphyritic, but most of it wasn't overtly black. The views, however, were quite good, especially of Strawberry that loomed over us to the immediate north. 

So is 5,521 the peak the Brown boys named Black Jack? It still isn't clear. The peak matches Hiram Reid's description in many respects, but it is clearly not "composed entirely of a porphyritic rock called 'black spar.'" But Lawlor isn't a perfect match either. Although its level summit does have a significant amount of black rock, it typically wouldn't be described as a sharp pinnacle. Confirmation therefore must await further research and/or new information.

Despite the residual uncertainly, we christened 5,521 "Black Jack Peak" anyway. If it is the original Black Jack, then its rightful name has been restored. If it isn't the original Black Jack, then it is Black Jack now. Sean came prepared with a jar and register that we all signed and left on the summit for other intrepid explorers. Meanwhile, the path the we hacked through the thick brush is already being reclaimed by mother nature and will shortly be lost to time like much of the history of Black Jack.