By Ken Brafman, Image from the Ken Brafman Collection

TITLE: FIRST MOUNTAIN PIONEER FAMILY: In the spring of 1851 a large caravan of 437 men, women and children in 150 wagons left Salt Lake City along with 588 oxen, 107 horses and 52 mules. They journeyed southward on the Old Spanish Trail with the goal of establishing a Mormon colony in San Bernardino. When they reached Salt Springs, 30 miles north of present-day Baker, they found some barely drinkable water and light grass for the animals. At this site was an abandoned steam stamp mill from the Amaragossa Mine. One of the members of the wagon train, master mechanic Charles Crismon, would remember this piece of important equipment. The pioneers settled in an area of San Bernardino where the present-day courthouse sits. Crismon located the Amaragossa mine owners, purchased the abandoned equipment at a good price and returned to Salt Springs with his son, Ernest, and loaded the heavy equipment onto sturdy wagons. After securing a circular saw and other parts he set up a mill on Twin Creek. Following a year of success Crimson decided to expand his operation and in January 1853 he arranged to have a much larger, 30-horsepower engine hauled up the mountain on the Mormon Road he had helped forge. This week’s image is a drawing of his new mill located between present-day Crestline and Lake Gregory. By that fall Crismon, his wife Mary, and their son, Ernest, would be the first settlers to make their home in the San Bernardino Mountains. The Crismon Sawmill was the first in the mountains but later in 1853 the Seely brothers would lead the way for a half dozen new mills to be built. Soon improvements were made to the Crismon operation that enabled production to be increased to allow sales and deliveries of lumber to Los Angeles. All of this came from Crismon envisioning that piece of equipment in his future and having the talent, ingenuity and guts to make it happen.