MILEPOSTS #1113

By Bill Pumford, Image from the ROWHS Collection

TITLE: LES SALM – A LIFE WELL LIVED: PART ONE: EARLY CAREERS: One of the most interesting people I have run across – dead or alive – would be Les Salm. His various jobs and passions included forest ranger, part-time actor, inventor, and fire chief. Les Salm was born in 1908 in Michigan and soon after his birth his family moved to California. Les attended Whittier High School in the 1920s and was active in drama where he was a leading actor in many of the school plays. By 1927 Les had become a forest ranger and was initially assigned to the Mill Creek area. This week’s image shows a 1929 photo of the first lodging for Les Salm at the Mill Creek Ranger Station which included his motorcycle. Les used the motorcycle to patrol much of the mountains, which still had many rough roads even with the completion in 1915 of the 101-mile Rim of the World Highway. During his patrols he would often educate the public campground campers and visitors about the forest and even the steam caves at Arrowhead Springs. He toured the summer camps at the Barton Flats, Seven Oaks, and Big Bear districts, giving lectures about fire prevention. Although he was now a forest ranger Les continued with part-time acting gigs which included the formation of a film company which did put out a series of films called “Kids Frolicks” between 1929 and 1931. The company folded when they found that the transition from silent films to talkies became much too expensive. During the 1930s Les Salm sometimes stood in during filming for the actor Ian Keith when Ian was ill. Also, at this same time, Les spent time at the lookout towers in the San Bernardino Forest as he recovered from an injury sustained in his duties as a forest ranger. Part Two next week.

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