Lake Gregory Self-Guided Walking Tour
The Mountain Getaway — Camp Seely & the Red Cars
In 1913 the City of Los Angeles leased 25 acres of forest for $10 a year and opened Camp Seely, one of the country's first municipal family camps. Together with the Pacific Electric "Red Cars," it filled these pines with working-class city families long before any developer arrived.
Crestline, California
Lake Gregory Self-Guided Walking Tour
The 1977 Rescue & the $25 Million Dam Fix
Two rescues, forty years apart, saved this water. In 1977 a cash-strapped district gave the 100-acre lake to the county for free; in 2014–2019 a $20-million-plus rehab fixed the "high-hazard" 1938 dam. Without both, Lake Gregory might have been drained for good.
Crestline, California
Lake Gregory Self-Guided Walking Tour
The Logging Boom & Arthur Gregory
In the 1850s this basin was "Houston Flat," a roaring center of mountain logging. Then in 1926 citrus grower Arthur Gregory Sr. arrived for its timber and left with a far bigger idea: damming Houston Creek to create the lake that now bears his name.
Crestline, California
