Mount Burnham is one of the highest peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains. It is in the

Sheep Mountain Wilderness Sheep Mountain Wilderness is a wilderness area of within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and managed by the Angeles National Forest. It is within Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County, southern California. The U.S. Congress ...

. It is named for

Frederick Russell Burnham Frederick Russell Burnham DSO (May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa, and for teach ...

the famous American military scout who taught

Scoutcraft Scoutcraft is a term used to cover a variety of woodcraft knowledge and skills required by people seeking to venture into wild country and sustain themselves independently. The term has been adopted by Scouting organizations to reflect skills and ...

(then known as ''woodcraft'') to

Robert Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the wor ...

and became one of the inspirations for the founding of the Boy Scouts. Mount Burnham was officially recognized by the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

at a dedication ceremony in 1951. It was original known as (West Twin) "North Baldy Mountain". The peak is within Los Angeles County, about north of Glendora, and from Los Angeles. In 1956, Mount Burnham was added to the list of Signature Summits by the Hundred Peaks Section of the Sierra Club.

Background

The long

Silver Moccasin Trail The Silver Moccasin Trail is a trail located in the San Gabriel Mountains, northeast of Los Angeles. It begins at Chantry Flat Recreation Area above the city of Arcadia, California, traversing upward and down through several canyons and along the ...

, a Boy Scout trail, connects the mountain with

Mount Baden-Powell Mount Baden-Powell () is a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains of California named for the founder of the World Scouting Movement, Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell. It was officially recognized by the USGS at a dedication ceremony in 1 ...

Throop Peak Throop Peak ( ) is a peak of the San Gabriel Mountains, in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Angeles National Forest, in Los Angeles County, California. The high peak provides views of both the Mojave Desert and the Los Angele ...

and Mount Hawkins. The

Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

follows the same route in this area. Most of the forest on Mount Burnham and along the trail consist of plants native to the region. The peak is covered by

limber pine ''Pinus flexilis'', the limber pine, is a species of pine tree-the family Pinaceae that occurs in the mountains of the Western United States, Mexico, and Canada. It is also called Rocky Mountain white pine. A limber pine in Eagle Cap Wildernes ...

(''Pinus flexilis''), lodgepole (''P. contorta''), sugar pine (''P. lambertiana''), and Jeffrey pine (''P. jeffreyi''). Other plants of note include '' Holodiscus microphyllus'', '' Monardella cinerea'', '' Eriogonum umbellatum'', ''Oreonana vestita'', '' Cycladenia humilis'', and the rare, local yellow-flowered Peirson's lupine (''Lupinus peirsonii''). The area is occasionally visited by bighorn sheep and a rare

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

. Rocks in the area range in age from Pre-Cambrian (probable) igneous and metamorphics to Pre-Cretaceous metamorphics. The Vincent Thrust Fault, the oldest major fault in the range, dating to the Mesozoic, passes through the area.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burnham, Mount Mountains of Los Angeles County, California San Gabriel Mountains San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Angeles National Forest Scouting in the United States Scouting monuments and memorials Mountains of Southern California