Magic Mountain

Magic Mountain in the western San Gabriel Mountains has a layered history that reaches from Tataviam use of footpaths near the peak for hunting and gathering to Cold War military and later aerospace activity. Known on early maps as Iron Mountain, it appeared as Magic Mountain by 1939 and later gave its name to the nearby theme park. In the 1950s, it became a Project Nike fire-control site, and after that closure the Marquardt Corporation used the summit for rocket testing that supported space projects including Apollo. Its north slopes were protected in 2009 as the Magic Mountain Wilderness, while the summit remained outside because of earlier development.

California · United States