About Vetter Mountain & Charlton Flats

Vetter Mountain

LOCATION

Angeles National Forest
Los Angeles County, California

Legal Location: T.3N, R.11W Section 33

Longitude: 34.29701 N
Lattitude: -118.028474 W
Cab: BC-3
Tower: Ground mounted

Aircraft Warning Service Number (AWS): A-7

Elevation (at foot of tower): 5,908 feet

The USFS built a fire lookout here consisting of a 14' by 14' wood cab in 1935.

Mike McIntyre, Forest Archaeologist, noted "when you think of the Forest Service you think of Smokey the Bear, and the Ranger in his lookout searching for fires".

United States Historic Lookout: #294
California Historic Lookout: #27

SOUTHERN SLOPE

Vetter Mountain is between the "Caparral" zone to the South, and the "Montane Forest"  to the North.

The "Chaparral" zone is found on the hot, dry, south facing slopes of the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Plants are chest height, dense, prickly, and evergreen; typically contains chamise, yucca, ceanothus, scrub oak, laurel sumac, sages white and black, poison oak, and in the higher elevations, manzanita and mountain mahogany.

NORTHERN SLOPE

Vetter Mountain is between the "Caparral" zone to the South, and the "Montane Forest"  to the North.

The Montaine zone contains bigcone spruce, canyon oak, Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, incense cedar and white fir.

Named by USFS surveyor Don McLain (ca. 1933) for Victor P. Vetter (nd.), a dedicated Forest Ranger and fire dispatcher. Vetter won the USFS Bissell Medal for outstanding work in forest conservation (1930).

Variant Name no longer in use: Pine Mountain (USGS Tujunga quad 1904).

Charlton Flats

Charlton Flat is a picnic grounds located to Northeast of Vetter Mountain, about 40 minutes drive from the 210 freeway.  The picnic area had about 185 tables and stoves and at one time there was piped water, however Charlton Flats has been closed for several years due to erosion problems, overuse, and recent bark beetle tree thining operations.
Chilao Flat (34° 17' 40" N, 118° 00' 45" W)
The original name of the area was Pine Flat when it was renamed to Charlton Flat in honor of the"new" forest service's first Forest Supervisor, Mr. R.H. Charlton.  Mr. Charlton served as the Angeles National Forest Supervisor from 1905-1925 (20 years).  

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