- Nearest address: 4630 Rising Hill Rd., Altadena 91001 (nearest cross street: Canyon Crest Rd.)
- Directions: Drive to the end of Rising Hill Rd. and continue up the private road for approximately 0.2 miles. Park on the left, across from the first house. Walk back the way you came (about 65 paces from the edge of the parking area), and you will see a small trail on your right. After a few minutes you will see the hill, Little Round Top. Go off the trail and climb up to the top.
In 1859, abolitionist John Brown led an attack on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Although Brown was convicted and hanged and most of his comrades were captured, a handful escaped.
John’s son Owen fled north, via the underground railroad, where he waited out the Civil War. In 1884, he, along with his sister Ruth and brother Jason, settled in Altadena, where they became local celebrities. Ruth married and became a teacher at Garfield School, while the brothers homesteaded in the foothills of Altadena and named a local peak after their father (Brown Mountain). Owen Brown was buried in 1889 near his cabin, and his gravesite has been the site of countless visits and memorials. Owen Brown’s gravesite is located on a hill called Little Round Top in the meadows area. The grave is on private land but accessible to the public. It is uncertain if Brown is buried in the hole on the southern edge of the knoll, or near the tree on the northern edge. The gravestone mysteriously disappeared in 2002.
Images:
- Little Round Top, the bluff on which Owen Brown’s gravesite is located, 2010. In the foreground, blackened trees are visible, a result of the 2009 Station Fire, in which more than 160,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest burned.
- Jason and Owen Brown by their cabin on Brown’s trail, date unknown. Courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library.