Location: Santa Barbara County, California
Named after Joel Hildreth who was one of the first Forest Rangers in the Pine Mountain and Zaca Lake Timberland Reserve (1898). His patrol area included this peak and property he homesteaded with his brother Frank in 1894 (most maps now refer to it as “Oglivy’s Ranch” located on Mono Creek four miles west southwest of this peak). Hildreth was previously a hunter of deer and other game which he sold to hotels in the Santa Barbara area. The ranch site is on a flat that once contained a Chumash Indian village known as “Sigvaya”. This place was renamed “San Gervasio” by the Mission Fathers. It is mentioned in the diary of Pablo Portilla who, after a widespread Indian uprising, returned through here with runaways he had recaptured in the San Joaquin Valley (1824).
The Hildreth’s sold their property and it has since changed hands many times: to Carl Stoddard (1901), then to Arthur 0glivy (1917), and eventually passing through a hands of a hippie commune “The Brotherhood of the Sun” (1970). They all have gone but the ranch is still privately owned and used as a retreat.
Hildreth Peak was cited as being named for an early Forest Ranger, whose name (Joel) appears on early land ownership records that were discovered by Jim Blakely. Forest Supervisor Willard M. Slossom wrote that: “there is no better all-around man In the Ranger Service… [Hildrethl is an Ideal ranger” (1902). But there is also a mention of him as Joseph P. Hildreth in William S. Brown’s History of the Los Padres National Forest (1945).
Name first appears on USGS Santa Barbara topo (1900).
Peak was on the original 1946 HPS Peak List.
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