Chantry Flat

Chantry Flat is a designated "Recreation Area" within the Angeles National Forest, about three miles (5 km) into Big Santa Anita Canyon, and is closely associated with the towns of Arcadia and Sierra Madre, CA.

The Chantry Flat/Big Santa Anita Canyon area boasts the last magneto-type crank phone system in the United States.

He erected a sturdy tent cabin in Little Santa Anita Canyon from which he rented riding donkeys to kids staying at nearby Carter's Camp.

While packing to Sturtevant's Camp, Charley passed through an oak-studded bench 600 feet (180 m) above Big Santa Anita Canyon's bottom at the San Olene Gap.

With a reliable spring in adjoining San Olene Canyon (a corruption of the original Santa Oline) and the relatively flat land of an ancient slide, Chantry imagined this to be an ideal site for a small ranch.

Glen Owens, author of The Heritage of the Big Santa Anita [4] believes the latter to be true and substantiates his claim with the witness of a Forest Service agricultural permit in Charley's name.

Charley died in 1936, one year after Los Angeles County paved a road to his old stomping grounds from the top of Santa Anita Ave.

It would have been a largely unwelcome introduction of modern civilization and would have obliterated the charm and beauty of both the Big Santa Anita and the West Fork of the San Gabriel River.

Pass the yellow pipe gate and continue 3 miles (4.8 km) into the mountains to the end of Santa Anita Canyon Road.