Late in 2023, the Friends of Mt. Rubidoux produced and premiered the documentary “Keeping the Watch,” a history of the mountain that looms over the city of Riverside, the film can be viewed at mt-rubidoux.org. That phrase can also be used to describe the fort on Mt. Rubidoux, which “guards” the city.
How many of you are aware that Riverside has a famous fort? Back in 1906, Frank A. Miller of the Mission Inn, as part of the Huntington Park Association, built a road up and back down Mt. Rubidoux for people, and especially visitors to his Glenwood Mission Inn, to traverse the mountain and see the beautiful vistas of Riverside and its orange groves. Miller obtained the services of Hiram M. Chittenden, from the Army Corps of Engineers, to design the road.
Miller met Chittenden, who designed the roads through Yellowstone Park, while Frank and his wife, Isabella, passed through Yellowstone in 1905. Chittenden arrived by train at Riverside on Feb. 26, 1906, to inspect and survey Mt. Rubidoux and come up with a plan to surmount the scenic mountain. He remained in Riverside through March 10, laying out a picturesque road for carriages and automobiles. Miller had wanted a road like the one on Smiley Heights in Redlands, but Chittenden proposed a unique road that preserved native vegetation and offered visitors an incredible drive. He declared that outside of the road on Mt. Washington in Yellowstone, there would be nothing in the United States to compare with the proposed Huntington Park Road.
After Chittenden left, having presented a bill of $250, the actual physical work began. The Alsop Engineering and Construction Company of Los Angeles won the bid to build the road. One of the workers who supervised one of the construction crews was Gunnar Kjellberg, about whom you read a few weeks ago in this column…