Dewitt Canyon Name

Camulos USGS topo map from 1903

Newhall USGS topo map of 1940 (surveyed in 1925). Today, Little Moore Canyon is Dewitt Canyon and Big Moore Canyon is Wickham Canyon.

In the past, Dewitt (or DeWitt or De Witt) Canyon has sometimes been called Little Moore Canyon. As you can see by the above maps, the 1903 map had Dewitt, but the 1940 map had Little Moore. Today the canyon is called Dewitt, but what about the names?

The first claim filed in Dewitt Canyon (in 1864 or 65) was by a Moore (mentioned by Salvator in "Los Angeles in the Sunny Seventies"). In 1866, Stephen Peckham visited the canyon and stated that "The Moore Claim next east embraces two canons opening into the Pico Canon." (See the 1866 Oil Descriptions of the Other Canyons webpage.) Peckham is actually describing the east and west tributaries of Dewitt Canyon. Kew (USGS Bulletin 753, 1924) states that "wells were sunk in both upper branches of Dewitt Canyon, which are known as Little Moore and Big Moore canyons." Both these tributaries have evidence of oil activity.

Some maps (see above) name Dewitt Canyon as Little Moore Canyon and Wickham Canyon as Big Moore Canyon, but I believe this was an error probably caused by Peckham's description. Wickham Canyon does not match the description that Peckham gives of the west canyon. Wickham Canyon contains no road that reaches the anticline axis (which is past the Wickham homesite - see the Wickham Canyon page) and, in fact, it is nearly impossible to hike to the axis.

How the canyon became Dewitt canyon is unknown. In "The Story of our Valley" by A.B. Perkins, he lists five Land Office patent applications for 1870. One of them is by George Gleason, Sanford Lyon, Alexander DeWitt and George J. Clarke. Their company was known as "Lyon Mining Co." and they applied for 1,800 feet on the Lyon Lode, land and water privileges, Township 4N, R12W San Bernardino meridian. Is Alexander DeWitt the Dewitt of Dewitt Canyon? The 1860 census for Yreka in northern California lists an Alexander Dewitt as a miner born about 1829 in New York.

Where Moore came from is also difficult to tell. There was a Moore's Station in San Francisquito Canyon established in 1854 by Charles Moore. 35-year old Charles Moore was listed on the Placer County, California census for 1860. He was born in Prussia. The 1870 census has 43-year old Prussian-born Charles Moore as a farmer at Lyon's Station. He is married with one child. The 1880 census has 55-year old Charles Moore living in the Soledad Township as a saloon keeper. He is still married to the same lady and they still have one child. Whether this is the Moore that filed the claim in Dewitt Canyon I can't tell.