History of Puddingstone Lake

 

Mr. Puddingstone and His Lake

According to Mrs. Harry Walker, our first Historian, its name was suggested when a group of friends walked from Grand Ave. (now Damien) to the Falls about 1888 for a picnic. Some of the (conglomerate) rocks in the area seemed to them to resemble raisins in a pudding, so they decided to call the place Puddingstone Falls. (You can still see these rocks in places near the Lake - notably on the hill just to the SW of Brackett Field and near the present Hot Tubs.)

In 1890, when surveying the meadow where Saturnino Carrion had grazed his cattle, William Mount identified this as an ideal site for a natural reservoir. (He called the place �Pudding Hole.) J. H. Adams of Covina, claimed that God almighty has built this reservoir for the people, that this valley may become luxuriant and match the glory of the sunshine. However, it was not until 1928 that Puddingstone Dam was dedicated and the Lake filled from the stream that ran down from San Dimas Canyon.

The Park surrounding the Lake was also known as Puddingstone until County Supervisor Frank Bonelli retired, when the name was changed in his honor to its present identification as �Bonelli Park.