Nearly Five Years Later, Name Change Complete for Ballard Mountain
What started with a historian’s curiosity over a little letter N on the 1900 Calabasas census roll
ended with a big C for cerebration this month, when researcher Patty Colman learned that the government had finally approved changing the name of the mountain located nearby to honor the man who settled there in 1880.
African American John Ballard settled in the area known today as Seminole Hot Springs in Agoura 1880 and received his homestead patent in 1900.
Colman, who was working at the Santa Monica Mountains office of the National Park Service in the mid- 2000s as a researcher, knew the N stood for Negro and was surprised when her research revealed that
Ballard was one of just a handful of former slaves who came to California in the mid-1800s. Ballard established his first home in Los Angeles in 1859, and in 1869 was one of the original founders of the First A.M.E. Church.
When she examined early maps of the area she noted that the highest peak in the area was on Ballard’s property and on the earliest maps the peak was named with a derogatory term. Maps dated after 1964 carried the revised name of Negrohead Mountain.
Colman began to write and speak about her findings at community meetings and gatherings of local historians. Eventually residents of the area took up the cause of helping change the mountain’s name to Ballard and contacted LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky whose district contains the landmark.
In February the Board of Supervisors adopted Yaroslavsky’s proposal to ask the US Geological Survey to rename the peak known as Negrohead Mountain to Ballard Mountain on all maps of the area. Soon after the media covered this board action, no less than 14 of Ballard’s descendants were found and were introduced to Colman at a meeting at Moorpark College where she teaches history.
In September the Council of Geographic Names Authorities, an agency aligned with the USGS, approved the renaming at their annual meeting. Just this month the USGS Geographic Names Information System posted the new name to their website.
“Everything in history can be connected to the present,” Colman said. “It is so rewarding to bring these unknown stories out.” |