Previously, the mountain was known as Sister Elsie Peak. It has been said that she was a Catholic nun who died while caring for the sick during a smallpox epidemic.

If you have the current Angeles National Forest map, you might notice the words Sister Elsie next to the peak. Before the peak was renamed for Lukens, Sister Elsie Peak honored a beloved Roman Catholic nun, who was in charge of an orphanage for Indian children located in the La Crescenta area.

In the ’20s Lukens was honored with a peak of his own, a 5,000-foot mountain standing high above the Crescenta Valley, whose previous name of Sister Elsie Peak was nebulous (no one knows who Sister Elsie was). The naming of this peak after a man who was deemed “the father of modern forestry” carries great irony. The heavily forested slopes of Mount Lukens had been clear-cut in the late 1800s and have never grown back. But the future of Mount Lukens is being shaped in a way Theodore Lukens himself would approve of. Volunteers have planted hundreds of trees – native big-cone Douglas firs and oaks – snaking up Dunsmore Canyon in Deukmejian Wilderness Park on the slopes below Lukens’ peak. Lukens’ challenge of reforestation is being met today, right here in the Crescenta Valley

vvv "It's down here somewhere."--benighted climber vvv

"A flair for the dramatic and a flair for staying dry,
thus keeping the drama to a minimum, is impressive in a seasoned traveler.
This tropics-inspired number cleverly conceals the water-weary wearer in the same natural colors as that of the young banana branch shoot.
With a brightly-colored lining and a weirdly realistic cammo exterior to conceal it and you from both the rain and other prying eyes,
you'll be no one's envy, because no one will notice you.
It's the choice of the CIA, the LSEDFS, and the former KGB.
Spy vs. Spy, I Spy, and BAT technology are two of the driving forces behind much of our clothing line.
That's one-third of a fib, making it barely a white lie.
But remember this limited-time (say in about two years we may not offer this reduction, okay?) bonus offer on this item only, the Banana Democracy Rainy Days and Rainy Nights All-Weather Cammo Poncho.
If you, our catalog customer, guesses which two of the three are authentic inspirations here at J Peterman, we will deduct ten percent from your purchase. Just include a note indicating which two of the Mad Magazine strip, the TV spy drama, or the paragon of climbing technology are faithfully studied here in our design department.
One size for large bipeds, one for medium bipeds, and one for the "little monkeys."