Newly named Ballard Mountain rises in the background during a ceremony to retire the peak’s old name of Negrohead. Descendants of John Ballard, the first African American to settle in the Santa Monica Mountains; government officials, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (center, kneeling), and others instrumental in changing the name of the peak, gathered at the Seminole Springs Clubhouse on February 20, 2009 (Images below). 

When John Ballard settled in the Seminole Springs area of the Santa Monica Mountains 122 years ago, he was the first African American to reside in the mountain community.

He lived atop a peak that came to be known as Niggerhead Mountain. Though it was eventually renamed Negrohead Mountain, residents and others have worked for the past two years to officially name the mountain after the man who settled there, rather than his race.

John BallardMountain residents Paul and Leah Culberg and Nick Noxon are among those who have collaborated with Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Moorpark College professor and historian Patty Colman and members of the U.S. Geological Survey to rename the peak Ballard Mountain.

On Feb. 20, during Black History Month, Ballard descendants, members of the First AME Church of Los Angeles, college professors and representatives from the various government agencies who fast-tracked the peak’s final name change gathered together at Seminole Springs Clubhouse to unveil a plaque that dedicates the mountain to the man who settled there, John Ballard.

The plaque is on a pedestal on Kanan Road heading toward Pacific Coast Highway, about 100 yards north of tunnel three.

The plaque honors Ballard, who, according to Colman, was most likely a slave in Kentucky before he traveled west to forge a life of freedom.

Ballard worked as a blacksmith and a Teamster and sold firewood and charcoal door to door in order to make money. He became a landowner, helped found the First AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church and became a civic leader and homesteader.

For the descendants of John Ballard, the process of renaming the mountain has filled in gaps in their family heritage. Ryan Ballard, John Ballard’s great-great-grandson, said that he learned that John Ballard must have been a "man of courage" to travel into the uncharted territory of Los Angeles from Kentucky.

"It wasn’t so much about acquiring things as it was about survival," Ryan Ballard told the group assembled at the ceremony. "It’s easy to forget what it took to get us here."

Ryan Ballard remembered the day he read a newspaper article about John Ballard and wondered if his family was somehow related to the man in the story. A teacher at Locke High School in Watts, he said his family felt the pull of "possibilities."

"John Ballard was not known for his ability to articulate or orate," Ryan Ballard said. "He was not known for fame or great wealth. He was known for doing what a man’s gotta do." He said he has imagined how John Ballard must have stood his ground when the law at the time was not designed to protect him.

"They knew who he was, but they called him a name," Ryan Ballard said about the former names given to the mountain. "They’ve not only given his name back but they’ve given him a mountain."

Yaroslavsky said that he has tried to put himself in John Ballard’s shoes. To move from the city of Los Angeles to a remote part of the county was a tough choice for anybody in the 1880s, but for an African American it was a "challenge to the third power," he said.

Paul Culberg said John Ballard’s daughter Alice should also be recognized because she was also granted a homestead. In 1859, he said, it was illegal for women, blacks or Chinese people to own property, Culberg said.

"It speaks to the fortitude and stick-to-itiveness of the Ballards to own property," Culberg said.

Colman remembered a story about Ballard’s cabin being set on fire by settlers that wanted to jump his claim on the land. Ballard erected a sign on his burnt property that said, "This was the work of the devil."

"That sign is gone, but we have a plaque now," Colman said.

John Ballard was 75 years old when he died in 1905. His seven children and their descendents have prospered over the decades.

His grandson Claudius Ballard was a World War I doctor who was awarded the French Croix de Guerre medal, which recognized acts of bravery in the face of the enemy. John Ballard’s great-grandson Reginald Ballard, Claudius’ son, retired from the Los Angeles City Fire Department as a captain in 1978.