|
LAVA BEDS
|
| |
|
The Seed
|
| |
|
In 1984 I began fighting forest Fires for the U.S. Forest Service. In the off season, we went to work on logging slash projects in remote areas such as the Tahoe National Forest near Downieville and the Six Rivers National Forest near Hyampon. I loved being around the old growth conifers, especially the Sugar Pines. There was a fair amount of down time so I began taking sketching materials and doing geometric renderings of trees. This became a ten-year series of watercolors that took me from Lassen to Joshua Tree. I once sketched a Gray Pine while waiting for a helicopter during a fire in the Ishi Wilderness. While living in Washington State, I worked from White Bark Pines in the North Cascades and Red Cedars in the Hoh Rainforest.
|
| |
|
A Place of Angst
|
| |
|
After two years in Seattle, I was homesick for Northern California. On September 1, 1989, I headed south with a cat and everything I owned in a Toyota pick-up truck. My first stop in California was to be Lava Beds National Monument in the Northeast corner of the state. I had remembered fighting a forest fire near Fort Bidwell and admiring some eccentric Western Juniper trees. This was the first of what would become many trips to work from the Junipers of Lava Beds.
|
| |
|
As I neared the monument, I passed through the adjacent town of Tule Lake, which is named after a large alkali body of water. The town is infamous as one of the Japanese internment camps during World War II. After the war, farmers were lured with the promise of federal irrigation water. Potatoes are grown in nearby Newell. This portion of the Klamath Basin is one of the epicenters of the current conflicts over water in California.
|
| |
|
Inside the Monument, my first stop was Petroglyph Point. This is a former island of which a large portion of the base is carved with mysterious, prehistoric symbols. Above the band of petroglyphs, the cliff face is a world famous nesting roost for raptors such as Prairie Falcons and Barn Owls. In fact, bird watchers are well aware that Tule Lake and the Lower Klamath are described as the "neck of the hour glass" of the entire Pacific flyway.
|
| |
|
Skirting the shore of the lake, I headed deeper into the monument and stopped at Captain Jack's Stronghold. This landmark figures prominently in the only significant Indian War that was fought in California. In 1873, the Modoc leader Captain Jack murdered General E.R.S. Canby point blank during a peace talk. A small band of Modoc fled into the caves, crevices and lava tubes of their ancestral stronghold. They held off the U.S. Army for the better part of a year.
|
| |
|
From this vantage point, I could begin to appreciate the profound volcanic features. Scanning the landscape you are aware of a number of cinder cones and buttes. In the distance to the west is the white pyramid of Mount Shasta.
|
| |
|
Juniper Tree
|
| |
|
Continuing deeper into the monument, the road skirts an unusual feature called Devils Homestead. This is an Aa, which is a Hawaiian term for a chaotic, boulder strewn lava flow. It resembles a dry riverbed. It was here that I found the trees I was seeking. There is a grove of Western Junipers that grow in the Aa that has taken on a bonsai character from this harsh, tormented habitat. As the road turned sharply and crossed the Aa, one tree in particular caught my eye. The tree's top had an animal like quality resembling a deer antler.
|
| |
|
I found myself returning many times to depict this tree from different angles. From the first time, I began placing symbols I copied from Petroglyph Point in the corner of the composition. One time the purple sage that was scattered throughout the Aa was in full bloom. As I worked I was surrounded by splashes of purple blossoms and the air was thickly perfumed with the scent. I had already developed the habit of pinching off sage leaves to suck on as I sketched.
|
| |
|
Last Note
|
| |
|
The last time I was at Lava Beds, I was with Phil Johnson and it was December 1994. Two interesting things happened. One was a small earthquake. The second was climbing a rise to view a frozen Tule Lake. Out on the ice were between fifty and a hundred Bald Eagles feeding on waterfowl that had gotten trapped overnight in the freeze. There was a red stain on the ice where each Eagle stood. As we watched, something caught our eye. It was a Coyote trotting out on the frozen lake to poach a meal from the Eagles. The Eagles were wary and gave way. We could see the Coyote reaching out and testing the ice with its paw and water would pool out from the red stain. The Coyote knew the ice was too thin. However, that did not prevent it from being the trickster and making a half-hearted play for one of the Eagles.
|
| |