Ojai History

The following article was written by Howard Bald and appeared in the May 30, 1973 edition of the Ojai Valley News. It is reprinted here with their permission. Bald used the same titled for his many articles. So, this article has “(No. 9)” added by the Ojai Valley Museum.

Reminiscences of Early Ojai (No. 9)
by
Howard Bald

A much later resident of the Sespe was a moronic homesteader named Jake Hartman, after whom the Hartman place was named. (I believe it is now used by the Forest Service as a guard station.)

Jake’s fame stemmed mostly from entertaining Sespe campers with tales of the men he had killed or was about to kill.

Earle Stanley Gardner, who was a Ventura attorney of that period, was greatly amused with Jake’s boasting and encouraged him to spin more yarns by suggesting that he kill someone, as things were slack in the law business.

Jake would wag his head, saying if the goldarn rangers and game wardens didn’t stop snooping around, he would have a job. Gardner would return to camp and tell me everything Jake had said, knowing that I was the only ranger or game warden in that areas, and that outwardly Jake and I were good friends.

An impressionable, overgrown, teenage boy and his mother had come to live with Jake, and it soon became the boy’s ambition to be a badman like his friend.

An elderly, rheumatic man camped most of that summer at the Sespe Hot Springs to soak in the hot mineral water. His camp was some six miles from the Hartman’s. A feud developed over the alleged theft of a gun, and Jake and the boy threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave the Sespe. I did what I could to cool off the two factions, my only fear being that they would beat him up.

At the end of the fire season, November 1917, I moved out of the Sespe and in two weeks was on my way to the forests of France. Shortly after that the boy shot and killed the old fellow. Although Jake was not present at the murder, the dimwitted kid certainly had plenty of encouragement from him.

The trial was held in Ventura, and I was told that Gardner put up a hard fight in his defense. But of course Gardner lost, and Billy was given a 10-year prison sentence. Mercifully he died before this term expired.

I don’t believe that Gardner got a penny for his services. And I was grateful that I was thousands of miles away, for I would have been a very poor witness for the defense and lawyer.

A few years ago I visited the old man’s grave site in a side canyon of the Sespe. There was not a name or date on the wooden cross, and I am not too sure now what his name was. But somehow “Corocoran” sticks in my mind. Since he came from the San Joaquin valley, it could have been that Corcoran was his home town.

The following article was written by Howard Bald and appeared in the May 16, 1973 edition of the Ojai Valley News. It is reprinted here with their permission. Bald used the same title for his many articles. This article has “(No. 8)” added by the Ojai Valley Museum.  All photos have been added by the Ojai Valley Museum.

Reminiscences of Early Ojai (No. 8)
by
Howard Bald

Gypsum mining at about the turn of the century was a minor industry and lasted but a short time. There are still craters visible on the Happy Valley school property from that operation in the Upper Ojai, near the new girls’ dormitory.

Little was said about the shipping of asphaltum in wooden barrels, and I imagine it was a rather sticky deal.

The gold strike along the foothills of the northeast side of the Ojai Valley caused quite a bit of excitement with the staking of claims and some tunneling. I never heard of any millionaires resulting from it though.

From the middle Sespe (that is, from the Sespe Cold Springs, now Hartman’s place) there were numerous homesteaders. How they expected to make a living is still a mystery to me, and many moved out without proving up on their claims. Among those who did stay were the Lathrops (Herb and father), the Harrows, the Pattons (Clarence and father), White, Willet and Cottrel.

To a small boy they were not as picturesque as the cattlemen from the Upper Sespe, but judging by the farming and mining equipment and tools that were in evidence when I went out there in later years, they must have been a pretty resourceful and self sufficient lot of men, to say nothing of being industrious.

There was Mr. Willett (grandfather of Jack Willett, who once operated The Barn on south Montgomery street). He also transported over the rugged mountains a complete line of farming implements.

So far as I remember, he used only burros. This elderly man would be seen coming out of Senior Canyon, walking and leading a string of burros, followed by a shepherd dog. There was a hitch rail where the parking lot now is back of Rains dry goods store, where he tied the burros while doing his shopping. After packing his supplies on the burros, he would disappear into Senior Canyon.

I later learned that he took three days making the round trip from his Sespe Hot Springs, camping two nights in Senior Canyon, one coming and one going. There were few well defined trails in that area, and mostly he followed the ridges. That wasn’t so difficult as it sounds, for up until that area becoming a national forest, the terrain was systematically burned off by the sheep and cattle men.

Harrows farmed the Rose Valley (where the Seabees were) as well as their home place, where they built substantial log cabins and barns. A farm wagon, plows, harrows, mowing machine and rake were all transported over the mountain from Nordhoff on very inadequate trails.

Perhaps the most resourceful of them all was Herb Lathrop, for not only did he pack and, I suspect drag, in all the farm equipment, that went ranching, but he maintained and operated a tourist resort that was equipped with conveniences that were considered quite modern in that day. It was a favorite spot for hunters and fishermen.

It was said that no huntsman needed to return to L.A. without a deer. I know from my own later experience that his cooking was tops.

 

Each fall Herb would ride into Nordhoff leading a string of pack horses, each one laden with three boxes of beautiful red apples that I believe he traded to the grocerymen for supplies. In November of 1916 he was shot to death by a guest who mistook him for a wildcat.

When a small boy, I listened to fantastic stories of Jeff Howard (after whom Howard Creek in the Sespe was named) and his murder of the Basque sheepman. There was feuding between the cattle and sheep men and killings, but the Jeff Howard episode was one of the most colorful.

A few years ago a great grandson came here trying to find the location of Jeff’s homestead. And so far as I know, I am the only one left who could furnish that information. But in the archives of the Ventura library were found newspaper accounts of Jeff’s exploits, his arrests and several jail breaks and escapes.

The last item said: “Goodbye, Jeff. We hope we never see you again. We have to build a new jail.”

I believe a book is being written about his colorful life. He died in Arizona in 1910.

Major Ojai Fires Continue reading “Major Ojai Fires”

Two Military-Plane Crash Newspaper Articles

This first article was on the front page of the Friday, February 2, 1945 edition of “THE OJAI”. “THE OJAI” is now the “OJAI VALLEY NEWS”. It is reprinted here with their permission. The author is unknown.

Army Flyer Jumps To Safety as P-38 Crashes in Orchard

The first airplane crash in the history of the Ojai Valley occurred late Friday afternoon when a P-38 from the Oxnard flight strip flew into the hillside orchard of the Brandts’ Hermitage ranch, and exploded, while Lt. John R. Giberson Jr., of Sacramento, parachuted into an orange tree on the Raymonds’ Ladera ranch. Flying over the Valley with two other P-38’s, Lt. Giberson’s plane got into difficulty at 17,000 when one of his motors caught fire. After unsuccessfully trying to put out the blaze, the 23-year-old flyer got out into the country past the village and jumped. As the plane roared over her house to crash into the hillside and explode in a great ball of flame and smoke, Mrs. Frank E. Kilbourne Jr. promptly telephoned Deputy Fire Warden William Bowie reporting the location of the flaming wreck and the apparent drift of the parachuting pilot. Fire equipment and the ambulance was dispatched rapidly to extinguish the burning fragments of the shattered airplane and to aid the pilot. Although encountering difficulty at first in managing his ‘chute in the breeze around the foothills, Lt. Giberson emerged from the tree in which his ‘chute shrouds had become entangled with only minor injuries — bruises and scratches.

None of the buildings on the Brandt ranch were damaged by the exploding plane as it came down in the orchard several hundred yards east of them.

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This second article was on the front page of the Friday, June 8, 1945 edition of “THE OJAI”. “THE OJAI” is now the “OJAI VALLEY NEWS”. It is reprinted here with their permission. The author is unknown.

Army Plane Down Near Nordhoff Peak

An army air force pilot died in a P-51 (Mustang) crash in a canyon ¼ mile north of Nordhoff Peak yesterday noon. Flying with a companion plane the ship fell to the canyon floor and was reported crashed by the second pilot. Army officials from down south came up and began the search.

The ranger lookout station at Nordhoff Peak saw smoke rising from the canyon and reported fire. It wasn’t possible to see whether there was any sign of life around the burning ship but when the army relief party had come and cut a path through the dense brush, the aviator was found to have been killed. His name was not announced pending notification of next of kin.

Sailors from Camp Oak were taken in to the area last evening to cold trail the fire.

Thad Timms who assisted in cutting a trail for the stretcher bearers, talked to a brother officer of the dead flier, and learned that he was the same pilot who parachuted to safety on the Raymond ranch late in January as his P-38 cracked up and exploded against a hillside on the Brandt ranch, his second accident not having the fortunate ending that the first one had.

The following article first appeared in the December 29, 1999 edition of the Ojai Valley News. It is reprinted here with their permission.

Fireworks caused Ranch Fire

by
Lenny Roberts

County fire investigators have determined that the cause of last week’s brushfire that destroyed one home on Sisar Road and denuded 4,371 acres of land was two young men setting off illegal fireworks.

There is growing speculation within the community that the pair may have been attempting to blow up a mailbox.

“Reckless use of fireworks is what we’re looking at, but there could certainly be other penal code charges,” said Sandi Wells, chief public information officer for the County’s Fire Protection District.

Wells said that the type of fireworks that were ignited “were not the safe and sane type that you buy in Fillmore,” but rather imports that fly through the air like a bottle rocket.

Authorities from the Fire Department, California Division of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service and the Sheriff’s Department are expected to complete their investigations by the end of the week, and their conclusions will then be presented to the district attorney’s office. The reports will contain the results of physical evidence and interviews.

“It’s then up to the D.A. to decide if there is enough to substantiate the filing of criminal charges,” Wells said.

In that event, the two suspects could be arrested as early as next week.

“The Fire District would more than likely go for cost recovery of the suppression efforts and that does not include what a judge may impose as restitution,” Wells added.

The gusty and swirling winds that returned to the Ojai area earlier this week did not create additional problems for firefighters who reported Sunday that the Ranch Fire — 64 percent of which burned wildland acreage in the Los Padres National Forest — had been fully contained.

The fast-moving fire began Wednesday night near Koenigstein Road, and was fueled by unseasonably dry conditions and fierce easterly winds estimated to gust at more than 70 mph. Within hours, it was skirting the East End of the city, threatening homes, private schools, and forcing the evacuation of more than 40 homeowners.

By daybreak Thursday, nearly 1,500 county and mutual aid firefighters from Central and Southern California successfully protected homes and property along Thacher, Reeves and McAndrew roads, although a trailer was reportedly burned on Reeves Road.

Other reported losses include thousands of dollars in outdoor equipment and numerous small structures at The Ojai Foundation.

Four firefighters reportedly received minor injuries, the most serious of which required the helicopter rescue of an unidentified 18-year-old Department of Corrections handcrew member who was transported to the Ventura County Medical Center with a possible broken ankle.

The big break came in fighting the fire just before sunrise Thursday when on-shore winds helped push the flames back into the wilderness canyons of the Los Padres National Forest, away from populated areas.

But even as late as Monday afternoon, there were reports of smoldering brush behind a residence in the 4900 block of Reeves Road.

According to information provided by the U.S. Forest Service, approximately 935 firefighters will continue working around the clock to mop up the remaining hot spots within the fire’s perimeter. Officials anticipate the fire will be out late Thursday.

Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper, an Ojai Resident, attributed responsible weed abatement and the clearing of brush on Sisar Road and other areas as the reason more structures were not lost.

“The Sisar Road vegetation management of two years ago was a big save,” Roper said, adding that the county’s official fire season, which normally ends Nov. 15, won’t end until 2 inches of rain has fallen. Gigi Coyle of The Ojai Foundation, said although Happy Valley School and Ojai Foundation property were hit hard by the flames, about a dozen staff and neighbors worked to secure the main structures once the firestorm had past.

“Without their timely help, these critical structures would likely have been lost as fires were still burning out of control in the hills surrounding the foundation,” Coyle said.

“Thanks to the demands of our local fire department, many years of clearing around our structures also contributed to our safety. As one fire chief said, ‘It’s a miracle what happened here; the fire’s pattern, how often it came right up to structures and then stopped or went around.’

“We are so grateful for the personal commitment of these firefighters and ground crews during the holiday season.”

As firefighters worked through Christmas Day setting backfires that burned approximately 500 acres in a successful effort to contain the fire, many area residents misinterpreted that the large visible flames and resulting smoke meant the fire’s return to populated areas.

But fire officials said that the operation that included the use of both helicopter and ground-firing devices “ran like clockwork.”

Fire officials estimate the cost of fighting the fire at nearly $5 million, and noted that firefighters have constructed more than 20 miles of fire lines. All remaining statewide agencies that helped fight the fire left Monday, with the county and Forest Service sharing command. Also on Monday, the County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting to declare the burned land a disaster area, making the fire victims eligible to receive disaster relief funds.

The Forest Service is assembling a Burned Area Rehabilitation Team out of the Ojai Ranger Station to survey the affected area inside the National Forest and determine what steps need to be taken to minimize post-fire impact.

The team will pay particular attention to the potential for downstream flooding and subsequent effects to private property.

The following article first appeared on Page B-4 in the Ojai Valley News on Sunday, September 23, 1979 under the “Pro & Con” section. It is reprinted here with their permission.  The photo of Cary Sterling was added to this article by the Ojai Valley Museum.  

Fire control subject of controversy
by
Cary Sterling

+our environment+

No characteristic of southern California’s brushlands causes more heartache than fire. The Ojai area has dubious honor in this regard. The largest fire in the history of California began in Matilija Canyon in 1932, spreading to 219,254 acres.

Strangely enough, it is the attempt to prevent fires which result in the extremely destructive and dangerous brushfires which inevitably occur. The policy for many years has been to control fires until, ultimately and all too logically, an uncontrollable fire is produced.

All the old-timers I have spoken with agree on one thing. This area needs more frequent fires. At first, I thought they were out of their minds. This is a rough concept for a member of the Smokey the Bear generation.

Research, as usual, supports the old-timers. The reason that chaparral is so fire-prone is, quite simply, that it loves to burn. It has been designed, by God or natural evolution if you will, to burn every eight to twenty-five years. Every year between fires, more fuel is accumulating.

A 30 YEAR OLD brushfield is not natural and when it finally goes up, adverse weather conditions can turn it into a holocaust. At this point, even the most modern of fire-fighting techniques become inadequate. It is then that we helplessly witness the spread of brush fires to areas of human occupation.

The difficult problem of bringing wild area fire management policies in line with natural ecology is explored by Professor Miron L. Heinselman, of the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in an article entitled “Fire in Wilderness Ecosystems.” Professor Heinselman’s article appears in a text on wilderness management used by the U.S. Forest Service.

“Fire-dependent plant communities burn more readily than nonfire-dependent communities because natural selection has favored the development of flammable foliage. [Chaparral] is such a “community.” Such plants and communities actually depend on periodic fire for survival.”

While fires may be tragic for individual animals caught in the conflagration, they increase the size of later animal populations by creating more areas for grazing and browsing. Fire does this in the following ways: 1) It triggers the release of seeds. 2) It stimulates flowering and fruiting of many plants. 3) It alters seedbeds when dense litter is replaced with bare soil, ash and thin humus. 4) It stimulates vegetative reproduction of many species when the overstory is killed. 5) It reduces competition for moisture, heat, nutrients and light. 6) It reduces diseases caused by insects and plant parasites such as mistletoe.

THE ABOVE IS MOST true for the lighter fires which occurred more frequently in natural cycles. Such fires are less likely to destroy large trees. “The giant sequoia forests of the Sierra usually experienced light or moderate surface fires at short intervals (four to fifteen years) that kept down invading shrubs, true firs and incense cedar. They scarred but seldom killed the giant sequoias.” The major cause of such natural fires is believed to be lightening.

Heinselman lists five alternatives in fire management for wild areas, reviewing the pros and cons of each.

Fire Exclusion. “A fire-exclusion policy requires the immediate suppression of all fires, regardless of cause, location, or expected damage. At the very least it is often defensible as a holding action until a rational judgement concerning the best alternative can be made.

“One problem resulting from a policy of fire exclusion is a buildup of fuels. This has created very difficult control problems in the chaparral zones of California. Fire was one of nature’s ways of reducing fuels. Perhaps, in following a policy of exclusion, we are only setting the state for a major conflagration which not only could be dangerous to human life and property, but disruptive to the very ecosystems we are purportedly protecting.”

No Fire-Control Program. “Some fire protection people might believe that fire ecologists advocate complete cessation of fire control, but actually no informed and responsible person would be so callous. This option must be rejected outright.”

Management of Lightening-Caused Fires. “The approach is simply one of avoiding direct manipulation as much as safely possible by allowing nature to select the time, place, vegetation and fuels for fires through lightening ignitions.”

Prescribed Fire. “The goal is the restoration of the natural fire regime through the substitution of deliberate ignitions. The basic reason for this option is the belief that fires can often be managed safely if the time and place of ignition are selected in advance.”

Mechanical Manipulation of Vegetation and Fuels. “This policy rejects fire as an unacceptable or unsafe agent of change, and substitutes mechanical manipulations – e.g., harvest of the forest, soil disturbance, planting for the periodic, natural perturbations caused by fire.” The professor cites this approach as more appropriate for semi-wild or agricultural areas than for places where true wilderness values are the highest priority.

Heinselman’s final recommendation for true wilderness is “to restore fire to its natural role in the ecosystem to the maximum extent consistent with safety of persons, property, and other resources.” Safety is then the great problem.

“In recent years most fire fatalities have been sustained by firefighters. Furthermore, the responsibility for keeping fires away from homes, villages, roads, powerlines, structures, and commercial forests outside the wilderness is absolute.”

Many brushfields are now of such advanced age that the need for controlled burning presents a nightmare for the fire personnel. Meanwhile, for occupied areas, there is only one viable policy: the most immediate possible suppression of fires.

This article first appeared in the September 17, 1948 edition of THE “OJAI” on page 9. It is reprinted here with the permission of the “Ojai Valley News”. The author is unknown.

Jack Dron Tells How Crew Stayed In Face of Fire to Save His Home

While examples of heroism in the Ojai fire are numerous and have not been brought to light, one story related to “The Ojai” this week by Maj. Jack Dron is typical of a number of cases where men saved homes through sheer, unwavering courage. Maj. Dron’s account of how his Gridley canyon home was saved is as follows:

“We were sitting around the house about 7 pm waiting for the fire. We had four orchard spray rigs from Santa Paula, two pumps, and two auxiliaries. We had four men from the San Bernardino forest service—Ranger Horace D. Jones, Joseph Austin, Harry Trotter, and Clifford Damon. Then there were Ned Taylor and F. B. Boys from the Los Angeles district, and five fellows from Santa Paula, O. W. Moten, Buck Messenger, C. J. Boyle, Otis R. Parker, and Sherman Kelley, myself and my son, John A. Dron Jr.

“All these men deserve all the credit that can be given them. Along toward evening, Emery Brandt and Ken Williams had been doing some work with a bulldozer nearby. We’d been trying to get more ‘dozers that afternoon without success. Emery came in about dusk and cleared a 60-foot swath through and olive grove on the hill above my house.

“We watched the fire burning slowly down the mountain, expecting it about midnight. We planned to backfire, but about 7:15 pm we noticed numerous spot fires below the fire line, indicating a shift of wind. In 15 minutes these had consolidated into a solid front of flame downhill. It was still about a half a mile above us. We were all prepared. The house had been battened down and sheet metal furnished by Joe Misbeek had been placed over the windows. Every available carpet, pad, and canvas was saturated and laid on the roof. Then about 8 pm we noticed a spot fire on the ridge below us, then one to the right and left of us. Then I ordered by daughter Dorothy and my youngest son Boyd to take a station wagon loaded with our possessions and get out in a hurry. The fires spread so rapidly that in the 10 minutes it took them to finally leave it had advanced almost to Gridley road. A slight panic then occurred. Two auxiliary pumpers pulled out and raced downhill. But the rest of the men stayed. About 8:15 the fire had reached the dense brush around the house and was coming fast. Ranger Jones, lacking any facilities for back-firing, took his crew and set counter fire on the edge of the break above us. Inhalation of smoke and the heat nearly prostrated him. He was vomiting but recovered and got the fire started. Meanwhile, the two remaining pumpers and crew were in action with fog nozzles spraying the surrounding trees and shrubbery. My son and I, using the domestic water supply, were on the roof wetting down the building. The heat finally became so intolerable we were driven off the roof. Only by inhaling fresh air close to the ground could we continue breathing.

“Things began to happen very fast. The dwelling to the rear of the house began smoking as the fire flanking us on the east raced down the canyon. The heat was so intense that we could only face it by wrapping wet towels around our heads and taking turns spraying each other with water to prevent our clothes from catching fire.

“We saw two foxes race across our front lawn and several deer. By that time the flanking fire had encircled the house and was closing in below us. Then the main fire struck the back fire. For five minutes we were surrounded on all sides by towering flames and were in a literal vortex. The pump men concentrated on trees and the outbuilding in front which was smoking, while my son concentrated water on the roof. Just at the crisis, which came about 8:45, our domestic water gave out, discharging black mud. In a few minutes a valve in the main line blew up with a loud report, discharging steam.

“We had provided an auxiliary supply in buckets, tubs and tanks amounting to 150 gallons, and from then on the pumpers directed streams on the house while my son and I put out spot fires and debris with buckets. In 10 minutes the crisis was past and the main front of the fire had advanced downhill hundreds of feet below. Still, a hot wind of 20 or 30 miles per hour was driving a continual cascade of burning embers and sparks against the house. Fortunately the walls were of stone and the windows were protected by the sheet metal coverings.

“In 20 minutes there was nothing left of the surrounding area but innumerable burning dumps and accumulations of leaves. By this time the crew was thoroughly exhausted, but continued to apply water to outbreaks on the outbuildings, which still were in the danger area.

“By 9:30 practically all danger was past and the men were able to take a wel-earned rest on pillows and mattresses in the yard. They stood by until early morning, when it was certain that all danger was past.”