California
California history reduced to ash with Borel fire's destruction of Havilah
There was gold in these hills.
Hidden in the rugged Sierra Nevada amid sprawling pine forests, Havilah was once a bustling mining town where stamp mills pulverized rock from the region’s mines and prospectors panned for precious metals in the late 19th century.
In its heyday, the town’s main drag featured saloons, dance halls, inns and gambling houses. Townsfolk witnessed midday gunfights, manhunts for wanted murders and stagecoach robberies, and they wagered gold dust on horse races, according to Los Angeles Times archives.
But for nearly a century, long after the feverish search for gold subsided, Havilah had been considered something of a ghost town, with only about 150 residents. Foundations were all that remained of most of its historic buildings when fire swept through the town July 26.
The fast-moving Borel fire, which has scorched nearly 60,000 acres as of Friday, destroyed some of the last vestiges of Havilah in just 24 hours, including a replica courthouse, which served as a small roadside museum for decades.
Roy Fluhart, whose ancestors had homesteaded in the area around the Great Depression, had tried to preserve the town’s rich history. As president of Havilah’s historical society, he and his relatives helped curate the courthouse with historic documents and photographs, antique mining tools and other artifacts from the region’s past.
“We lost everything,” Fluhart said. “The sad part is, the museum was an archive, and it’s lost now. Son of a gun. … We didn’t really have time to get anything out.”
It wasn’t just the town’s history that was lost.
Bo Barnett, whose house was destroyed, managed to escape with his dogs and the clothes on his back. Barnett, whose wife died a month ago, expressed remorse that he didn’t have time to collect her ashes.
“Fire was raining down upon us,” Barnett said, as his eyes welled with tears. “I wasn’t sure what I was driving into. My tires were melting on the road. It was horrible.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who spent much of his childhood in the sparsely populated mining community of Dutch Flat in Placer County, lamented the loss of a fellow gold rush community on Tuesday. Wearing aviator sunglasses and a ball cap, he toured the wreckage in Havilah, walking up to the remnants of the town museum and pulling a novelty Uncle Sam coin bank from the blackened rubble.
“Towns wiped off the map — places, lifestyles, traditions,” Newsom said at a news conference. “That’s what this is really all about. At the end of the day, it’s about people, it’s about history, it’s about memories.”
In recent years, devastating wildfires have obliterated some of California’s gold rush towns, erasing the history of one of the most significant eras in 19th century America. Havilah joins the likes of Paradise and Greenville, small communities that saw influxes of prospectors, followed by population exodus and, more recently, devastation.
Havilah credits its origin to Asbury Harpending — a Kentuckian who plotted to seize California and its gold to support the Confederacy during the Civil War. In 1864, Harpending, indignant after his conviction for high treason, ventured to present-day Kern County’s Clear Creek region. He found deposits of gold and christened the area Havilah, after a gold-rich land in the book of Genesis.
Although Harpending had no land rights, he established a sprawling mining camp and sold parcels to incoming miners in what many believed could be a second gold rush. In 1866, Havilah became the seat of the newly established Kern County, a title it held for eight years until Bakersfield became the principal city. He stayed only two years but made a fortune: $800,000.
“I was literally chased from absolute poverty into the possession of nearly a million dollars,” Harpending wrote in his autobiography. “I discovered a great mining district and founded a thriving town. And if the matter of paternity is ever brought up in court, it will probably be proved to the satisfaction of a jury that I am the father of Kern County.”
As gold became harder to find, people deserted Havilah, and its buildings fell into disrepair. Those who remained attempted to commemorate the community’s mining legacy and pioneer heritage. In 1966, for the centennial of Havilah’s founding, residents finished building the replica courthouse. They later built a replica of the town’s schoolhouse, which doubled as a community center.
Historical markings along Caliente-Bodfish Road indicate buildings that once existed: barbershop, a blacksmith, the Grand Inn and a livery stable. Some large plaques also pay tribute to historic events such as the last stagecoach robbery in Kern County in 1869, in which a gunman made off with $1,700 in coinage and gold bullion.
Wesley Kutzner, a historical society member and Fluhart’s uncle, helped build the replica courthouse alongside his parents and other locals. Although the historical society couldn’t afford fire insurance, Kutzner said he has resolved to clean up the property and rebuild, the same way the community did nearly 60 years ago.
“The plan is to rebuild,” Kutzner said. “It’s going to be a community effort. It’s going to be a tough road home, but we’ll get it done.”
One resident who plans to rebuild is Sean Rains. He left Bakersfield two years ago and moved to Havilah with his girlfriend and their pit bull, seeking the tranquility of the mountains. Rains, a miner and countertop fabricator, had also been one of the few people holding onto hope of finding buried treasure in Havilah.
In his front yard, Rains kept a shaker table and other equipment to sift soil for flecks of gold.
It was “nothing to make us rich,” he said, but he did find some.
“They say it’s everywhere,” Rains said. “It’s just a matter of whether it’s enough to make it worth your while.”
Rains was also recruited into the historical society. He read old letters in which a sheriff had remarked that the town’s only pastimes were robbing stagecoaches and horse racing. Another recalled how pioneers hauled their carriages over the mountainous terrain by rope.
The historical society had recently installed a water hose at the replica schoolhouse. Because Rains lived nearby, he was asked to help defend the schoolhouse if there was ever a fire.
“I gave them my word,” he said.
So once Rains saw fire crest the mountaintop behind his home and swiftly descend into the valley, he rushed next door to start up the schoolhouse’s water pump. He sprayed down the building and extinguished embers under its front porch.
He eventually turned his attention to his own one-story house, dousing it until the trees in his yard caught fire. He, his girlfriend and their dog sped away in his pickup truck.
“It was licking our heels on the way out of here,” Rains recalled. “It was right on top of us. The winds were crazy in that thing, going in all different directions. It was sucking branches right off the trees. The whole mountain was engulfed.”
Rains returned to town the next morning, walking along Caliente-Bodfish Road to see what was left of Havilah.
The valley’s pines and oaks were charred, and much of the landscape was covered in white ash. Rains’ two-bedroom home was burned to its cobblestone foundation. Two cars he had been restoring were scorched husks. His two ATVs were reduced to skeletal frames.
The schoolhouse survived.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
I have long wondered what marketing genius came up with all these national wine celebration days—as if we really need an excuse to imbibe. Anyway, today, we’re celebrating, observing—and certainly, drinking white wines—the day so designated to do so. Here’s a sun-kissed selection from California that ranges from the light and easy to those with more gravitas, demonstrating that west coast whites are more diverse than ever—even within their historic categories of grape varieties.
Five from Callie for National White Wine Day
Amulet Estate “AE” White Blend 2021, Napa Valley. This is a hand-harvested field blend harvested from the Proof Vineyard, one of the Napa Valley’s oldest, consisting of 55% Sauvignon Vert, 35% Semillon and 10% other white grapes. It is rich, round and full bodied with honeyed tones, beeswax and stone-orchard fruits ripened by late-summer sun. It will transition out of the portfolio this year in favor of a Sauvignon Blanc, so if you can find it, grab it.
Arkenstone Estate 2020, Howell Mountain, Napa. This blend of 94% Sauvignon Blanc and the rest Sémillon is a nod to the wines of Pessac-Léognan, the area in Graves (Bordeaux) that is the spiritual home of this delicious blend. This one, sourced from six blocks on the rocky Howell Mountain AVA (Graves derives its name from the very gravelly soil there, so this is a good “look-alike”), is tropical-fruit-inflected with notes of honeydew melon and sweet Clementines. Pretty white flowers give this a lilt. Aging on the lees in concrete egg gives the wine its roundness.
Vermentino (aka Rolle) is an Italian variety.
Cormorant Vermentino “Fenaughty Vineyards” 2023 El Dorado County. A fresh white from a line of small-production and intentional wines from Charlie Gilmore. Unfiltered and made in a low-invention Old-World style, this wine is balanced and faithful to its Italian flavor profile—fresh, spright citrus and mouth-cleansing acidity that keeps the enamel on your teeth.
Ferrari-Carano Pinot Grigio 2023, California. This is a fun, crisp counterpart to some of the watered-down versions that got out there when the PG category took off. This one is easy going and citrus-fruit forward. Don’t think too much about this: take it to the beach or have it as an aperitif on your patio. The similarly styled Fume Blanc from the North Coast is Sauvy-B oriented, with a tropical twist, but carries a similar thread of easy, fresh fruit and fun to drink.
Known for its reds, this is the first SB Groth has bottled from Oakville
Groth Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Oakville, Napa. This estate wine is another that is Pessac-Léognan inspired, driven by 89% Sauvignon Blanc, with Sémillon making up the remainder. It’s the producer’s first white wine to carry the Oakville appellation. Textured, expressing a bit of salinity, it takes you through the whole taste spectrum of ripe tropical fruits—from skin (particularly yellow nectarine) to juicy pulp. Serve it to those who usually shy away from the green-gooseberry profile.
Quintessa “Illumination” Sauvignon Blanc 2016. Grapes for this wine are sourced from a combination of vineyards—64% Napa and 36% Sonoma counties. Find expressions of white orchard fruits and some of the tropics thrown in there, too. The very seductive nose draws you in and the juicy textured fruits—ripe yellow apple and quince and lemon compote—keep you there. While fine to drink now (especially the 2016), if you can hold off drinking this until fall, you will be rewarded. The attractive bottle makes this a nice “plus one” for a dinner party.
LangeTwins Fume Blanc 2022, Jahant AVA, Lodi, California. This is made from Musqué, a musky, floral and very aromatic clone of Sauvignon Blanc, which, in the wrong hands, can get overblown and kind of garish. But, aging for six months in French and American neutral oak toned down the drama. This version has those green notes, but also friendly tropical fruit and peach flesh. Not really a “twin,” but a close sibling, is the light and easy Chenin Blanc from the Clarksburg AVA (Merrill Vineyard), featuring a bright citrus ping, layered with notes of melon and ripe orchard-fruit skin.
Five more from Callie for National White Wine Day
Ram’s Gate Pinot Blanc 2022, Carneros, (Sonoma). Stylistically, this is a terrific hybrid of Old World styles from two under-the-radar high-quality regions: Alsace in the northeast section of France and Alto Adige in Italy’s northeast. I am thinking of yellow apples and plums ripening on a sun-speckled country kitchen counter, preferably made of weathered soapstone. OK, I digress! But you get the idea: nuanced, elegantly simple (or simply elegant!), with a pretty honeyed note and the rich pulp of ripe apricots. This also is a good transitional wine for cooler temperatures.
Unshackled Sauvignon Blanc 2021, California. Separate but part of the Prisoner Wine Co., this is a very servicable SauvB for people who don’t gravitate toward the pungent green styles of Marlborough or even Chile. This one is round and expressing more on the tropical side of the fruit spectrum. The Domaine Curry Sauvignon Blanc 2023 (Napa) is a foray into estate wine after Constellation Brands, PWC’s parent, acquired it in 2023 and rebranded it. I don’t know if the winemaking also underwent a transformation, but this current vintage blends grapes from Wappo Hill in the Stag’s Leap District and River Oaks in Alexander Valley, giving a tropical-fruit-inflected and forceful interpretation of Sauvy-B.
Getty ImagesRick Pero was working in southern Mexico when the evacuation alerts started going off on his phone.
A wildfire was threatening his California neighbourhood. Again.
Back home – roughly 2,800 miles (4,500km) away – a man at a popular swimming hole shoved a burning car down into a dry, grassy ravine. Almost instantly, the area ignited and those enjoying the summer day started to panic. The flames, about 15 miles (24km) from Mr Pero’s home, were spreading fast in the tinder dry brush.
“Uh oh, this is not looking good,” Mr Pero thought as he watched the blaze’s growth from his phone.
Within hours, the Park Fire had consumed more than 6,000 acres and residents in the area were forced to evacuate. With them, the suspected arsonist who police say blended into the worried crowd and fled the area.
Mr Pero, glued to his phone, packed his bags. He told his cat sitter to get his two felines and leave before it was too late. He knew the danger after surviving the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history in 2018 – which razed the town of Paradise and took 85 lives. His home was incinerated.
Mr Pero rebuilt his life in Forest Ranch, another small community about nine miles (14km) north of Paradise. He thought he was safe – his new “silver lining” home had stunning views and was much more fire resistant. But once again, a fire tore through his home and everything inside of it – possibly also stealing one of his cats that couldn’t be lured out of the house.
The metal disfigured shells of two vehicles remain where his garage once stood. Piles of charred metal debris lay in piles. The foundations of the home aren’t even apparent anymore but some bricks from what appears to be a fireplace are stacked. The colourful sunset views over the wooded area behind his home now looks out on hundreds of scorched – and still smoking – pine trees.
“The big sadness is we have a very close-knit neighbourhood,” he said. “I’m again, so, so grateful that they were able to save all of my neighbours, almost all my neighbours, houses.”
Wildfires are becoming more intense and more frequent.
The Park Fire, which started 24 July in a park in Chico, grew to more than 71,000 acres in just 24 hours. It’s now the fourth largest wildfire in California history after tearing through more than 400,000 acres and like Paradise, it spread at a shockingly fast and hot pace.
Getty ImagesAbout 12 hours after the blaze started, the person authorities say is responsible was arrested. Police say Ronnie Dean Stout II was spotted starting the fire and blending into the crowd as people rushed to flee. Witnesses said he acted erratically and may have been intoxicated.
Authorities found him at a nearby mobile home park and charged him with arson. He has not entered a plea but reportedly told authorities his burning car rolled down the 60-foot embankment and it was an accident. He fled the area afterwards because he was afraid, Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said.
The blaze has consumed land in four counties, scorching an area larger than the size of greater Los Angeles or London. Although most of the land is uninhabited by humans, hundreds of homes have been lost in the blaze and experts worry it could take months before it’s fully extinguished.
The area is a frequent target of destructive wildfires. The region in northern California “has had four of the largest 10 fires” in the state’s history, Cal Fire Incident Commander Billy See said at a news conference
Eight of the 10 largest wildfires in California history have happened in the last five years. Scientists say the impacts from wildfires and other extreme weather events have worsened due to climate change. And undoubtedly, this new fire will reinvigorate debates about where and how we live and rebuild in an increasingly hot and dry Western United States.
Escape from Paradise
Last time he evacuated, in 2018, Mr Pero was home with his wife in Paradise. They had just 20 minutes to flee – but it was enough time to grab their photo albums, phones, computers, cars and cats.
That fire ripped through Paradise at a truly unprecedented speed and heat – catching everyone off guard with its ferocity. Of the 85 people who perished, many died in their cars, trying to escape on the rural town’s windy, mountain roads.
Paradise Police Sgt Rob Nichols was one of the many quick-thinking heroes that day. As fire engulfed the town, propane tanks exploded and power lines and burned-out cars blocked the road. His wife and young children got out safely, but Sgt Nichols stayed to help.
Along with firefighters and volunteers, they smashed the windows of an empty building that had a large parking lot – a barrier that could prevent the building from burning – and hustled about 200 people inside as they watched in horror as their beloved mountain town burned. Sgt Nichols lost everything he owned.
He still works in Paradise but he resettled with his family in Chico, about a mile from where the Park Fire ignited. Chico was where many of the Paradise evacuees headed in 2018 – many sleeping in tents around a Walmart or in camper vans until they could resettle elsewhere.
Sgt Nichols was on vacation – 135 miles (217km) away in Lake Siskiyou – when he started hearing news that a wildfire was threatening his home. Again.
“On our last evening up there, we couldn’t rest not knowing what was going on and how close it was to the home,” he said. “So we came home.”
Sgt Nichols didn’t anticipate how scary it would be for his children, ages 12 and 13, as they arrived home and saw flames taking over an area on the ridge above their neighbourhood.
“That was kind of a big trigger for them,” he said.
Fortunately, their house was spared. The wind sent the blaze in the opposite direction.
But it was close. He sometimes thinks about moving to a less fire prone area.
“My wife has a lot of family here,” he said, noting the ties that have kept them in the area. “And, you know, we lost seven homes. Her family lost seven homes in the Camp Fire. And so we don’t want to go too far.”
Paradise is likely safer now than most places, he argues, because there just isn’t much left to burn. He’d like to rebuild there, but building costs have skyrocketed and insurance is prohibitively expensive due to wildfires.
Now Sgt Nichols is patrolling around Chico – on loan from Paradise police – to help deter looters or opportunists who attempt to raid communities after an evacuation order.
Fire resistant
Mr Pero saw his Forest Ranch house as a paradise away from Paradise because of its natural beauty and how close it kept him and his wife to the community they’d grown to love.
He became serious, maybe obsessed, about fire safety and was in charge of his neighbourhood’s fire mitigation. He says it’s “ironic” his home burned. He had about 50 yards of cleared space behind his house, a barrier he hoped would stop any potential blaze from continuing toward his oasis.
“It had 60,000-gallon water tanks. It also had fire hydrants on the street,” he said. “And the big part, it was also about a one-minute route to get evacuated out on Highway 32 versus nine hours in Paradise.”
Every year, they brought in hundreds of goats to clear brush, which can be like kindling for any fire, throughout the community. He urged his neighbours to make their homes fire safe by trimming trees and clearing brush.
He’s hoping his lost cat – a striped grey and black feline named CatMandu – made it out alive. Mr Pero has been leaving out food and searching for him around the wreckage.
But the charred remains of his home are still too toxic to walk around – he needs a special mask and suit to search for any sign of the cat or any belongings that survived the blaze.
“I tried to look from the edges,” he said. “Didn’t see anything.”
Three other homes on his street also burned to the ground. They were owned by Paradise fire survivors, he says.
He and his wife loved their time in Forest Ranch. But he doubts they will rebuild there. He says he doesn’t know if they can start over again in such a fire-prone area. They’re thinking maybe somewhere coastal – near water. Somewhere less dry. Somewhere safer.
He knows people who have relocated to the rain-prone state of Oregon and the often-rainy Ireland.
“We’re kind of wide open now.”
California
Firefighters continue battling massive wildfire in California ahead of thunderstorms, lightning
CHICO, Calif. — Firefighters made progress Saturday against California’s largest wildfire of the year ahead of expected thunderstorms that could unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds and erode progress made over the past week. Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the fire-stricken West.
“We’re not completely out of the woods yet, but we’re looking very, very good,” CalFire official Mark Brunton said in a video update Saturday. “This is moving at a very fast pace.”
Containment of the Park Fire, now California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record, is at 27% as of early Saturday. Brunton said the relatively milder weather the last few days allowed firefighters to build containment lines.
But hotter weather, fuels and terrain will continue posing challenges for the estimated 6,500 firefighters battling the fire, which has spread over 626 square miles (1,621 square kilometers) since allegedly being started by arson in a park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. For comparison, the city of Los Angeles covers about 503 square miles (1,302 square kilometers).
Suppression crews will also start removing damaged infrastructure in some areas Saturday to allow residents to return home.
The fire originated at low elevations, where it quickly burned through thick grass and oaks, destroying at least 567 structures and damaging 51 so far. As it has climbed higher, the vegetation has changed to a greater concentration of trees and brush, Cal Fire said.
The fire’s push northward has brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has been closed because of the threat.
“There’s a lot of really steep drainages in that area,” CalFire spokesperson Devin Terrill said. “It takes a lot more time to access those areas.”
After a brief respite, firefighters are now bracing for treacherous conditions of hot and dry weather, along with expected thunderstorms with potential thunder strikes and gusty winds.
The collapse of thunderstorm clouds can blow wind in any and all directions, said Jonathan Pangburn, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire. “Even if there’s not lightning per se, it is very much a safety-watch-out environment for our firefighters out there,” Pangburn said.
The Park Fire is among almost 100 large fires burning across the western U.S. Evacuation orders were in effect for 28 of the fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Three wildfires burned in Colorado on Friday near heavily populated areas north and south of Denver, with about 50 structures damaged or destroyed, thousands of people under evacuation orders and human remains found in a destroyed house earlier this week.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a blaze threatening hundreds of homes near the Colorado city of Littleton as arson.
Karlyn Tilley, a spokesperson for Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said the investigation is ongoing and they are using a dog specially trained to sniff out sources and causes of fires. Tilley said just because they suspect the fire was human-caused doesn’t mean it was intentional.
Firefighters were making good progress on the fire despite the steep, rocky terrain and blistering heat, and no houses had been burned, officials said.
The cause and origin of a fatal blaze west of the town of Lyons was being probed by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with specially trained fire investigators from the agency helping local authorities, agency spokesperson Crystal McCoy said. The area blackened by that fire remained relatively unchanged after it burned five houses.
The largest of the Colorado fires, west of Loveland, grew to 14.9 square miles (38.5 square kilometers) after previously burning 49 homes and other structures. Its cause is under investigation.
Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the U.S. West and other parts of the world as climate change warms the planet and droughts become more severe.
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