HALLOWEEN 2009

Halloween is a special Holiday in party happy West Hollywood. Here are just a few of the costumes you will find.

August Report

Well, here it is almost the middle of August, and I am not sure if the rain is ever going to ease off. July was the rainiest in 20 years, and we have had some magnificent lightning storms pass over the cabin. A number of people are killed every year in Colorado by lightning, so one has to watch the weather closely when up on the high peaks. After Florida, more people are killed by lightning in Colorado than any other state. It all has to do with the severe weather that is generated when cold mountain air collides with the warm humid air of the flatlands.

The locals are not happy about the wet weather. It not only drives out the tourists, but at 8500 feet the summer is short, and the locals need all the sun they can get.

NEDERLAND

Because I live in the middle of one of the richest gold producing areas in the US, I am reading about mining history. One thing that you learn is that discoveries in a remote part of a mountain range can change the whole world. Here is an example:

Four miles away is the town of Nederland. It boasts a population of about 1,000. Currently it’s main claim to fame is a rusty steam shovel that was once used to build the Panama Canal. It is also the gateway to the nearby Indian Peaks Wilderness area, and home of the Frozen Dead Guy Festival. But Nederland’s history is much more interesting.

In the 1860s, Nederland was just a cluster of small cabins on a homestead. Then in a high mountain valley, only four miles from the Continental Divide, a boom camp grew. The reason: silver.

This strike was called the Caribou Mine. It was named after the elk that roamed the area, which the miners mistook for caribou. At its peak, it was the richest silver mine in the world. The mine, which gave Nederland its start in life, lasted for 35 years. Today it is a ghost.

In 1890 a gold strike was made in Eldora Valley, west of town. Unfortunately Eldora’s gold boom had a short history. Surface veins yielded high profits, but as greater depths were reached all they found was low grade ore. That is the nature of gold ore, huge variations in quality from foot to foot.

In 1900, a semi-precious metal was waiting to be discovered…a rare metal that would make Nederland world famous. Kicked aside by gold seekers as a worthless nuisance, tungsten lay in plain sight on the mountain slopes. Nederland happened to sit on the edge of a small area, four miles by nine, called the tungsten lode. The area lacked gold and silver, but contained millions of dollars worth of rare tungsten.

Tungsten, alloyed with steel, produces a metal that holds its strength in high temperatures. Because tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals, it makes the steel much tougher. It is a metal particularly adapted to internal combustion engines. Automobile manufacturers found that cylinders, pistons and rings were far superior if made from tungsten. For decades almost all of the tungsten mined in the world came from tiny Nederland, and turned the automobile from a hobby into a sophisticated form of transportation.

GOLD HILL

In 1859 gold was discovered at a place eventually called Gold Hill, which is close to where I live. Last weekend the locals put on a gold mine tour and a big crowd showed up. It was lead by an old-timer who spent 25 years in the mines. We went to some of the original diggings and then visited the Hidee Mine, which was the last hard rock gold mine operating in Colorado. When a miner makes a claim, they have to give it a name. This mine was named after the miner’s favorite “saloon girl.”

After a 700 foot walk into the mine, we finally reached the “pay streak” of gold mixed with silver, lead and pyrite. In the photo you will see a one ton ore car. This ore needs to be crushed, and then pulverized (to the consistency of flour if possible) to get the gold out. An average yield for a ton of ore is 2 ounces of gold, about the size of a walnut.

Of course the miners always hoped to find nuggets in the streams, but that payed out years ago. The largest gold nugget ever discovered is from Australia. Some guy found it in his back yard with a metal detector. It is not round, but flattened out. About the size of a long clipboard, it is now on display at the Gold Nugget Casino in Fabulous Las Vegas.

Twenty miles south is the old mining town of Central City. It was founded during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush and produced so much gold that it was named the “Richest Square Mile on Earth.” The US is still a big producer of gold. We are number four after Australia, South Africa and China. Most of the this gold comes from huge open pit mines in Nevada.

What most people don’t realize is how incredibly rare gold is. If you took all the gold mined by all of the civilizations the world over, it would not even fill two Olympic sized swimming pools. The largest gold consuming nation is India. There, the custom is to buy gold and allow local jewelers to mold it into beautiful necklaces that the ladies wear with pride.

Around the cabin where I live are a lot of old prospecting holes, and some deep shafts that you would not want to fall into. As I take my daily hike, I walk across, literally, millions of dollars worth of gold. This gold, however, will never be mined due to environmental restrictions. Now, instead of miners, the area is populated by deer, elk, fox, coyote, mountain lion and, of course, bear.

BEAR REPORT

Life in the Mountains…June…..Sandy was chased by a bear, a couple of days ago.

Mitch, Sandy and I live in a cabin on top of a ridge. A couple of days ago, Sandy was taking a walk along the stream below our cabin. She was walking with Clauda, her dog. Clauda suddenly started barking, and ran down the trail. She had seen a sow bear and her two cubs. While Clauda approached the mother bear, the cubs went up a tree.

Then what happened is what always happens when a dog chases down a bear. The dog suddenly realizes it is going to be killed. It stops barking, turns around and runs back to the human. Clauda ran back to Sandy, and Sandy began running back up the trail. They were both chased by the bear. The next time Sandy looked back, the bear had returned to her cubs. Sandy returned to the trailhead with a pounding heart, and an understandable reluctance to return to the area. Usually black bears are not aggressive, but this was different. First of all, the bear had recently come out of hibernation and was hungry and irritable. Secondly it was a sow with cubs, which is always a dangerous proposition.

Bears, and even mountain lions, are not an uncommon sight in the area. Bears will raid the garbage piles, and the lions come into town for easy snacks of house pets. Any pet left out after dark is a potential meal. Sometimes the loud growling of the lions will keep townies awake at night.

I first came to Colorado last May to visit my friend Harv. 35 years ago we shared a cabin in the area, while I attended the University of Colorado. When I first arrived, Harv advised me to lock my car every night. Not because there was a problem with burglary, but because bears had learned how to open car doors. Then they climb in the car looking for food, while the door shuts. Being trapped in the car annoys the bear, who might tear up the interior, or bust out a window. Cars have been totaled in this way. People have been known to find a bear sleeping in their car when they start to work in the morning.

UPDATE: Bear in the Car

Mitch was over at his son’s mountain house last weekend, and decided to spend the night. Unfortunately he had forgotten to roll up the car window, and during the night a bear crawled in. There were distinct muddy paw prints on the side of the door and inside the car. The bear ate a bag of dog treats that was in the back seat. Besides tearing up the upholstery a bit with its claws, there was no further damage.

In September I will be leaving Colorado. I will drive first to Jackson Hole Wyoming to visit a kayaking friend. Then I will drive to eastern Oregon. My old school chum, Marc, has rented a fishing cabin close to Bend. Marc and I did a lot of skiing together while attending the University of Colorado. When we got to the ski area, Marc would eat a bunch of speed, and I would spend the rest of the day trying to keep up with him. Marc has been an economics professor at Ohio State for the last 25 years. After Oregon I will visit friends in the Seattle area before returning to California.

So that is what is going on in the mountains above Boulder Colorado……

Cheers Rob

Death Site....all that is left of the Bryant house

It has been five months since a tornado passed over Murfreesboro, Tenn. This panorama photo, prepared by my brother, shows the path of the tornado over the Bryant house, where the deaths occurred. The tornado came from the location of the photographer, passed over the house and continued on through the middle of the photograph.

RECENT DEATH

My brother Doug and I have just returned to the DC area from Nashville in the heart of Tennessee. There we stayed with my friend Ilene who lives with her daughter Missy. Ilene graduated from UCLA and is a social therapist. Missy is a loan officer at a credit union. She is so good at what she does that she receives a number of complimentary letters from her customers.

Nashville is a very attractive area. It is very green, and is remarkable for well tended brick houses on huge lawns. It is a southern city, so southern hospitality is plentiful.

There are many interesting things to do in Nashville. Of course it is the capital of country and western music. After LA, more music in produced in Nashville than any other city. The area is also loaded with former cotton and tobacco plantations. There are many tours available for those interested in ante bellum mansions.

Also you can drive south of Nashville 73 miles and tour the Jack Daniels Distillery. It is situated in a ‘hollar’ down by a small stream. It is a very interesting tour, but you will have to go to the next county to drink Jack Daniels. The county with the distillery is DRY.

CIVIL WAR

Also close by are many important Civil War battlefields. Most people don’t know that, besides Virginia, more important battles were fought in Tennessee than in any other state. The reason is that the Union’s stratagem from the start was to split the Confederacy down the middle. They could do this by either capturing the Mississippi River, or the rail lines that ran from Nashville, to Atlanta, to Savannah. So Union and Rebel armies clashed regularly in this region.

Doug was once a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg, and his interest in the Civil War runs deep.

One day we visited the battlefield at Franklin. The battle there was arguably the bloodiest of the Civil War due to the large percentage of casualties suffered by the two armies. We took the tour of the Carter House grounds, which was at the epicenter of the battle. One side of the house was so shot up that every brick on that side had to be replaced. Otherwise it would have eventually fallen down. This house was used as a hospital during the battle. Surgeons worked non-stop amputating limbs and throwing them out the window onto the lawn. This pile eventually reached 9 feet tall. On the floor, around the spot where the surgeons worked, were copious blood stains.

While there we visited with Doug’s friend Vann. He is a civil war historian and collector. He told us that his parents wanted to name him Van, but not after a car. So they added the second ‘n’.

DEATH ON SULPHUR SPRINGS DRIVE

A few days later we visited the Civil War battlefield in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles south of Nashville. Until recently it was known for the battle that was fought there. But violent death came again to Murfreesboro on April 10th when a tornado hit the town. At F4, it was a powerful one, reaching wind speeds of 170 MPH. It ran on the ground for 23 miles.

Doug and I drove through a number of neighborhoods that were ravaged by the twister. These were, for the most part, upper middle class neighborhoods of brick houses on large lots. Everywhere you could see destroyed houses. Some had the roofs ripped off; some had half the house gone. Some were nothing more than piles of broken lumber and personal belongings. One house had been literally yanked off its foundation, and stood cockeyed nearby.

One of the most striking things about the damage was its randomness. Some houses missed destruction by the narrowest of margins. Across the street were houses that had merely lost roof shingles. Blue tarps were nailed down to keep out the rain.

BIRTH OF A TORNADO

A typical thunderstorm develops as warm air rises into colder air masses above. Some thunderstorms turn into super cell storms, which can last for hours and track over 100 miles. About ten percent of these storms spin off tornadoes, which are typically about 500 feet in diameter.

The newspaper said that the average warning time for a twister is 13 minutes. But in reality it often comes as a complete surprise. For example, Joe Spencer, a student at Middle Tenn State had only moments to react before surviving a direct hit to his house. He said it sounded like several freight trains at once. How did he survive? He climbed into the bathtub and held onto his dog. Nearby, in an industrial area, lots were heaped with piles of 18 wheelers.

Twister warnings are only accurate 25% of the time, so often people choose not to take shelter even if they’re told to. This was costly in a town that survived with 112 destroyed homes.

Doug and I drove from neighborhood to neighborhood…the scene always the same.

Doug happened to see a memorial of balloons and flowers in what appeared to be a vacant lot. Upon investigation he discovered that the memorial was for the only two people—a young mother and her 9 week baby—who were killed by the tornado. Behind the memorial was all that remained of their home---a cinder block foundation around a clay floor. It had been a very small wooden home…an inexpensive starter home…a home for a young family with hopes for the future. It was apparent that the twister had passed directly over this home.

The husband also would have died except for strange fortune. He was sucked out of the house by the winds, and would have been flung to who knows where. But he got tangled up in the power lines that ran by his house and was saved. When the twister passed he regained consciousness, still hanging from the lines.

At the back of the lot was a small tool shed. Although damaged, it was still standing. It was hard to comprehend that if this family had huddled together in this tool shed, rather than the house, that they would still be alive today.

The scene around this house was of utter destruction. Trees were knocked over and stripped of their limbs. Power lines were down. Lawns were strewn with debris. Houses all around had lost roofs or half of their rooms. One house had the garage ripped off. The family’s red mini van was still sitting there, where the garage had once been. Its windows were smashed. Condemned homes had already been marked with paint on the door.

Yet not a hundred yards away were houses that had received no damage. A grim reminder of the fact that nature’s destruction always falls upon humans as a caprice.

The next day Doug and I did the 12 hour drive back to the DC area. It is a beautiful drive, through the heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley. During the drive we talked about the Civil War and reminisced about the fun trips we had taken in the past. But the memories of the horrible destruction we had seen in Murfreesboro remained burned in our minds.

Dad's Birthday Party

On April 5th we celebrated Dad's 90th Birthday party. Music was provided by the Olney Big Band. The event was a smashing success.