California: A Fire Survey (To the Last Smoke)

217 Pages·2016·1.454 MB·English

by  Stephen J. Pyne

California: a fire Survey
To the last Smoke
SerieS by Stephen J. pyne
Volume 1, Florida: A Fire Survey
Volume 2, California: A Fire Survey
STephen J. pyne
California
A Fire Survey
TUCSON
The University of Arizona Press
www.uapress.arizona.edu
© 2016 The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved. Published 2016
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-3261-2 (paper)
Cover designed by Leigh McDonald
Cover photo by Kari Greer / NIFC
The first epigraph on p. 177 is from “Apology for Bad Dreams,” copyright © 1925 and renewed
1953 by Robinson Jeffers; from The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers by Robinson Jeffers. Used
by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC.
All rights reserved. And also from The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, Vol. One: 1920–1928
by Robinson Jeffers; Tim Hunt (editor). Copyright © 1938 renewed 1966 by Donnan and Garth
Jeffers. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Stanford University Press,
sup. org. The second epigraph on p. 177 is from “Control Burn” by Gary Snyder, from Turtle Island,
copyright © 1974 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pyne, Stephen J., 1949– author. | Pyne, Stephen J., 1949– To the last smoke ; v. 2.
Title: California : a fire survey / Stephen J. Pyne.
Description: Tucson : The University of Arizona Press, 2016. | Series: To the last smoke / series
by Stephen J. Pyne ; volume 2 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015035282 | ISBN 9780816532612 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Wildfires—California—History. | Wildfires—California—Prevention and
control—History. | Forest fires—California—History. | Forest fires—California—Prevention
and control—History.
Classification: LCC SD421.32.C2 C685 2016 | DDC 363.3709794—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015035282
This paper meets the requirements of AnSi/niSO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).
To Sonja,
old flame, eternal flame
x

ConTenTS
Series Preface: To the Last Smoke ix
Preface to Volume 2 xi
Map of California 2
ProloGUE: Conflagrating California 3
California’s invented fire Culture 17
State of emergency 27
Cajon Pass: Portal to soUthErn California 41
four forests: Southern California’s fire rectangle 45
Three parks: Traversing the Transverse 67
imperium in imperio 77
Mending firewalls 86
force Majeure 95
airing Differences 103
intErlUDE: California Split 111
arCh roCk: Portal to northErn California 121
The Tahoe Crucible 125
Working fire 133
viii contents
The pastures of purgatory 143
The Big ones 155
vignettes of primitive america: The Sierra parks 167
EPiloGUE: California Between Two fires 177
Note on Sources 185
Notes 187
Index 199
Illustrations follow page 106
SerieS prefaCe
To the Last Smoke
W
hen i DeTerMineD
to write the fire history of America in
recent times, I conceived the project in two voices. One was
the narrative voice of a play-by-play announcer. Between Two
Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America would relate what hap-
pened, when, where, and to and by whom. Because of its scope it pivoted
around ideas and institutions, and its major characters were fires and fire
seasons. It viewed the American fire scene from the perspective of a sur-
veillance satellite.
The other voice was that of a color commentator. I called it To the Last
Smoke, and it would poke around in the pixels and polygons of partic-
ular practices, places, and persons. My original belief was that it would
assume the form of an anthology of essays and would match the narrative
play-by-play in bulk. But that didn’t happen. Instead the essays prolifer-
ated and started to self-organize by regions.
I began with the major hearths of American fire, where a fire culture
gave a distinctive hue to fire practices. That pointed to Florida, Califor-
nia, and the Northern Rockies, and to that oft-overlooked hearth around
the Flint Hills of the Great Plains. I added the Southwest because that
was the region I knew best. But there were stray essays that needed to
be corralled into a volume, and there were all those relevant regions that
needed at least token treatment. Some like the Lake States and North-
east no longer commanded the national scene as they once had, but their