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“He may be just a tramp, a guy that likes to roam about this great country without any special aim, just to thank the Lord for these beautiful mountains.”
-B. Traven, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

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“. . .here, where there are still the silences and the loneliness of the earth before man, . . .”

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Recently Read
- The Day Hell Hit Santa Barbara; Third Hottest Temperature Ever Recorded on Earth
- Lobster Poachers?
- Return To Scene Of Lion Standoff
- Beachcombing for Fossilized Whale Bones in Santa Barbara County
- About
- When Rains Fall, Will USFS Close Our Forest? The Coming El Niño
- Eating Poison Oak
- Dick Smith on Forest Access
- Mountain Lion Standoff, Santa Ynez Mountains
- Swordfish Cave, Earliest Chumash Rock Art On California's Central Coast
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Latest Dispatches
- Lobster Poachers?
- Dick Smith on Forest Access
- Old Mission Sycamore Whacked Again
- Bald Eagle, Manzana Creek, San Rafael Wilderness
- When Rains Fall, Will USFS Close Our Forest? The Coming El Niño
- Language of Forest Closure; Assault on an Ancient Right
- March of the Mustard; The Spread of Noxious Weeds
- Mark of Conquest II: Benchmark and Mortar
- Save Old Mission Sycamore … __ __ __ …
- Raking the Forest: Anderson, Trump, Kuyper
- Initials of J.D. Reyes (1907)
- Last California Grizzlies Seen In Santa Barbara National Forest? (1926)
- Eccentric Artifact, San Marcos Foothills Preserve
- Fog Drip Morels
- Naming Santa Barbara’s Modoc Road
Lunar Phase

Author Archives: Jack Elliott
Stapelia Gigantea Bloom
The flowers are big and hairy and attract flies and beetles rather than butterflies and hummingbirds. Through a combination of color and design the bloom is made to appear like a bloody wound, while wafting from its petals floats the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Depression Era Portrait of Florence Owens Thompson
“She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields and birds that the children killed.” —Dorothea Lange, photographer working for the U. S. Resettlement Administration The image above, titled Migrant Mother, has been heralded as … Continue reading
Posted in San Luis Obispo County
Tagged Agriculture, Farming, Florence Owens Thompson, Great Depression, Migrant Workers, Poverty
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Ruminations on a Hart-Parr 18-36H Tractor (1930)
“It is no longer good business to have a lot of money invested in horse-flesh. . .when you can buy a Hart-Parr ‘Little Devil’ Tractor.” —Hart-Parr Company advertisement slogan from the 1910s In 1897, mechanical engineers Charles W. Hart and … Continue reading
A Snowy Rose Valley Falls
The typically ephemeral and lackluster waterfall at Rose Valley Campground in Ventura County seen here, center frame, as a mere vertical blackened bare spot lost amidst the more eye catching snow-frosted mountain.













