Jack Elliott's Santa Barbara Adventure

Santa Barbara at Dusk From East Camino Cielo

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Jack Elliott

Santa Barbara, edge of the continent, as seen from the Santa Ynez Mountains above Flores Flats on East Camino Cielo.

Posted in Santa Barbara | Tagged East Camino Cielo, Snapshots, Sunset | Leave a comment

Goat Buttes and Century Lake, Santa Monica Mountains

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Jack Elliott

Overlooking Malibu Creek winding through the grassy valley with the Goat Buttes outcrop rising beyond. The creek flows through the gorge between the two peaks, where a dam was built long ago creating a small lake.

Goat Buttes and Century Lake as seen from Lookout Trail in Malibu Creek State Park.

“Seeking a rural setting in which to enjoy the outdoors, a group of wealthy Los Angeles businessmen formed the Crags Country Club in 1900 and bought 2,000 acres along Malibu Creek that would later become Malibu Creek State Park.

Around 1903, the club constructed a 50-foot high dam, creating a seven-acre lake that attracted waterfowl and was stocked with trout giving club members a private duck hunting and fishing preserve. This dam and lake would later be named Century Dam and Century Lake by 20th Century Fox Studios after they bought the property.”

–Malibu Creek State Park Docents

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Century Lake, Goat Buttes, Malibu, Malibu Creek, Santa Monica Mountains | Leave a comment

Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing: A Santa Barbara Original

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Jack Elliott

“Enough! I grow weary of your sexually suggestive dancing. Bring me my ranch dressing hose!”

-Homer Simpson

It’s a nutritionist’s nightmare, a glutton’s godsend. It’s the king of salad dressings and a cornerstone of the condiment world. Ranch dressing is a key component behind a slew of popular exercises in cardiotoxic consumption, such as sopping hot cheesy slices of pizza through chilled puddles of it. Plunging spicy Buffalo wings and golden fried onion rings into pools of it, like a fat guy doing a cannonball into a Seven Falls swimming hole. Baboosh! If it wasn’t a favorite food it’d make a popular pastime.

In 1954, Steve and Gayle Henson purchased a 120-acre parcel of land in Santa Barbara County called Sweetwater Ranch. It lay amid oak shrouded San Jose Creek Canyon on the south slope of the Santa Ynez Mountains. (Jack’s Map)

Henson promptly renamed his slice of paradise “Hidden Valley.” He began serving guests at Hidden Valley Ranch his own signature salad dressing using a recipe he had put together while working in Alaska.

Recalls Audrey Ovington, the flamboyant and colorful owner of the Cold Spring Tavern, a fabulously funky eatery near Hidden Valley: “The first I knew of the dressing was one day when he [Henson] came in the tavern’s family entrance and headed straight for the kitchen and said, `Gotta mix something up.’ He came out with a little white bowl. Handing me a spoon, he said, `Taste it. What do you think?’ It took off in my mouth like a freight train.

“`What was that?’ I asked.”

“`That,’ he said, smiling, `is Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.'”

Immediately Ovington put it on the menu, and that’s how it all began.

Steve and Gayle Henson

And from there, Steve Henson’s creamy herbed concoction went from a little known backwoods treat whipped up on a Santa Barbara County ranch, to a national bestselling dressing and a household name.

The story behind Hidden Valley Ranch dressing:

Sergio Ortiz, Houston Chronicle 02/24/1999, “Hidden Valley founder whips buttermilk, mayo into legend”

Posted in Santa Barbara County | Tagged Cold Spring Tavern, Food, Hidden Valley Ranch, History, Non-fiction, Ranch Dressing, Steve Henson, Writing | 9 Comments

The Bandit of Ballarat

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Jack Elliott

“For 11 months, the Bandit led state and federal officers on a 1500-mile chase through some of the most rugged and inhospitable terrain in America. They had pursued him with helicopters, planes, dogs, trackers, and entire task forces, on horseback, by car and on foot; he had escaped them at every turn by demonstrating incredible feats of physical endurance and wilderness ingenuity. As tales of his exploits mounted, he became a folk hero, an outlaw trickster in the tradition of the Old West.”

-Jason Kersten, The Bandit of Ballarat

The Bandit of Ballarat, George Robert Johnston. (c) Nye County, NV Sheriff

He disappeared, melting into the desert wilderness on foot when a 30 man posse raided his camp with trucks, ATVs and a Black Hawk helicopter carrying a SWAT team.

In another instance, authorities discovered the Bandit’s camp near the base of a 9000-foot mountain. They launched an assault at dawn with a K-9 unit and a SWAT team. They took to a foot chase up the slope following his tracks and came within 50 feet of him, but the Bandit smoked ’em.

He sprinted five miles up and over the mountain and across the valley beyond leaving bewildered law enforcement agents in the dust.

“He never stopped once,” recalled one officer. “We followed him track to track, and he never put two feet together. He never stopped to rest, never sat down, nothing.” Not bad at 50 years old.

Two months later, he once again escaped pursuers by trekking 60 miles through the desolate snow-covered hills of Nevada.

And that’s only part of the remarkable story surrounding the so-called “notorious U.S. fugitive”, the Bandit of Ballarat, George Robert Johnston. There are numerous points to focus on, but I mention it here out of interest in the “physical endurance and wilderness ingenuity” demonstrated by Johnston.

The story was originally published in Men’s Journal (May, 2007). It can be read in full at Jason Kersten’s website or here in PDF format: Bandit of Ballarat.

Banner photo: Panamint Valley by mlhradio on Flickr.