The day was July 29, 2012. Dusk, obviously. The setting is the old hops field at the end of the road, with Brian's old busted up trailer as a focal point. The sky was the eeriest thing I can ever remember in the valley, almost a cumulus mammatus formation with a lot of strange glow. Twilight zone.
I was using an antiquated lens and a low res camera. I notice now that my settings are ƒ4 at 1/60th iso 400, which leads me to think that I was probably on an automatic setting. I would never dial in something like that today and have no idea why I picked ƒ4 even back then?
There was something about the whole tableau that was definitely spooky and foreboding. A palpable apprehension. Hope it still comes across.
9 comments:
cool relic would have loved to put my horse in it and hauled it with my old woody lol I've seen it before
hi robert. nice moody shot of the hops field (the old village site). always appreciate any pics of the old ‘hood. i cherish my years of excursions into the hinterland of la doña margarita. she is always in flux but generous with her rewards. things change. its been a long time since i hiked those trails. i heard recently that someone stole homesteader ida howell’s tombstone from down by the confluence with rainbow creek. can you verify?
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I am not sure if the stone has been lifted or not. If so, that sucks. I will check. Village site? I did some research on where the native sites were on the Santa Margarita a few years back but they lacked geographic certainty. Thanks.
most “historical” documentation of local village site locations is wrong, because it fails to take into account the meandering nature of the waterways, which moved over time. the village sites typically were located at the confluence of a creek and a river because it provided better resources and made trade easier. (i.e.; santa margarita river/rainbow creek, live oak creek/san luis rey river, temecula river/murietta creek, etc.), we found scores of neolithic artifacts on each of those sites. happy to discuss the subject at length if we get past this pandemic bullshit.
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Ever read five paths along the river, Tom Hudson's book on the San Luis Rey? I have a signed first somewhere. I have done a fair amount of research on this subject myself, will try to dig up a post with links.
Here are some of the native names of the Santa Margarita indian locations:
https://www.blueheronblast.com/2017/09/the-road-to-left.html
Hi Robert and trendmongers,
Yes someone did steal Howell's tombstone years ago. I always wonder if it is ever found we could reinstate it and have a ceremony.
Beth Cobb
wow. so its come to this. what kind of lowlife steals a pioneer’s headstone? that wasn’t an impulse move, it took planning, tools, and help. a genuine loss to the community and just plain sad. i agree beth, if its ever found, a ceremony is in order. one with tar and feathers at least.
robert, thanks for the link. i had run across “meha” before, but dismissed it as probably the spanish “meja”. hard to believe anyone knows what the local tribes called anything. with no recorded language, the spanish pretty much erased the culture within the few generations of servitude.
that, and the length of time the “indigenous” population was here.
after the fires in ’07, i found a cache of neolithic kitchen equipment locally. the san diego archeological society examined it and dated it between 9,000 and 11,000 years old. who knows what language those people spoke? it is said the oldest human evidence on the west coast is only about 12,000 years ago. maybe the first californians were still speaking proto-russian or whatever they spoke before trekking across the bering sea on the land bridge? language is fluid and evolves quicker than most things.
i have seen hudson’s book (i think it was 3 paths, not 5). in my memory, it covered US expansion more than native culture (warner, kearny, etc.). i might give it another look. thanks for mentioning it.
stay safe.
stay away.
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