About an hour away from me there is a raging fire that has consumed over 67,000 acres since Saturday. It is called the Valley Fire located south of Clear Lake. The fire has been devastating and because of the drought in California there is fuel in all directions. The fire has already jumped to my county. I tell myself there's no way it could make it to where I am, but I know that's not true. Areas burned in 15 minutes that were expected to take 24 hours. There may be some light rain tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed. So many have lost everything and are now living in shelters, not knowing if they have anything to go back to. Clear Lake is not a wealthy area, so many of these folks may never recover.
I thought I'd repost two Clear Lake posts from the past showing how beautiful Lake County can be.
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Clear Lake is in Northern California, the county just north of Napa County. This vintage snapshot dates from 1909 when apparently there was a ferry running on the lake. I don't know of any ferries running there now.
Click on any image to see it larger.
Clear Lake is a natural freshwater lake in Lake County, California and is fed by runoff flowing into many streams as well as springs in Soda Bay. Its sole outlet is Cache Creek.
Clear Lake is believed to be one of the oldest lakes in North America, due to a geological fluke. The lake sits on a huge block of stone which slowly tilts in the northern direction at the same rate as the lake fills in with sediment, thus keeping the water at roughly the same depth. Core samples of the lake's sediments, taken by U.S. Geological Survey geologists in 1973 and 1980, indicate that the lake is at least 480,000 years old. Some experts feel that Mono Lake, to the east of the Sierra Nevada in California, is older than Clear Lake. However, the sedimentary history of Clear Lake is unbroken, while Mono Lake's sediments have been disturbed by past eruptions of the Long Valley Caldera and associated volcanoes.
The geology of Clear Lake is chaotic, with numerous small faults being present in the south end of the lake as well as many old volcanoes, the largest being Mount Konocti, sitting at the middle of the lake's south shore.
Area: 69.5 sq miles (180 km²)
Surface elevation: 1,329' (405 m)
Length: 19.01 miles (30.6 km)
Fish: Largemouth bass, Channel catfish, Brown bullhead, Lavinia exilicauda, Ictalurus catus
Islands: Rattlesnake Island, Weekend Island, Fruit Island, Garner Island, Tule Island, Slater Island, Indian Island, Anderson Island
Cities: Lakeport, Clearlake, Lower Lake, Lucerne, Nice (SOURCE: Wikipedia)When I think of Clear Lake I think of hot summer days. Very hot summer days.
To read about a tragedy against the Pomo people that occurred at Clear Lake on May 15, 1850 click here.
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These first two are of Clear Lake in Northern California. Sunrise or sunset? I don't know the lake well enough to judge from which side these were taken, but they fit nicely with the third photo.
Click on images to see them larger.
Written on this third slide is "Mother Clear Lake" and it is in the box of slides taken in Sweden in 1959. Clearly she is in the sunset of her life. I believe she was Betty's paternal grandmother, but again, it's just a guess.
Click on image to see it larger.
UPDATE: Intense Guy has kindly supplied me with the following about Donald's mother:
Donald's mother, Mary G Schnabel nee Maguire was born 20 Feb 1877 in Lima, Ohio. She married George E. Schnabel in 1897. George was born about 1876 in Ohio. If the photo was taken in 1959, she would have been about 82 years old. She died in 5 Dec 1964. She and George had about 10 children.
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DeleteI've read that historically the Native American people were very fond of burning the landscape. It cleared underbrush and improved the health of the forests and prairies, while at the same time benefiting the animal populations. But sometimes their fires must have gone out of control and created horrific infernos. I hope you get rain soon.
ReplyDeleteThe photo of Donald's mother rivals the famous painting of Whistler's Mother.
We had rain today. It was just strong enough for me to back my car out of the garage and get it "washed." Well, it's what passes for getting your car washed around here. And it has helped the firefighters. But hot weather is set to return in a few days, but it should be below the 100+ we had all last week. Keeping my fingers crossed.
DeleteYes, I think it's a lovely shot of his mother.
Takes a reasonable big lake to get a rolling surf! Looks like a pretty spot.
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