A publication of Mountain C.A.R.E. (http://www.mtncare.com) Winter 2013 Volume 7 Number 1 Winter Boutique A Success Bear Facts Staff Mountain C.A.R.E. Hooray!!! Our community craft fair, “Winter Paul Tetreault President’s Message Boutique” on Sunday, Dec 6th at the Community Editor Center was a huge success. The day was so festive, by Matt Bottenberg Shirley Bauer the handcrafted creations so awesome. A huge Advertising Director Well, old man winter thank you to all our dedicated workers and talented Carol Burgess reminded us how cold crafters. Many of us found it a great day to purchase original hand made Christmas gifts. Mailing Director it can get up here with to submit frozen pipes, very Please mark your calendars for Sunday, May 5th, Letters to the Editor slick roads, and a 11am to 4pm for our Spring Boutique . There will be write to: beautiful gifts, just in time for Mothers Day, Fathers general desire by all [email protected] Day, graduations, and weddings. Refreshments will of us to stay inside be available. We’ll have a raffle of crafters pieces and hunker down. to help fund the upkeep of the Community Center. I recorded 11 degrees In late March a notice will be emailed to all past Mountain C.A.R.E. at my place at the crafters (and you who are interested), about spaces Board of Directors coldest. Brrrr! I hope folks are going to available for crafters. Want on Dee’s list? email Matt Bottenberg mtncare.com, and clicking on the webcam [email protected]. For raffle prize donors President tab to get a good view of weather conditions email [email protected] George Forgues at the entrance to Forest Falls. This is also a We appriciate very much all of you who help Vice President good spot to look at when you wonder about make this twice yearly event a success. Michelle Michelle Macri conditions at about 4500 feet in the mountains. Macri, Dee Konczal, Shirley Bauer. Secretary Other local webcams in the Mountain C.A.R.E Mitch Ridgeway communities will be coming online very soon Save The Date Treasurer to give you even more detail. Canyon Clean-up and Gail D. Cox Day Saturday, May 18 http://mtncare.com/forest-falls-web-cam.aspx Carol Burgess It will soon be time to celebrate spring and the Subscription Director canyon’s awakening from a blanket of snow. One Jeff Schaefer In this issue of the Bear Facts you will find way Mill Creek Canyon has celebrated spring is Webmaster with our annual Canyon Clean-up and Gail D. many important articles covering recent and Cox Day. Volunteers will be encouraged to meet upcoming community events, local history, and form groups to clean our community areas and Shirley Bauer safety tips, and good books to read by a warm Karen Goodyear everyone is welcome to do a little spring cleaning winter fire. Rod Goodyear around our yards and local streets. Paul Tetreault But soon, it will be a new spring, and we will In the afternoon, we’ll sit back and (hopefully, in the Members of the Board emerge from our hibernation, to experience a spring sunshine) enjoy an afternoon with friends to new beginning. That means that there will be a celebrate Gail D. Cox Day and the establishment of the Big Falls Lodge Community Center. lot of yard clean-up, and other spring cleaning Between now and then, we’ll be working to activities to deal with. Mountain C.A.R.E. is organize metal recycling, eWaste (electronics), here to help. We are planning the next annual HHW (household hazardous waste), and large canyon cleanup for May 18th. We need dumpsters for yard and household trash. Details volunteers to help, and I can’t wait to help you will be posted around the canyon and shared in the stuff your old unneeded junk into a dumpster. next issue of the Bear Facts. Have an idea on an additional way to celebrate But before I do that, please continue to contrib- spring? Call, Beth Tetreault, at 909-794-0077 ute your donations at mtncare.com so that we Save the Date and join the fun. Please Renew $15/yr can really make an impact! Recycle, Renew, Reuse, Repurpose Page 2 Volume 7 Issue 1 A Publication of Mountain C.A.R.E. The Life of the Canyon in the caves, his strobe mysteriously blew out, not once but twice. Out of options, they moved to the cliffs just as the sun was rising Eyes of Our World and got the famous album cover shot. by Shannon Wray In 1969, Gary fled the crime of the city to Forest Falls permanently, Every summer after we’ve done some street dancing, sipped some eventually setting up shop and home in the building behind where beverages, and sampled a whole lot of chili, we gather at the creek Coyote Unlimited is now. At an earlier time in his career he had as a community for our annual photograph. From atop his truck, taken camp photos for the YMCA and it seemed a viable thing to photographer Gary Burgess gets cheesy with everyone and like do in the San Bernardino Mountains. His first summer he took magic has pictures ready at the store that evening as a souvenir of camp photos for three camps, but within a few years he was the our hometown fun. camp photographer for 30 camps. At his peak, he photographed In the mid-1940’s Gary’s grandfather bought eight lots, at a an average of 7,000 people a week. Another specialty is family whopping price of $250 each, located between Forest Home and portraits and he has taken tens of thousands of them, over multiple Prospect Drive. He built a house for himself and one for Gary’s mother. As a boy, Gary spent his summers in Forest Falls – but with a hitch. If he stayed for longer than a week his family told him that he had to have a part time job. The San Gorgonio Lodge was then a store and a restaurant owned by Bob and Fay Holman featuring Fay’s homemade pies. Holman was a jack of all trades and he hired Gary for a variety of jobs that included riding a burro up the Alger Creek trail (now Momyer) with huge buckets of trout to stock the creek, and standing by while the fearless Holman climbed up a telephone pole to weld a wire between the power lines and a trailer frame watching the sparks fly. Although Gary learned a thing or two from Holman, his passion was photography. By the 1960’s Burgess had a well-established studio in the Long Beach area. He was hired by New Orleans musician Dr. John to do photography for his album Sun Moon & Herbs with Eric Clapton. Clockwise: Bob Clark Jr., Paul Clark, Danny Clark, Mark Clark 1970’s Photo: Burgess Photographics. generations. Unlike most staid family photos, Gary endeavors to capture what is unique about his subjects. One portrait featured the four Clark sons on an old bulldozer and for another family he shot the dad chopping wood while the mother worked at her loom. At one time, he lived across the creek from the store working on an unfinished house before there were any others. On a hot, dry summer day he was watering with the hose trying to cool things off when the hose dramatically expanded. He ran to turn the water Dr. John Album Cover 1960’s off, after inspecting the hose discovered that there was a trout in it! Photo: Burgess Photographics His water was piped directly from a large spring higher up and after his adventure with the fish he realized that there was enough At the concert at Fillmore West, he thought the lead-in act wasn’t water pressure to generate electricity. Using a car alternator, a fan, important enough to spend a lot of energy on. In retrospect he says, and a piece of tin he harnessed the water power and was able to run “I wish that I had shot them because it was Santana!” During the a saw, lights, a radio, and a refrigerator on it. Emboldened by this show he worked to capture images for the album cover, but nothing experiment, he devised a way to heat his own water, using pipes seemed quite right. Afterward, he suggested that they have some in his fireplace and a tank in his attic. The clever design switched breakfast then go to the beach where there were some interesting when the fire died down and the cold water diverted to his horse’s cliffs and caves. While taking photographs of the voodoo master watering trough. During a winter party, a helpful guest grabbed a check out current community news at www.mtncare.com Page 3 Volume 7 Issue 1 A Publication of Mountain C.A.R.E. pitch pine stump from outside and chucked it into the fireplace. In short order people were jumping for doors and windows as his Considering Books water heating pipes shot torrents of steam into the room. normally by Katherine Thomerson-Bird The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood. This cheeky book was recommended by resident and disaster prep master Thom Wellman. I didn’t ask him for an official review, but as I am only your poor editor enjoying this book now, and our normal Book authority is getting over what ailments spread through town during the holidaze, let me take Thom’s modest recommendation and a review from a pro who blogs about this stuff, as a way of providing you, with content to fill this spot.