A Haunting Image

Every once in awhile, a photograph will really speak to a person. One such photo, showing a church with steeple pointing toward Heaven, sang to John. Having seen countless steeples, what was hauntingly unique about this particular one was where it happened to be located. In a seemingly pastoral setting, this church, along with its steeple, lies beneath the frigid waters of a lake.

Not a common site - even for such travelers as Laureen and John. So the research began with a look into a small valley where, once upon another time, there was a village which no longer exists. Now nothing but a lake, a reservoir, was to be found, where once people laughed, played, loved, prayed, lived and died.

The lake but there's no church steeple to be seen

Since John and Laureen spend countless hours researching various topics for this blog, this photograph definitely grabbed their attention. A lost city beneath the waters of a lake sounded like something only Hollywood would imagine for theaters.

But, it turns out that many villages and towns have been obliterated by flooding waters for eons around the world. Shi Cheng in China,Vi Larinho das Furnas in Portugal, and even St. Thomas, Nevada (USA), just to name a few.

These villages did not fall victim to God-like floods that swept Noah and his family into immortality, but rather to human hubris, building dams and diverting rivers for their own needs.

In the early 1980's, then-President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela wanted to build a large reservoir to plan for any future droughts, as well as provide for a planned hydroelectric plant. So, off he flew in a helicopter until he spied the beautiful valley in northwest Venezuela being fed by a couple of rivers. He decided immediately that was where his Uribante Reservoir would be located. Forward thinking by the president since this region had periodic droughts throughout its history. Only one dilemma - twelve hundred people lived in the valley in a village called Potosi.

The church seen by John in the photograph which started us on this journey, belonged to this very same town.

President Perez didn't see a problem here. He simply ordered the people relocated. It didn't matter that their families had lived there for generations. It was a peaceful existence for the people of Potosi with home-lined streets, parks and active businesses. But the government wanted the reservoir more than they cared about the people living in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

Potosi's streets lined with simple homes

Citizens of Potosi socializing in the main square

The church of the lake

So in 1985, with all the residents moved out of the valley, the flooding began behind the Uribante Reservoir dam. Within a blink of an eye the entire town of Posoti was lost and only remained a memory for those who had been citizens of the now-flooded valley.

But nature has a way of undoing some of human's best laid plans. Those droughts that President Perez dreaded, reappeared after 26 years and the waters receded from the reservoir. The first thing that showed on the surface of the reservoir was the steeple of the village church. It was though the heavens were showing who was stronger - divine power over human will.

The reemergence of the church of Potosi 

Then again, perhaps it was just a natural occurrence of a drought once again plaguing the area of where the peaceful village of Potosi once stood. Whatever the true cause - the city reemerged from its watery grave like a specter. 

By 2010 the water was mostly gone and what remained was a village that disappeared nearly three decades earlier.

The church, albeit without walls and roof, is still standing proudly among the remnants of what once was Potosi. This includes the towns graveyard with tombstones toppled as though the dead had tried to escape the impending flooding.

The church of Potosi as it looks now

The graveyard - do soaked spirits walk the valley now?

What remains of the village of Potosi after 26 years submerged

The area is now open to those who want to travel and see a once forgotten and lost town. As of now it doesn't appear people will return to live but just to visit and possibly reminisce of what happened to a city when the government decided it stood in the way of progress.

The Power of Reading

Hop on Board!

Being involved with social media, we understand the power of simply hitting a keyboard or sliding a finger across a screen to get what a person wants, be that a book, an appliance, some food, whatever. But this begs the question, what is best?

Not in the aspect of receiving what a person is looking for - that is not the question. The true question is when it comes to reading what is better - e-books or physical books?

For the fiscally prudent person, then the answer is really simple - an e-book edition of a novel is much cheaper than a hard copy (unless a person takes the liberty of visiting a public library, shopping on-line for used books, or borrowing one from a pal). But there is something about the physical act of holding a book in one's hands and turning each page one at a time that is truly special.

Brain research actually suggests that the physical act of turning a page allows the brain to wander a moment, and then it must refocus on the following page which causes synapses to start clicking between both halves of the brain. Whereas, with an e-book, it is one continuous page just rolling by and the brain does not have to stop and refocus, thus not allowing such muscle building synapses from occurring. The brain is must have exercise to stay in tip-top shape.

That's deep.

According to an international attorney and self-professed voracious reader, Rohit Shrivastava (2017) when asked if he would rather have an e-book or a physical book - " . . . there is one aspect where e-books cannot compare with a physical book. Physical books give you a sense of ownership and attachment. You make a connection with that book. This feeling is absent in the case of an e-book."

The good news, for those of us writers who still publish hard copies of books, is that the current trend shows that more and more people are turning off their Kindles and holding physical books in their hands.

An interesting article written by Colin Ainsworth of Mentalfloss.com (1/17/19) gave a rather clear and concise break down of what is going on with book reading. Physical books are back and growing stronger by the year.

It seems, according to the online newspaper, Quartz, that between the years of 2009 and 2015 independent bookstores have not only thrived, but grown in numbers - by as much as 35%. In the United Kingdom, those numbers are even stronger and since the advent of Amazon, independent bookstores have actually increased.

Publishers Weekly, the American standard for weekly news about all that is writing and reading, reported that print sales rose by almost 2% in 2017. When the results for 2018 are in, we at J and L suspect they will be even better.

That is good news for us writing and reading types. No more is the doom and gloom that people are too busy playing on their phones and not reading. Looks as though the trend is going the opposite direction.

Another online magazine, Vox, is suggesting that people are now going to book stores more than ever, for the experience of touching, seeing, and investigating books they may be interested in reading. Though social media still rears its head with people posing for selfies in the book aisles, at least it's a start.

Social media does allow smaller booksellers to tweet, Instagram, Facebook, and employ other avenues to connect with their customers and their potential new readers. It allows the book stores to reach out through the cosmos and slowly bring down to earth people who now feel the need to hold a book in their hands.

One book seller stated that she was finding more and more social media addicted souls were coming to her store to purchase books because they actually craved the physical contact of the book. The purchasers were a bit tired of everything being digitized and wanted to feel, look and smell a real book.

We like that and during a recent book signing at Barnes and Noble, felt that with the many people who stopped by to chit-chat or have John autograph his latest novel, Iquitos - The Past Will Kill - still enjoyed wandering the aisles. With the crowds going through the large store it was reassuring to think that bookstores are on their way up, and in fact the foot traffic that particular day seemed to reaffirm that belief.

John will be signing more copies of his books this coming Sunday, the 27th, at the Victorville Barnes and Noble. The book store ran out of some of his titles at the last signing and re-ordered. If anyone is nearby - please stop in and say hello to the author - no purchase necessary.

For a quick two and a half minute video in reference to the book signing please check out this link.
https://youtu.be/y3rf5JhIJ9g

Special thanks to Justin Barr who created the above video.

https://www.justinbarrphotography.com/

Lake Arrowhead

On a recent visit to the mountain communities less than an hour's drive from their home base, John and Laureen learned that Lake Arrowhead is known as 'the Alps of Southern California.'

Are those the Alps? Nope, just John and Laureen at Lake Arrowhead

One drive through the forested mountains in this region easily confirms the moniker. Tall green trees on steep slopes overlooking a marvelously blue mountain lake reminded the duo of trips they had ventured during trips to Europe. The crisp winter air mingled with the whistling of the slight winds through the evergreens had a definite Alp-like feeling - even if one only watched the film Sound of Music. The resemblance  of Lake Arrowhead to a bit of the Swiss Alps was confirmed.

This looks more Alpish - wintry with beautiful trees

A three day weekend is always fun and even more so when visiting a place so close to home but so different. Living in the High Desert of Southern California one gets used to the brown of the desert,  beautiful on its own, but the forest with snow in the mountains - that is a picturesque respite from the everyday life in the desert.

Bring warm clothes in the winter

The water fowl, mainly ducks on this day seem to enjoy the winter water

This small mountain city of just over 12,000 inhabitants at an elevation of 5,174 feet above sea level has a very interesting part in early California history.

People living near what would later be known as Little Bear Lake date back hundreds of years when members of the Paiute and Serrano Indian tribes would use the area for hunting and gathering during the non-winter months. The Paiute, who actually were from further north most of the year, were more war-like than the Serrano and kept out of each others way most of the time. But then came the white settlers who changed things up a bit.

Native American locations in Southern California prior 1900's

A partner of the famous adventurer, Jedediah Smith is recorded as the first white male to visit the mountains in 1826 of what would become known as the San Bernardino Mountain range. This is when Grizzly Bears roamed in the hundreds but would, within a few decades, no longer exist in Southern California and then the rest of California by 1922. In fact, William F. "Grizzly Bill" Holcomb loved to hunt the bears in the mountains and finally eradicated the magnificent beasts from Southern California. Holcomb Valley is the reward this man received on future maps of the area just north-east of modern day Lake Arrowhead.

Things went well between the first white settlers and the natives until one of the miners, the locale was loaded with gold, made unwanted advances toward a Serrano maiden. Skirmishes occurred leaving both a number of settlers and Indians dead. The Paitue had never trusted the newcomers and peace was never a number one priority for either white or Indian. They never got along.

Then, as is the case in most of the history of California more newcomers discovered lands of interest and took it upon themselves to develop such lands to their liking. The Mormons began a road up into the mountains from San Bernardino in 1852 for the lumber located there. In the 1860's flat land was located in various parts of the mountains and turned out was good for raising cattle. In the winters most people hunkered down for the snow but business would pick up as soon as the snow melted and the sun appeared daily.

Mormon Road in the 1920's to Lake Arrowhead

By now the mountains were dominated by miners, ranchers, loggers, and people that realized the mountain top could prove to be a marvelous place to install a reservoir for the building population of San Bernardino and west to Los Angeles.

In 1893 work began on a man-made reservoir named Little Bear Lake. Quarters were built for the men constructing the reservoir and through the years as construction continued the area become better known to the people down in the valleys below as a place of quiet solitude. As more and more tourists visited the mountains small encampments were erected, mainly camping sites, and eventually permanent places to welcome guests who wanted to escape the hot summers and enjoy the coolness of the pines.

Before the dam was erected creating Little Bear Lake

By the 1920's a village had taken shape with a golf course, vacation rentals, an outdoor theater, a pavilion, and many other attractions making it a wonderful get-away. Soon private home sites were offered by the Lake Arrowhead Company, out of Los Angeles, and the area was renamed Lake Arrowhead. The homes went up at record speed and became a well known destination for the more financially well off to have a place to retire to for a short time from the ever growing valleys below the mountain tops of Southern California.

UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center

The village of Lake Arrowhead has grown into one of the secret gems not only in Southern California but world wide having tens of thousands of visitors coming here each and every year. The lake is inundated with locals and visitors during all months and with snow falling the sight is something to behold in the winter. Home to many varieties of water fowl and fish makes this a favorite spot for everyone to stand on shore and marvel at the beauty of nature.

Water front at the Lake Arrowhead Village

It is a place for family and friends to spend a day, a week, a month, or a life time enjoying. Great shops, restaurants, events, hiking trails, and anything else an explorer or not could relish. It is a location for whatever the traveler would make of it.

Many famous people have made Lake Arrowhead their home. The likes of Tom Selleck, Sammy Hagar, Michelle Kwan, John Candy just to name a few have graced the waters and watering holes throughout the area.

Sammy Hagar's home - it's for sale 5.9 million

This was Tom Selleck's boat house to his house - we'll take the boat house

These fabulous lake homes and the history of the lake itself is told almost daily, weather permitting, aboard the paddle wheel, Arrowhead Queen. A hour long cruise on the lake highlighting many of the details which made the area what it is today.

Arrowhead Queen paddle boat tour

Braken Fern Manor in the village of Lake Arrowhead is now a Bed and Breakfast but it was originally opened on July 4th, 1929 as the Club Arrowhead in the Pines by the mobster Bugsy Seigel.

It was here that many famous and infamous people would venture to get out of the limelight and possibly the police spotlight to mingle with each other. As would befit the ghost of Mr. Seigel - the place is believed to be haunted by those suffering the wrath of the gang boss - who knows but makes an interesting stay for those interested in such other worldly adventures.

Braken Fern Manor - is that Bugsy looking out the upper right window?

No wonder Lake Arrowhead is truly a hidden gem. And all this time it was just in our backyard.

Lake Arrowhead at its best - nice and warm

For further information:

https://lakearrowheadchamber.com/
http://www.lakearrowhead.com/lahistory.html
lakearrowheadqueen.com/