by Jake Halpern
TOWER OF THE ARCTIC
1 The town of Sweetwater, Texas, has an annual rattlesnake roundup that attracts as many as 30,000 tourists: “Rattlesnake Roundup Time,” Houston Chronicle, March 12, 1998.
2 Just as my editor said, the Los Angeles Times ran this article on Whittier: Kim Murphy, “Alaskans Find New Road Paved with Uncertainty,” Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2000.
3 The Strangest Town in Alaska: The History of Whittier, Alaska, and the Portage Valley (Seattle: Kokogiak Media, 2000). United States Army, Building Alaska with the U.S. Army, 1867–1965, Pamphlet No. 360–5 (Seattle: Headquarters U.S. Army for Alaska, 1965). “Alaska: The Elegant White Elephant,” Time, February 21, 1964, 27.
4 “Alaska: The Elegant White Elephant.”
5 Whittier’s 250 inches of snow a year is an average (from October 2, 1950, to December 31, 2001) based on data from the Western Regional Climate Center.
6 Jon Little, “Sterling Poodle Becomes Prey,” Anchorage Daily News, March 30, 2001.
7 The school also relies on peer tutoring. When I visited, the students were preparing for a schoolwide research project on salmon, in which high school students worked side by side with first- and second-graders. The older students were expected to record detailed scientific data, while the younger students counted fish or learned to read a thermometer.
8 I interviewed Elena Meyers again the following afternoon. Her remarks as rendered in this section of the book are actually a compilation of quotations from both of these interviews.
THE LAVA-SIDE INN
1 Robert I. Tilling, Eruptions of Hawaiian Volcanoes: Past, Present, and Future (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior/U.S. Geological Survey, 1993). Volcanic and Seismic Hazards on the Island of Hawaii (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior/U.S. Geological Survey, 1997).
2 Dr. Don Swanson, Scientist-in-Charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, personal interview, May 2001.
3 In the past Kilauea has experienced some explosive eruptions, most notably in 1790 and in 1924, but this is atypical.
4 Tilling, Eruptions of Hawaiian Volcanoes; Volcanic and Seismic Hazards.
5 Robert Nilsen, Moon Handbooks’ Big Island of Hawaii: Including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (New York: Avalon Travel Publishing, 2001).
6 George Cooper and Gavan Daws, Land and Power in Hawaii (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990).
7 Henry David Thoreau, Walden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
CANYON OF THE FIREFIGHTING HILLBILLIES
1 Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster (New York: Henry Holt, 1998).
2 Ibid.
3 Bob Pool, “Fires Rage, Torch Malibu Area,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1993; Jack Cheevers, “Help Gone Awry,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1993; Richard Colvin, “Following the Flames on Path of Destruction,” Los Angeles Times, November 7, 1993; George Gordon, “Death Toll 3, Arson Suspected,” Malibu Times, November 11, 1993.
4 Daniel Hernandez, “7 Wildfires Burn 80,000 Acres,” Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2001; Jeff Barnard, “Firefighters Attack Western Wildfires,” Associated Press Online, August 15, 2001; Craig Welch, “Hundreds of Fires Blaze Across NW,” Seattle Times, August 14, 2001.
5 Raymond Chandler, Red Wind (Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1946).
6 There is conflicting information on whether the arrival of the Santa Ana winds actually coincides with heightened crime. Some reports (Gregory McNamee, “Breezy Stories,” Tucson Weekly, November 15, 1995) assert that homicide rates double on bad Santa Ana days. Other investigations (Paul Young, L.A. Exposed: Strange Myths and Curious Legends in the City of Angels [New York: St. Martin’s, 2002]) suggest that the homicide rate actually goes down during the weeks of peak Santa Ana activity.
7 For information on Chumash Indians and the Spanish governor (José Joaqín de Arillaga), see Thomas C. Blackburn and Kat Anderson, Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians (Menlo Park, Calif.: Ballena Press, 1993). For information on Cabrillo and the French traveler (Eugene Duflot de Mofras), see Stephen Pyne, Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildlife and Rural Fire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982).
8 The most accurate historical information about Marion Decker, including his date of arrival, comes from court records in the case The People v. May K. Rindge, 174 California (April 1917).
9 For background on the Rindge family in Malibu, see Luanne Pfeifer, The Malibu Story (Malibu: Malibu Lagoon Museum, 1985). For information on the movie colony fire of 1928, see Davis, Ecology of Fear.
10 The quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder, the reference to Alfred Jacob Miller’s painting, and most of the historical information relating to evolution of firefighting comes from Pyne, Fire in America. Additional background information comes from a personal interview with Stephen Pyne in August of 2002. Pyne, one of the nation’s leading “fire historians,” teaches at Arizona State University.
11 Information on plant life comes from Margaret Huffman, Wild Heart of Los Angeles (Niwot, Colo.: Roberts Rhinehart Publishers, 1998). Additional information comes from a personal interview with Margaret Huffman in August of 2001. Huffman is an expert on California native plants and serves as a docent at Topanga State Park, Charmlee Park, and the Ballona Wetlands.
12 Kathleen Kelleher, “Devastating Fire Helped Bring Malibu Together,” Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1994.
13 Richard Lillard, “Mountain Men and Women in the New West of Los Angeles,” South Dakota Review 19 (spring/summer 1981).
ISLAND OF THE STORM RIDERS
1 State of Louisiana Department of Culture & Recreation & Tourism, Birds of Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Office of Tourism Publications).
2 Betsy Swanson, Historic Jefferson Parish: From Shore to Shore (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing, 1975).
3 The number of people who died on Grand Isle and Cheniere Caminada is an estimate derived from two sources: Rose C. Falls, Cheniere Caminada: The Wind of Death (New Orleans: Hopkins’ Printing, 1893); Dale Rogers, Cheniere Caminada: Buried at Sea (Thibodaux: self-published, 1981).
4 David Maraniss, “Grand Stand on Grand Isle: 1 Percent of the Population Wouldn’t Budge,” Washington Post, August 28, 1992.
5 Rogers, Cheniere Caminada: Buried at Sea.
6 Sally Kittredge Evans, Grand Isle on the Gulf: An Early History (Jefferson Parish Historical Commission, 1981).
7 Falls, Cheniere Caminada: The Wind of Death; Rogers, Cheniere Caminada: Buried at Sea.
8 I later verified these reports in the following newspaper articles: “Storm Still Battering Nicaragua, Honduras,” Miami Herald, November 1, 2001; “Tropical Storm Ravages Central America,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2001.
9 Evans, Grand Isle on the Gulf.
10 Carl A. Brasseaux, Scattered to the Wind: Dispersal and Wanderings of the Arcadians, 1755–1809 (Lafayette, La.: Center for Louisiana Studies, 1991).
11 Both men actually resided on Grand Terre, the small windswept island just several hundred yards off the eastern edge of Grand Isle.
12 “Cuba Braces for Impact of Hurricane Michelle,” New York Times, November 4, 2001.
13 All scientific information and statistics about erosion from Shea Penland, Louisiana Barrier Island Erosion Study: Atlas of Shoreline Changes in Louisiana from 1853 to 1989 (prepared by the USGS in cooperation with the Louisiana Geological Survey, 1992). Historical information about Last Isle and its hotels from James M. Sothern, Last Island (Houma, La.: Cheri Publications, 1980).
14 Jack Beven, “Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Michelle,” a report for the National Hurricane Center, January 23, 2002.
EPILOGUE
1 According to the Anchorage Daily News, as of the spring of 2002, plans for a private prison in Whittier had passed in the Alaska House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate. Despite this setback, the prison’s backers remained optimistic. (Tom Kizzia, “Private-Prison Push Likely to be Revived,” Anchora
ge Daily News, May 23, 2002.)
2 It’s worth noting that Ambrose and his wife, Sissy Besson, have been married for more than forty years. In my time on Grand Isle, however, I hardly ever saw them spending time together. They seemed to have a strong but independent marriage.
3 Primo Levi, The Periodic Table (New York: Schocken Books, 1984).
Acknowledgments
Without the help of Thad Knight, Babs Reynolds, Jack Thompson, Millie Decker, and Ambrose Besson, this book would simply not exist. Any credit that I get for this project truly belongs to them. These are their stories—I merely did my best to retell them.
I would also like to thank a handful of other key people in each of the places I visited: Sam Knight and Anne Howell in Princeville; Brenda Tolman, Carolyn Raye Casebeer, and Jan Latta in Whittier; Don Bartel, Chuck Humphries, and Dr. Don Swanson in Hawaii; Bonnie Decker, Chip Mandeville, and his wife, Claire, in Malibu; and Sissy Besson and Josie Cheramie in Grand Isle. Time and again, these people welcomed me into their homes, returned my calls, and did their best to help me recount these stories as accurately as possible. I am greatly indebted to all of them.
As far as the actual writing of this book goes, I would like to start by thanking Joseph Finder—the best mentor a young writer could hope to have. If it were not for his sustained, brotherly concern, I doubt I would have had the nerve to embark on this journey. I am also so grateful that he put me in touch with my literary agent, Tina Bennett, who helped me mold, polish, and produce this work. Her keen advice and tireless encouragement have made her an invaluable partner with whom I hope to work for a very long time. Many Acknowledgments thanks also go to her dynamic assistant, Svetlana Katz. At Houghton Mifflin I would like to thank my editor, Heidi Pitlor, whose vision for this book has been far-reaching. Over the course of the last two years, she has helped me improve my writing on an almost daily basis. Her devotion to this book has been astounding, and I hope I am lucky enough to work with her in the future. Additionally I would like to thank a few others at Houghton Mifflin: Megan Wilson, Carla Gray, Melissa Grella, and Alison Kerr Miller, all of whom worked diligently and shrewdly on my behalf.
I would also like to thank my friends and coworkers at the New Republic, who encouraged me to pursue this project, gave me valuable leads, and helped me refine my prose. They include Brian Groh, Ben Soskis, Negar Akavi, Martin Peretz, Andrew Sullivan, and Will Lippincott. A number of other friends also helped me greatly along the way, including Elaine McArdle, Mike Bowden, Meaghan Rady, Christian Manders, Charles Wachter, Phil Blix, Beverly Sanford, Jane Levin, and Micah Nathan.
Finally, I would like to thank my family. My stepsister Robyn most generously gave me her “flying pass,” for which I am still incredibly grateful. My mother and father believed in this project from the start, never once questioning if it was feasible or practical. Their love and encouragement have been the wellspring of my every success. My brother Greg, who is a gifted photographer and oral historian, inspired me and counseled me on numerous occasions. Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank my fiancee, Kasia Lipska, whose unwavering friendship ushered me through my lowest moments and helped me carry on.
About the Author
JAKE HALPERN has written for The New Yorker, the New Republic, Outside, Commonwealth, LA Weekly, and other magazines. Braving Home is the basis for a five-part series airing on NPR’s All Things Considered. Halpern lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Footnotes
* There is no definitive scholarship on whether Princeville is in fact the oldest incorporated black town in the United States. For a long time it was believed that Eatonville, Florida (the setting of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God), held that distinction. Princeville was later believed to be older than Eatonville, and many politicians and newspapers have since heralded it as the nation’s oldest incorporated black town. But there is no bona fide historical research on whether this is true, and it remains an educated guess.
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* The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Engineering & Planning Branch) notes that the old dike stood forty-nine feet above mean sea level. During Hurricane Floyd, the river reached fifty-one feet above mean sea level. According to Doug Greene, an engineer in the Wilmington District, that’s a “huge amount of overtopping.”
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* The tunnel schedule varies by day and by season. On Friday nights, for instance, it stays open until nine-thirty P.M. so that people can leave or stay out a little later.
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* According to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the “Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel” into Whittier is the longest “highway” or “vehicular” tunnel in North America. At 13,300 feet it is considerably longer than the runner-up, the East River Tunnel in New York, which is a mere 9,117 feet.
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* Hardened lava is not necessarily cold or inactive. Because molten lava cools so rapidly, its surface often forms a thin crust, like the skim on a bowl of chocolate pudding. Beneath this thin crust of rock there are often massive rivers of hot, flowing lava.
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* I eventually contacted Robert Steams, vice president of the Royal Gardens’ Community Association. Stearns told me that as of 2002, the association was no longer maintaining the access road or even collecting dues. “The situation is just too grim,” he told me. “People don’t want to put money into a place that’s just going to be covered by lava anyway.”
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* In addition to spewing lava, volcanoes are often known to cause earthquakes, which commonly roll down the mountain like giant waves. These quakes are triggered as magma fills the chambers beneath the volcano. As the volcano swells, the strain on the chamber walls can create many small “volcanic earthquakes.” Hawaii experiences thousands of these each year. For the most part they are quite small and harmless, though occasionally they can grow to significant size.
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* Jack’s insurance company refused to renew his policy shortly after the eruption in 1983.
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* Many American settlers may have already known how to “beat out” a fire. This concept is somewhat universal. As far back as the Middle Ages, there are accounts of Europeans using brooms or swatting devices to squelch fires.
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* Hurricane season is a six-month period that runs from June 1 to November 30.
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* I later called Don Bartel at his home in California, and he told me that despite his many ongoing responsibilities, he had decided to pursue the possibility of having a second home on the volcano. As of the spring of 2002, he was still negotiating a price with the owner of the small house that Jack had found for him.
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