THE TUNNEL #6 FIRE ON THE NORTH YUBA

The Sierra Buttes Lookout in 1945

Photo Courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service

On September 23, 1954 a disastrous fire started on the southern slope of the Sierra Buttes, located in Sierra County, in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.  Today there is a Forest Service fire lookout maintained on the nearby summit at 8,587 feet.  This sunny slope was seasonally used by the Washoe, the Mountain Maidu, the Nisenan and those unnamed groups who preceded them, for thousands of years.  In addition to bountiful hunting and fishing this area was renowned, into the historic period, for its wild plums.

In 1850 gold was discovered in the region and soon became the sole focus of Euro-American miners.  The gold was underground and required elaborate and often expensive machinery to mine.  But after about 1865 there was no shortage of investors who made mining much more profitable, at least for the investors.  For the average miners and their families there was steady year-round work.

Artist, M.L. Strangroom (18??)

Courtesy of the Bancroft Library

Just upslope to the north and above the town of Sierra City were several mines, the most notable being the Sierra Buttes Mine which, in its 80 years of existence, produced $17 to $20 million in gold.  From 1870 to 1905 it was owned by English investors who paid the over 200 miners who worked there $2.50 to $3 a day.  By the time the mine closed there were very few standing trees in this area – the vegetation that remained was primarily brush.

 

Map by James Sinnott (1978)

Sierra City and the Sierra Buttes Mine (1900)

Courtesy of the Plumas County Museum 

A Stereo Photo of the Employees of the Sierra Buttes Mine (date unknown)

Photographer M. M. Hazeltine

Fire is part of the ecology of the Sierra Nevada.  To date, our experiment with fighting or “stamping out” fire has not worked very well.  We still want to have our way with nature, yet we seem oblivious to the reality of being locked in her embrace.  We’re going to have to learn to live with fire.  What follows is the story of the Tunnel #6 Fire as told to me in 2012 by Todd White, a wildland firefighter for the Tahoe National Forest:

The Tunnel #6 Fire as told by Todd White

“If you stand on top of the Sierra Buttes and look to the south and you look downhill at the bottom you’ll see a river canyon and that’s the river canyon where the North Fork of the Yuba River flows, and upslope of that is the old gold rush town of Sierra City.  This hillside is big and open and drops more than 4,000 feet to the river canyon below.  It’s broken by drainages that run downslope, and covered primarily in mountain chapparal like greenleaf manzanita, silk tassel and huckleberry oak brush.  Mid-slope on that hill, more than 50 years ago, a group of men took to salvaging some scrap iron from a penstock of an old gold mine.  Their cutting torches threw some sparks which started a fire, and that fire became known as the Tunnel #6 Fire.

When the Forest Service got wind of this, they dispatched fire fighters.  At around 4 o’clock that afternoon a group of firefighters hiked up and started building a fire line.  Most of these firefighters were inmates. They were inmates from Folsom State Prison that were supervised by the Forest Service superintendent and a couple of three foremen.  In summers they lived in canvas-walled tents at the old Eureka Honor Camp #24, which was not far away from Eureka Diggings.  Daily they’d work on timber stand improvement and other reforestation projects and occasionally they’d fight some fire.  

Well, so they’re swinging brush hooks, Pulaskis, McLeods and shovels and not really getting anywhere – they weren’t really making very good progress. The wind would blow and throw spot fires and they’d have to back up and start again.  About 8 o’clock that night they decided to bag it and retreat back to the road and get a bite to eat and rest up and come up with a new plan.

Well by then, there were more firefighters and there was an old cable dozer that belonged to a logging company. They decided to put a fire line on a ridgetop that was about a mile to the west of where the fire had gotten established in Independence Ravine. This ridgetop would connect a couple of roads that contoured above and below the fire and if they could build it and burn it out in time, they could successfully box the fire in.  So around midnight the dozer’s pushing downhill, the men from the honor camp and a schoolteacher from Downieville filled in behind improving the fireline and getting it ready to burn out.  Now all evening the cool night air was doing what it does, which is flow downhill and downcanyon and kinda keep the fire parked down below – it really wasn’t moving uphill.

But sometime around 2:30 in the morning the wind switched and started coming out of the east. It was a dry wind and it started blowing pretty strong and it started to push the fire’s edge toward the dozer line and these firefighters. Well, the order came to abandon the fire line and get everybody downhill and load them into the trucks and relocate them out to the west and the north up at a place called Mule Camp, which would be out of the way of the fire if it kept blowing west unchecked.  Well, all but four of them made it to the bottom of the handline and those four they got cutoff by a finger of fire that blew across the dozer line and cut them off and got established in a windy ravine and forced them to retreat uphill. But one of them made it uphill to the Shaughnessy Wood Haul Road and got up there, but the other three didn’t. They were found later that afternoon, not more than 150 feet from the road that would have got them out of there.  That fire eventually burned 2,500 acres and a few structures. Later that week a headline in the San Francisco Examiner read, “Three Felons Die Fighting Fire in Sierra City.”

Well, there’s no cross on a hill that marks where Frank Burr, Mel Grodzik and Richard Fierro fell in 1954 and luckily there hasn’t been a firefighter burned over on the Tahoe (National Forest) since.  But those hard-fought lessons in the Tunnel #6 Fire helped shape what became known as the Ten Standard Firefighting Orders that, to this day, are taught, learned and memorized by firefighters everywhere.  About the only thing that remains on the hill now is a small number of rusted hand tools buried underneath the mountain chaparral on that south aspect of Sierra Buttes.”

The FlumeCreek Drainage on the Southeast Slope of The Sierra Buttes

Despite the brevity of Todd’s story his narrative reveals some of the skills typical of the men and women who fight wildland fires.  He is alert to the topography, vegetation, wind direction, the location of his colleagues, possible escape routes and more.  We’re fortunate to have such wide-awake, disciplined and courageous people around.  We appreciate the firefighters and respect their skills!

Eight years ago, I assisted artist Kris Timkin with an audio project by recording Todd White.  For me the project was a rewarding experiment in acoustic geography, and I recommend checking it out: http://absencepresenceaudio.com   On the website you can hear Todd White tell the story about the Tunnel #6 Fire.  You’ll notice that storytelling has more vibrancy and nuance than the written word.  It’s the way we’ve taught, learned, entertained and bonded for who knows how many years.

• • •

DON'T VISIT THE SOUTH YUBA RIVER THIS SUMMER, IT'S TOO CROWDED

“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” – E.B. White

 

“Tourism is about curiosity, which killed the cat.” – Lucy Lippard

  

While change is inevitable, the pace of change driven by hordes of tourists is affecting the character of our community and threatening the health of the Yuba River foothills.  Every summer thousands of visitors, hell-bent on a day at the river, descend on the South Yuba, a sacred stream that is struggling to cope with the increase in soil compaction, erosion, diminished water quality, degraded wildlife habitat, trash, diapers, broken glass bottles, increased traffic with unconscious drivers, graffiti on boulders, more creepy voyeurs and piles of shit from both dogs and humans.  This year has attracted the biggest crowds since the gold rush.  The biggest threat is from catastrophic fire!  No sane person would deliberately start a fire, but accidents happen, and with this volume of unaware visitors, it is a real possibility.

 

Most visitors don’t know (and some don’t care) anything about the Yuba ecosystem, they’re here for a carefree day of swimming and sunning.  But for those of us who live here the Yuba River basin is an inspirational landmark and it’s the heart of our community. Did you know that ecology comes from the Greek word for house or home?

 

I want to reemphasize that we, the people of the Yuba River watershed, are in an alarming situation.  It is only early August and people, unfamiliar with this place, are swarming the Yuba River, especially the South Yuba, in record numbers.  As a result, there are immediate dangers in the very real threat of wildfire and the inability of the Yuba canyon to cope with the volume of visitors.

It's sobering to be driving home and see smoke in that direction

How did this happen?  Prior to the 1970s lumbering, or logging, was the basis of the local economy but it was slowing down, in part, by a series of new laws that mandated concern for the environment and input from what loggers called “specialists.”  Reports written by wildlife biologists, botanists, archaeologists, hydrologists and ecologists added costs and made logging less profitable, but it made for healthier forests.  I became a specialist myself when, in 1975, I was hired as an archaeologist by the Tahoe National Forest.

 

The economic hub of the region is the Nevada City–Grass Valley area where, in the 1950s & 60s, small sawmills were ubiquitous from Bear River to the North Yuba and its tributaries.  Eventually there was less employment in the traditional triad of mining, logging and ranching.  It took Nevada City residents, David Osborne and Charles Wood, partners with a background in architecture and art, to point out the abundance of historical structures here and how that could appeal to tourists.  To make a long story short Nevada City was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and the Nevada County Chamber of Commerce began to sell the historical authenticity of the region.  

View from a clearcut on Buck Mountain with Malakoff Diggings in the background.

        The Yuba River watershed has a history of largely unregulated extractive industry.

In the 21^st century more aggressive marketing from both business entities and environmentally conscious non-profits, along with a constant barrage of praise, bragging and photos on social media have essentially changed an experience with nature to a crowded rendezvous of strangers, most of whom have no ties to this community.

 

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we had to learn the hard way that there is no such thing as “sustainable tourism,” it’s an oxymoron along the lines of “friendly takeover,” “open secret,” “civil war” or “military intelligence.”  Now local citizens are forced to travel to other, more remote areas, for a quality day outdoors, making them tourists themselves.  Meanwhile people who’ve lived here for decades, and their children, are being priced out of the area.  This is merely kicking the can down the trail.  It’s a conflict between a residual gold rush mentality and those for whom nature, culture and quality of life matter most.  If you live in a beautiful, enlightened or quaint area long enough you will probably see its commodification, homogenization and demise?  It’s the way of things, the Tao of capitalism.  Yet, does it have to be this way – so vulgar, pathetic and unconscious.

A collection of lighters casually collected in a year's time. For future archaeologists this will be seen as an emblematic artifact from this era.

Recently I’ve been meeting tourists who romantically term themselves “global citizens” and who see becoming part of a place as provincial and inhibiting.  They’re generally self-centered and fluid and include ecstatic dancers, traveling weed trimers and spiritual seekers who arrive in greater numbers after Burning Man to plunder local food banks and camp on the river (with campfires, of course).  Right now, the Yuba River is at its population carrying capacity and it’s no one’s fault or insidious scheme, but under these conditions the environment is degrading, and it won’t be the place we used to know much longer.

 

Nevada City, CA

Previous generations worked hard on maintaining historical authenticity and it did draw people to the region for several decades.  In this century Nevada City and Grass Valley became more event oriented and have cultivated still another group of tourists.  Fewer people today come here for the historic ambience – a Disney-like façade is sufficient.  In time we will probably lose our remarkable downtowns to versions of Virginia City, Nevada, complete with staged authenticity.  It happens incrementally, and it’s well underway.

Washington, CA. Advice from the locals

Part of the problem is that our cities and their Chambers of Commerce are way too accommodating to tourists causing places to lose their authenticity to the whims of carpetbaggers who are only here until the money’s gone.  I'm not saying make it difficult for tourists.  You can still be a friendly, welcoming place while still basically forcing people to adapt to YOUR city, with its own culture, concerns and values.  Eventually mass tourism will attract corporate interests who will turn your beloved neighborhood into a theme park.

 

Airbnb and the illusion of “living like a local” are condescending concepts.  Locals don’t want residential neighborhoods commercialized and populated by strangers on vacation.  And what visitor wants to work for the wages that locals earn?  Let’s face it, all tourists are intrusive at one level or another.  Does it matter to tourists that most locals will tolerate them only as long as they’re spending?  When concerns about tourism come from locals, is it not wise to listen?  

 

I’ve been in the Nevada City area for over 50 years and I’ve watched shops selling auto parts, gas, used building materials, hardware, clothing, baked goods, groceries, a pharmacy, a newspaper office and more, close.  New businesses that cater to tourists have replaced them.  At the moment you can’t find a wing nut in Nevada City, or groceries for that matter, because the entire economy is based on tourism.  Despite this desperate solution, Donald Snow, author of Selling Out the Last Best Place (1994) observed that opposing tourism in the West, if only theoretically, has become “like being against ranching, or Christianity.”  

 

Nevada City, CA.

The design on the T-shirt is a remix of local architecture  

When tourism becomes the only option for economic survival, our labor force could become a population of service workers, some dressed up to look like our ancestors as we rewrite the past to serve the present, although I doubt that will happen here.  Yet expectations of tourists mold the behavior of locals because they have the economic power to do so.  Tourist towns are often stripped of their innate character only to be repackaged in a sanitized, marketable format.  Surprisingly, some (many) people are at home in a swamp of clichés.  Residents of tourist towns (locals) sometimes feel displaced and need their own refuges, which are also endangered because, they too, are potential tourist spots. 

 

The South Yuba River Citizen's League, or SYRCL, was founded in 1983 through a rural, grassroots campaign to defend the South Yuba River from proposed hydropower dams.  In 1999 SYRCL was instrumental in gaining Wild and Scenic Status for 39 miles of the South Yuba River.  Today SYRCL is the leading voice for the protection and restoration of the Yuba River watershed and has developed into a vibrant community organization with over 3,500 members and volunteers.

 

Over the past 20 years SYRCL has organized volunteers for an annual watershed cleanup.  In 2019 they removed more than 15 tons of trash and recycling from the Yuba and Bear watersheds with the help of 928 dedicated volunteers.  Among the trash items were 5,674 cigarette butts and 45 lighters, each capable of igniting a fire.  This is a good indicator of how reckless and unaware visitors (and no doubt, some locals) can be.  We are grateful for this effort and the work of SYRCL’s River Ambassadors to educate visitors about environmental degradation, but if you look at the trash/artifacts gathered objectively it is clear that much more education is necessary to stem the unconscious and dangerous behavior of more than a few.  It’s time to get serious about “your happy place.”  Might I add, it’s getting worse as we dawdle.

South Yuba River

Like it?

Be responsible 

How can we get a grip on this?  Here are some ideas from local resident, Gary Snyder’s 1969 poem, Smokey the Bear Sutra.

 . . .

And he will protect those who love woods and rivers,

Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick

people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children;

 

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution,

or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS

CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

DROWN THEIR BUTTS

CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

 

I’m all for it, and may these final lines inspire you:

 

. . .

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice

will accumulate merit as countless as the sands

of Arizona and Nevada,

Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick,

Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature,

Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts

Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot

under a pine to sit at,

AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.

 

thus have we heard.

 

You may see this poem as charming and unrealistic but lo, we already have sensible laws and ordinances regarding fire pits, trash dumps, water pollution, firearms, human waste, etc.  What we need is enforcement – the time for warnings is past.  Right now, there are many nighttime and morning campfires in the Grouse Ridge Roadless Area and in many other locations despite rules against it.  This must stop – fine them – and let it be known on social media that we, the citizens of the Yuba River watershed, will not tolerate environmental abuse and dangerous behavior.  Actions have consequences!

Lower Sardine Lake/ North Yuba

The South Yuba River Citizens League, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the U. S Forest Service (Tahoe & Plumas National Forests), the Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Army Corps of Engineers, CalFire and ordinary citizens must be more forceful and remind people that they WILL be ticketed, fined or jailed for anti-social behavior and environmental damage.  This will take cooperation between land managers, non-profits and the public, and it will take assertiveness, but it can and must be done before we have catastrophic fire, degraded water quality or communicable disease.

 

I can’t end on a negative note.  Maybe, in the long run, it’s a good sign that so many Californians are enjoying the outdoors – they may come to love it enough to give nature some respect.  While we’re an assertive and competitive species, we have a deep capacity for compassion and many are still moved by beauty.

• • •

p.s.

Coney Island by Weegee, 1940

Social distancing is driving me nuts. I miss potlucks, live music, crazed dancing, hugging friends and kid's birthday parties but I know that if we behave responsibly we'll eventually get back to socializing with vigor.

Some References

Lippard, Lucy R. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. New York: New Press. 1998

Lippard, Lucy R. Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West. New Press. 2014

Snow, Donald. Selling Out the Last Best Place. From “Discovered Country: Tourism and Survival in the American West.” Eds: Scott Norris & John T. Nichols (1994)

Matson, Paul. Who Were Osborne and Woods?

https://www.theunion.com/opinion/paul-matson-who-were-osbornwoods/

Snyder, Gary. Smokey Bear Sutra. (1969)

https://www.inquiringmind.com/article/2201_27_snyder_smokey-bear-sutra/