Watts Valley Christmas Card

This shot of Watts Valley taken by Micki Didier December 15, 2008 would make a terrific Christmas Card, wouldn't it?

This is Bransford Mountain, east of Watts Valley, taken by my neighbor Micki Didier December 15, 2008.

Snow and Rainbow

Watts Valley neighbor Micki Didier sent me this photo she took of Bransford Mountain with a dusting of snow and a rainbow in front of it. Utility towers of the Helms-Gregg 230 kV line are visible left of the bottom of the rainbow. It is unfortunate that the tower line mars the otherwise pristine view. It will be much worse if the C3ETP line is built next to them as indicated in some of PG&E's alternate routes now being considered in the CAISO stakeholder process. The planned towers will be approximately 30% taller and beefier, making them much more visible at this distance (about 1.5 miles).

Honeysuckle, Lonicera hispidula var. vacillans

This vine is common in Watts Valley and the surrounding foothills.

Buttonwillow, Cephalanthus occidentalis

This shrub grows in riparian areas of Watts Valley and the foothills. This one is about ten feet high and grows next to a spring.

Vasey's coyote thistle, Eryngium vaseyi

The presence of Vasey's coyote thistle in a vernal pool in Watts Valley may force a halt to PG&E's plans to build a substation there.

Burrough House and Children, c. 1907

This photo was taken in Burrough Valley about 1907. The house in the background was purchased by my great-great grandfather Andrew Spence in 1888 from the estate of the late William Hutchings. The house was torn down about 1910 to make room for the 2-storey house that still stands in the location at the intersection of Burrough Valley Road and Burrough North Road.

The children are (r-l) Vivian Spence (b. 1900), my grandmother; Harry Gilmer "Fritz" Spence; Edward "Bud" Spence; Patti Spence; and Norman Weldon.

The view is northeastward, and it was late afternoon, judging by the shadows.

Hartweg's Ginger, Asarum hartwegii

Photo taken May 17, 2008 at about 3500 feet near Peterson Road, Pine Ridge, Fresno County

Shield Fern, Dryopteris marginalis

These shield ferns were photographed at the 3500 foot level near Peterson Road on Pine Ridge, May 17, 2008.

Rosy Fairy Lanterns, Calochortus amoenus

These rosy fairy lanterns were photographed on May 17, 2008 near Peterson Road on Pine Ridge at about 3500 feet elevation.

Old Sunday, wife and child

A Mono man, Old Sunday, with his wife and child in front of the Burrough Store and Post Office about 1900. From the Spence collection.

Fivespot, Nemophila maculata

These fivespots were found on a flat at the 3500 foot level near Pine Ridge.

Dogwoods on Peterson Road

The Benson Family circa 1928

A long-time Watts Valley area family with descendants still living here. The McMurtry family is closely related to the Bensons.

Lee Marvin Rice

This photo of Lee Marvin Rice (1892-1984), son of John Wesley Rice and Rebecca Jane (Hole) Rice, was published January 5, 1987 in the Fresno Bee, along with a story on Rice by writer Gene Rose (link). Rice was born in Watts Valley. Marvin Rice, also called Lee Rice and L. M. Rice, was an artist and writer of some note. His best known book, They Saddled the West (1974), is a detailed history of the saddle-makers of the western United States and the development of the modern western saddle. A noted saddle-maker for the Visalia Saddle Company, Rice also published, with Bruce Grant, How to Make Cowboy Horse Gear, and many articles in Western Horseman Magazine, Pacific Sportsman, Fur-Fish-Game, and Western Out-of-Doors among others. As a commercial artist, he created illustrations for Levi-Strauss ads and several covers for Sunset. He also was a fine artist of some talent and produced many fine sketches, chalks, and oils. He was a friend and student of western artist Maynard Dixon.

Although he had become a successful commerical artist by the 1920's, Rice continued to do the work he loved as a cowboy working for several large ranches in the San Joaquin Valley and Central Sierra Nevada, among them Bob and Ed Simpson, who headquartered near Academy, Fresno County.

Rice House

The Rice house in the extreme eastern end of Watts Valley was built by John Wesley Rice about 1881. Charles Leroy Rice (1878-1973), second child of John and Rebecca Jane Rice, lovingly describes how the home came to be built: "Our first home was a log cabin. My oldest sister, Florence [b. 1876], myself, and sister Alice [b. 1880] was born in it. Then we built a new home out of lumber. My other darling sisters and brothers were born in it. They were Sadie [b. 1882], Wesley, Jessie and Marvin."

Rice Barn

This barn, built by John Wesley Rice, has stood on this place at the extreme eastern end of Watts Valley since before 1900. A photo of the Rice Place published in the Fresno Bee April 25, 1920 (published also in Brenda Preston's book on the Firebaughs) shows this barn with the Rice house in the background and two other ranch buildings nearby which no longer exist. John Wesley Rice bought the Firebaugh homestead in 1875. According to family records, the Rices lived in a log cabin for a few years before John built the house that still stands on the property. The Rices sold out in 1917 to the Martins, who in turn sold out to Joe Lassotovich about 1930. Descendants of the Lassotovich family still own the property. Lee Marvin Rice (1892-1984), son of John and Rebecca Jane Rice, became an artist and writer of some note.

From the old days

I found this firebox door from a woodstove in the creek near the location of Wiley Burrough's house as shown on the 1891 Fresno County Parcel Map. Burrough, born in 1811 according to his grave marker in Watts Valley Cemetery, was living in Watts Valley when Andrew Firebaugh moved here in the early 1860's to homestead near the confluence of Watts Creek and Sycamore Creek at the eastern end of the series of tiny valleys that make up Watts Valley.

Bransford Mountain and Jack Harken Point

This photo was taken from Oat Mountain looking east. The horizon is Bransford Mountain (left), named after homesteader Bob Bransford, and Jack Harken Point (right, between the limbs of the dead oak).

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest

I found this photo of General Forrest in the Gilmer family album along with photos of a number of my great-great grandfather Robert Gilmer's comrades at arms from the 4th Iowa Cavalry. Forrest's name is written faintly in pencil under the frame. The photo's presence in the album gives confirmation to the story that Lt. Gilmer's company chased Forrest out of Memphis on that foggy August morning in 1864. Robert Gilmer seems to have been proud of that exploit. One pictures him sitting on his porch in Burrough Valley with the album in hand telling friends and family the story of that fateful morning.

Robert Paxton Gilmer, circa 1865

My great-great grandfather Robert Paxton Gilmer moved with his wife, Mary Anne, and seven daughters to Burrough Valley in 1882. They built a house near Little Dry Creek at the very east part of Burrough Valley, just where the creek begins to flow down the canyon to Watts Valley. The foundation of the house can still be seen from the road. Robert was a 2nd lieutenant in Company G of the 4th Iowa Cavalry and fought at Vickburg under Sherman. In 1864, when the 4th was garrisoned at Memphis, Nathan Bedford Forrest raided the city on a foggy morning and took some Union prisoners. Company G got credit for chasing Forrest's troops out of town.

Adriance Mower at Soaproot Flat

This old mower lay half-buried at Soaproot Flat until it was removed to the Eastern Fresno County Historical Society Museum a few years ago. My great grandfather used it to harvest hay at Soaproot Flat early last century. I found an entry in the Burrough Store ledger books for a hay sale at Soaproot to the then very young U.S. Forest Service. Similar mowers were used in Burrough Valley and Watts Valley in the old days. This model dates from the 1870's.

Gearbox of Adriance Mower

This horse-drawn hay mower used this gearbox to transfer power from the cleated wheels to a reciprocating toothed cutting blade.

Dinner from Dinkey Creek

Middle Fork of Watts Creek and Oat Mountain

Watts Valley Sunset, January 08

Dead Bull Pine at Sunset

Buckeye tree at sunset

Goat Mountain from Oat Mountain on a November day

Location of PG&E proposed E2 Substation in Watts Valley

The photo is of Watts Valley in the Sierra foothills of eastern Fresno County, California. It was taken from the southern slope of Oat Mountain in March, 2008.

In September, 2007 property owners in Watts Valley began receiving notifications in the mail from Pacific Gas and Electric Company about their plans to build a 500 kilovolt transmission project called "The Central California Clean Energy Transimission Project," or C3ETP. We were notified because our land was located along one of the several possible corridors for the billion dollar project.

We were concerned because we know from previous experience the futility of fighting PG&E. However, because our property was on one of several possible alternatives, we decided to wait and see rather than contact PG&E for further information. A neighbor called within a few days to tell us she had received a similar notification. She was quite concerned. We still hoped we would not be on the final choice of routes.

Two weeks later, the same neighbor called again and said she had called the 800 number provided in the notification. Subsequently, a PG&E right-of-way agent had contacted her and visited her home to discuss the project. While they surveyed Watts Valley from her deck which overlooks our property from about half a mile, the PG&E man pointed to our land and said PG&E intended to build a substation there. She explained further that the list of alternate routes had now been shortened to two: one up from Kern County along Interstate 5 then north to Madera County, then east to a substation in the foothills; the other east through Kern County to the Sierra foothills, then north through the foothills through Kern, Tulare, and Fresno counties to the same substation. There were two possibilities for substation locations, one in Watts Valley and another near Humphreys Station, about six miles west of Watts Valley.

We were now quite concerned and called the PG&E man's number. When he confirmed the alarming news, we explained to him that the property was (and is still) not for sale, he clearly implied that if our property was on the final route selected by the California Public Utilities Commission, that PG&E would sue us in court using the law of eminent domain to take possession of our property.

Since then we have organized to fight PG&E's plan and formed a group called Save the Foothills Coalition. We have met with PG&E several times attempting to dissuade them of this terrible plan. We have listened in on one of the planning meetings held by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and have written comments on the planning process. In our opinion the planning process is rigged, and we believe that agreements have already been made by word of mouth. The government, the CAISO, and PG&E are now just going through the formalities to convince an inattentive public that they play by the rules. We will continue to fight this apparently inexorable process. However, in order to win, we need your help.

This brings us to the purpose of this blog: to collect photos of Watts Valley and surrounding areas so as to reveal to the world this wonderful and beautiful place in the hope that by doing so we can convince you and people like you to join Save the Foothills in our struggle to protect this place.

The oldest house in Watts Valley?

This is the Brandon or possibly the Hole place, located in the south part of Watts Valley. The Hole family--including the surnames Rice, Brandon, Mercer, Houser, and others--began moving into Watts Valley and establishing homesteads about 1875. The style of the building indicates this house probably dates from that period.