Correspondence: suggestions for the Commission (2 of 2), 1977-1991, p. 240 |
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Most of the damage occurred, it is true, during the unusual
winter storms of January and February, 1980 mentioned previously.
The seeds of destruction, however, were sown much earlier. In fact*,
the very road from which so many people enjoy viewing this meadow, is
directly related to its ruin.
Unlike the Burton Road through Upper Weston Meadow, the Hume
Lake Road was built adjacent to the meadow area. Work crews building this road under contract by the U.S. Forest Service were unaware
that the meadow was privately owned, it seems. In order to procure
water for their road building activities, they dug a sump hole along
the northern edge of the meadow where the shallow creek formed its
border. Since they assumed this was government land, of course the
Weston family, who owned it at the time, was never consulted regarding the digging of the hole. If they had been, I am pretty sure they
would never have granted permission. Austin Weston, who originally
homesteaded the property, cautioned his children on numerous occasions,
"Never dig in a meadow! It disturbs the root masses and will cause
erosion!" But unfortunately Austin's children were never told of the
work party's intentions, and the crew's foreman was perhaps not as
wise, or as concerned as Austin's children would have been.
When the road moved north and the meadow was no longer a convenient watering spot, no one bothered to fill it in. The hole remained. Aerial photos trace its history as the hole cut a channel
deeper into the meadow. The creek's course later changed, plunging
its water over the edge of the now pear-shaped hole. The force of
the falling water caused the bank's edge to continually crumble,
spawning a gullied finger pointing accusingly west toward the road
whose builders inadvertently created it. Merely an accusing finger
until nature's capricious disposition transformed it into a yawning
chasm racing toward the road with ravenous jaws.
The erosion is so great it is impossible to encompass through
the lense of a camera. We have selected photos which are representative of what has occurred, but they do not show it in its entirety.
The accompanying map may be helpful in order to place the pictures
in perspective.
-4-
Object Description
Description
| Title | Correspondence: suggestions for the Commission (2 of 2), 1977-1991, p. 240 |
| Format (imt) | image/tiff |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | Most of the damage occurred, it is true, during the unusual winter storms of January and February, 1980 mentioned previously. The seeds of destruction, however, were sown much earlier. In fact*, the very road from which so many people enjoy viewing this meadow, is directly related to its ruin. Unlike the Burton Road through Upper Weston Meadow, the Hume Lake Road was built adjacent to the meadow area. Work crews building this road under contract by the U.S. Forest Service were unaware that the meadow was privately owned, it seems. In order to procure water for their road building activities, they dug a sump hole along the northern edge of the meadow where the shallow creek formed its border. Since they assumed this was government land, of course the Weston family, who owned it at the time, was never consulted regarding the digging of the hole. If they had been, I am pretty sure they would never have granted permission. Austin Weston, who originally homesteaded the property, cautioned his children on numerous occasions, "Never dig in a meadow! It disturbs the root masses and will cause erosion!" But unfortunately Austin's children were never told of the work party's intentions, and the crew's foreman was perhaps not as wise, or as concerned as Austin's children would have been. When the road moved north and the meadow was no longer a convenient watering spot, no one bothered to fill it in. The hole remained. Aerial photos trace its history as the hole cut a channel deeper into the meadow. The creek's course later changed, plunging its water over the edge of the now pear-shaped hole. The force of the falling water caused the bank's edge to continually crumble, spawning a gullied finger pointing accusingly west toward the road whose builders inadvertently created it. Merely an accusing finger until nature's capricious disposition transformed it into a yawning chasm racing toward the road with ravenous jaws. The erosion is so great it is impossible to encompass through the lense of a camera. We have selected photos which are representative of what has occurred, but they do not show it in its entirety. The accompanying map may be helpful in order to place the pictures in perspective. -4- |
| Filename | indep-box23-15-01~25.tif |
| Archival file | Volume78/indep-box23-15-01~25.tif |
