History lives on at LMVA event

By Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun

     MOUNT LAGUNA — The Laguna Mountain Volunteer Association brought history forward to present day, for the 20th annual Living History Exhibition, held over Labor Day weekend at the Mount Laguna Red Tail Roost.
     Every year the LMVA brings the ghosts of the past out of these historical mountains, to show us how residents lived and prospered here in the Back Country. The association presented tours, with visitations from several poignant storytellers, re-enacting a time in history when machines and transportation weren’t available for our more convenient present day life.
     Herb Arklin presented the life of a miner who searched for gold in Julian in the late 1800s. Arklin is a font of information as he is a Geologist for the U.S. Forest Service, located in Alpine.
     Jan Tubiolo presented the life of the Kumeyaay people. She included a showcase of tools, utensils and weaponry that the tribes used for survival. She presented the Kumeyaay’s cleverness at twining plant fiber to make rope and nets, and how the women shaved bark fibers to make skirts. She also told of how the Kumeyaay gathered the acorns of the Black Oaks, to use as a staple for their food supply.
     George Cole entertained all with his rendition of George Niedever’s life as a mountain man. He had his prized, muzzle-loaded 1803 Harper Ferry 54 caliber rifle, ready to teach all how to load and operate it. He explained how mountain men trapped the California Sea Otter and Grizzly Bear on the mountain and trekked down to the Port of San Diego to trade.
     First time re-enactor, 13-year old Ben Sparks joined Bob Callen, Wayne Eads and John McGuire as a hearty group of cowboys who told us how they lived and managed cattle and livestock on the mountain.
     A pioneer family, made up of Joe Sullivan playing the father and farmer, Phyllis Goddard playing the grandmother, Sarah Jones, playing the mother, along with Marian Steers and Cari Callen playing the hardworking, clothes washing daughters.
     Joe Sullivan entertained the event-goers with stories of how they lived their nomadic life, traveling up from the Imperial County where they kept a farm, to the mountains in the summer, to escape the heat of the season. At this historical vignette, the onlookers were treated to homemade bread; choke cherry and plum jams made by the people in the LMVA from fruits grown in the Laguna Mountains.
     This year, the Living History is dedicated to Joe Sullivan’s wife, Catherine Sullivan, who for many years played the mother figure in the farmer’s family, alongside her husband Joe. Catherine Sullivan was an instrumental figure in the Association and is honored and remembered with this year’s presentation.
     Joe Zechman showed us the event’s last glimpse of the Laguna Living History. Zechman, who for the first year played the Laguna Mountain’s first forest ranger Carl Brenner, told about how the Forest Service came into being, along with the tale of how the badge was designed. 
 

CUTLINE: From top -- George Cole entertained all with his rendition of George Niedever’s life as a mountain man. He had his prized, muzzle-loaded 1803 Harper Ferry 54 caliber rifle, ready to teach all how to load and operate it. Marian Steers and Cari Callen played the hardworking, clothes washing daughters of a pioneer family. Herb Arklin presented the life of a miner who searched for gold in Julian in the late 1800s.
Photos by Lori Bledsoe/For The Alpine Sun