by Luis Fuerte
1006 Trestle: Huell traveled downstate to the San Diego area to ride a railcar that took him and a group of ex-railroad employees on old tracks that ran from San Diego to Arizona. He explored the old curved wooden Goat Canyon Trestle, a wonder of engineering, and ended the ride at a blocked tunnel.
1007 Muscle Beach: Huell visited the famous oceanfront site just south of the Santa Monica Pier, where from 1934 to 1959 fitness buffs and musclemen tumbled and built human pyramids and posed for gawkers. He also interviewed seniors who back in the day were the daring performers of Muscle Beach.
1008 Wine: Huell visited one of the oldest wineries in California, which had its beginnings in 1904 in the Rancho Cucamonga area of Southern California. He was amazed to learn that the Guasti Winery once owned four thousand acres of wine grapes, making it the largest winery in the world. Huell also attended a reunion of old workers who told him stories of what life was like when they lived and worked there.
1009 Flying Fish: Huell took a seagoing trip on the Flying Fish Boat, which was built especially by William Wrigley Jr. to view the flying fish at night around Catalina Island. Two powerful spotlights illuminated the water, and the fish came up and flew over the bow. Huell also traveled back to Catalina to interview Wrigley’s granddaughter, who shared some wonderful stories.
1010 Lompoc Mural: Huell ventured to Lompoc to visit the site of a twelve-acre American flag made of flowers that were planted at the beginning of World War II as a salute to the Americans fighting in the war. Huell discovered that the last planting was in 1952. He visited a mural of the American flag that was painted by local artists as a celebration of the original flower flag.
1011 Devil’s Postpile: Huell trekked through rugged country in the Sierra to visit the famous volcanic site that 100,000 years ago was molten rock. He marveled at the sixty-foot-high pile of stone that split into columns as it cooled, forming its odd, geometric shape. I took enough equipment to shoot a movie.
1012 Abalone: Huell investigated the history of abalone at Point Lobos State Reserve, learning that it goes back to the Native Americans, who ate them and used the shells as decoration and for trade. He also visited the site where Japanese abalone fishermen first harvested them commercially. And, he cooked up some abalone with school kids.
2000
2001 First Theater: Huell traveled to Monterey to explore early theatrical productions in California that got going in 1847 in a makeshift theater that was really a saloon and boardinghouse. He got to see a performance in the original theater. He then went up the state to Sacramento to the Eagle Theater, which was built in 1849 to entertain the hordes of gold miners who had come to seek their fortune.
2002 Point Sur Lighthouse: Huell explored the history of the lighthouse that from the late 1800s has been guiding ships safely away from the treacherous rocks. He then toured the National Historic Landmark’s buildings, where families once lived with the operators of the old lighthouse.
2003 Swallows: Huell traveled downstate to Mission San Juan Capistrano, where, on March 19th, Saint Joseph’s Day, swallows that have traveled for thousands of miles return to nest in the safety of the old mission. (Sadly, very few return these days.) Huell enjoyed the festivities that surround the “miracle” return of the swallows.
2004 Bird Rock: Huell went across the water near Catalina Island to explore a tiny island that is privately owned by a family. He explored the island with the owners and marveled at the numbers of birds that have made the little island their home. That was a messy shoot, as the birds use the rock as their bathroom.
2005 Mud Pots: Huell journeyed to the southern end of the Coachella Valley to the Imperial Wildlife Area to explore the bubbling mud pots that gurgle and pop constantly. Then he went to visit another area on private land and enjoyed some more extraordinary mud pots. He enjoyed playing in the mud.
2006 Hot Creek: Huell traveled to the east side of the Sierra to a creek not far from Mammoth. He delighted in his discovery that what made the water unique was the hot water bubbling up and mixing with the cold, snowmelt creek water to make for a comfortable swimming experience.
2007 Nixon’s Birthplace: Huell made the short trip to Yorba Linda to the President’s childhood home and site of the Richard Nixon Library. Julie Nixon Eisenhower gave Huell a personal tour of the home and delighted him with stories of her father’s boyhood there.
2008 San Francisco Cemeteries: Huell traveled to San Francisco to get the story of what happened to the cemeteries in San Francisco. He learned that as the city grew, demand for land also grew, and bodies that had been interred were dug and up reburied elsewhere, their headstones used to build breakwaters and for paving. He visited two remaining old cemeteries, including the grounds at Mission San Francisco de Asís, and he visited the San Francisco Columbarium.
2009 Historic Chickens: Huell traveled upstate to Petaluma to attend the annual Butter and Egg Days celebration commemorating the city’s once-held honor of being the “largest poultry center in the world.” In 1916, Petaluma shipped more than eleven million dozen eggs. Huell then toured decaying original chicken houses and talked with people who’d grown up on the chicken ranches.
2010 State Library Treasures: Huell traveled to Sacramento to discover the historical riches housed in the California State Library. He viewed a seventeenth-century map of California and James Marshall’s own hand-drawn map and sketch of his gold discovery. Huell loved this piece of California history.
2011 Under Lake Arrowhead: Huell traveled up into the San Bernardino Mountains to Lake Arrowhead. Instead of marveling at the beautiful lake, Huell went down a 100-foot shaft to explore the tunnels under the lake that were once slated to be used as part of an irrigation project that didn’t come to pass.
2012 Monarchs: Huell traveled to Pismo State Beach to see the hundreds of thousands of monarch butterflies that journey from Mexico to winter at this site; it’s the world’s largest concentration of the delicate flying creatures.
2013 Emperor and the President: Huell journeyed to San Francisco, Sonoma, and Red Bluff to investigate the colorful history of two men. The first, by proclamation of his fellow citizens after the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846, was dubbed the president of California. The other was a gentleman, who, in the 1800s, proclaimed himself to be “Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.”
2001
3001 Clear Lake: Huell traveled to Clear Lake at the base of Mt. Konocti to explore California’s largest natural lake. He discovered the rich Native American history that was evident at the lake as he explored its marshes and waters. He also toured wonderful oak groves that are as pristine today as they were in prehistoric times.
3002 Dune Buggy: Huell went to the San Bernardino Mountains to see a dune buggy show that featured Bruce Meyers’s dune buggy creations, which set records for overland travel on rough and remote roads. He took a wild ride in a dune buggy that had him shouting “Whoa, whoa!” to the driver, who was shooting up steep banks and really going fast on the rough roads.
3006 Zamboni: Huell traveled to the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, home of the Mighty Ducks hockey team, to see the ice-grooming machine called a Zamboni smooth the ice. He learned about its inventor, whose name is like Kleenex and Windex when it comes to machines that groom ice. He toured the Zamboni factory with the son of the inventor and saw how these machines were made.
3007 Will Rogers: Huell drove up into the hills above Sunset Boulevard near the Pacific Ocean to Will Rogers State Historic Park to explore the summer home of the beloved philosopher, actor, and commentator who lived there from 1928 to ’44. He got a personal tour of the home from Will’s last remaining child, Jimmie Rogers, who regaled Huell with stories about the house and of his memories growing up there.
3009 Glass Beaches: Huell explored two beaches that are treasure-hunter’s paradises. He went to Fort Bragg on the northern coast to visit Glass Beach, where a dump was once located. The pounding waves over time polished the dump’s broken bottles and created “gem
s” that people collect. Then he went to Patrick’s Point State Park north of Eureka. There, at Agate Beach, Huell discovered more natural gems polished by wave action. This is the last California’s Gold that I shot for Huell.
Louie toasting Huell after accepting his honorary doctorate at Chapman University.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Dr. Sheryl Bourgeois, executive vice-president of university advancement at Chapman University, for providing us open access to the works that Huell donated to the university, and for allowing us to use photos and material for the book. We are grateful. We’d also like to thank Rand Boyd, special collections and archives librarian at the Leatherby Libraries, for his help with our efforts to examine the files, tapes, photos, and memorabilia in the Huell Howser Collection at Chapman University. There was a lot of material to sift through, because Huell kept just about everything that had to do with his education and television careers. The files even included newspaper clippings of his activities in high school. Lauren Menges and John Encarnacion were also incredibly helpful over at the archives, and deserve many thanks for their hard work and patience.
We want to thank the many people interviewed for this book for their informative, personal, and heartwarming stories, which revealed what Huell meant to them beyond his role as a television personality. And we’d like to thank the people at KCET for their generous assistance in securing photos for the book.
We especially want to thank Angel Diaz, the former California’s Gold archivist at the Leatherby Libraries, who lived up to her name, for cheerfully helping us make our way through the considerable collection of material covering Huell’s life and career that he left to the library. Her organization was confounding at times, but that’s because she used logic and a bit of creativity to organize and file Huell’s archives—but, of course, everything was exactly where it should have been, and we are deeply indebted to her.
Finally, we’re grateful to the people at Prospect Park Books, especially publisher Colleen Dunn Bates, who made the book possible; designer Amy Inouye; assistant editor Dorie Bailey, and the rest of the editorial team: Margery Schwartz, Emily Peters, and Elizabeth Ovieda.
INDEX
Agate Beach, 187
Ahwahnee Hotel, 54
Allegheny, 167
Allen, Steve, 30
Amboy Crater, 79, 169
Antoinette, Marie, 30
Arkansas, 112
Arrowhead Springs Hotel, 181
B-2 stealth bomber, 111
Bach, 23
Baja California, 95
Baker, Howard, 15
Balboa Park, 171
Banning, 42, 162
Bear Flag Revolt of 1846, 186
Bench, The, 126-127
Bidwell Bar Day, 163
Big Bear, 135
“Big Things in the Desert,” 111
“Bits and Pieces,” 93
Bixby, Bill, 29
Black Cowboys Parade, 163
Blair, Jim, 112
Blair, Trish, 112
“Blossom Trails,” 88
Blue Angels, 86, 179
Boeing 727, 112
Bok Kai Parade, 164
boron, 92, 180
Boy Scout, 24, 77
bristlecone pines, 79, 169
Broadway, 15, 29, 109
Broguiere, Ray, 143
Brown, Kathleen, 175
Browning, Kirk, 31
Buellton, 178
Buffalo Soldiers, 81
Burbank, 90, 120, 155, 177
Burbank Airport, 120
Burgers and Beers, 161
Burke’s Law, 20
Burro Schmidt Tunnel, 170
Butter and Egg Days, 185
Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez, 178
Cahuilla Bird Singers, 42
Cal Poly Pomona, 167
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 101
Calexico, 161
“California Pools,” 64, 173
California State Library, 185
California State Railroad Museum, 45, 162, 176
“California’s Tallest, Prettiest, and Rockiest,” 93
Caltech, 90, 177
Camarillo, 89
Camden Café, 88, 164
Camp Lockett, 81, 163
Camp Pendleton, 171
Campo, 81
Carmel Mission, 101
Carrizo Plain Natural Area, 164
Catalina Island, 170, 175, 183-184
Central Park, 20
Central Valley, 163-164
Chamberlain, Richard, 29
Chapman University, 137, 157, 159, 187-188
China Clippers, 179
Christianity, 102
Church of Scientology, 151
Clear Lake, 186
CNN, 20
Coachella Valley, 171, 177, 184
Colorado Desert, 86
Colton, 23, 126
Columbia, 163
Concours d’ Elegance, 177
Cosmos, 30
Crescent City, 63, 173
Curie, Marie, 30
da Vinci, Leonardo, 79
Daffodil Hill, 170
Dahkaski, Ed, 154
Dallas, 112, 120
de Mille, Agnes, 30
Death Valley, 66, 126, 172
Deep Space Network, 181
Delta King, 83
Delta Queen, 83, 85, 179
DeMille, Cecil B., 83, 165
Designing Women, 112
Devil’s Postpile, 75-76, 183
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 11, 30
Downieville, 43, 163
Dullea, Keir, 29
dune buggy, 186
Dunitas, 43, 161
Eagle Theater, 184
Edwards Air Force Base, 175
Eisenhower, Julie Nixon, 185
El Centro, 86-87, 163, 179
Ellwood Oil Fields, 168
Emerald Rock, 176
Emmy, 31, 123, 192
Encounter Restaurant, 43, 162
Eureka, 40, 93, 187
Evans, Dale, 163
Fantasy Island, 20
“Flying Fish,” 89
Florida, 112, 120
Folsom Prison, 78, 173
Ford Explorer, 40, 58
Fort Bragg, 187
Fort Hunter Ligett Military Reservation, 101
Fort Ross State Historical Park, 161
Fort Tejon, 102, 175
Franks, Charlie, 22, 33
Fresno County, 88
Galco’s Old World Grocery, 139
Gallatin, Tennessee, 15
Garfield High School, 167
Georgia, 111-114, 116-118
Giant Dipper, 77
Gipsy Kings, 30
Giulini, Carlo Maria, 30
Glacier Point, 71, 74-75, 175
Gladding McBean, 85
Glass Beach, 187
Glenn County, 164
Goat Canyon Trestle, 182
Gold Country, 76, 163, 170
Gold Nugget Days Celebration, 177
golden age of television, 11, 29
Golden Gate Bridge, 47, 107-109, 123, 158, 167
Goldstone, 92, 181
Governor Pico, 98
Grand Central Market, 45, 162
Grapevine, 88
Great Depression, 116
Greek Theater, 30
Griffith Park, 30
Guadalupe, 165, 179
Guasti Winery, 183
Hackford, Taylor, 30
“Happy Features,” 20
Hearst Castle, 173
Highland Park, 139
Highway 41 Kettleman City exit, 133
Hollywood, 22, 25, 29, 152, 173, 181
Hollywood Television Theater, 29
Horseradish Festival, 161
Hot Summer Nights, 126
Howser, Harold and Jewell, 15
Huell Dog, 143
Huell Howser Archives, 137, 157
Huell run, 141
HuellAgains, 138
Humboldt Bay, 176
; Imperial County, 163
In-N-Out Burger, 133
Jackson Five, 20
Japanese Tea Garden, 51, 176
Jeffries, Herb, 163
Joshua Tree, 167
Juanita’s Foods, 125
KABC, 27
Kaiser Shipyard, 182
kangaroo rat, 164
KCBS, 12, 140
KCET, 9, 11, 15, 22, 27, 29-32, 37-40, 47, 69, 125-126, 145-146, 148, “151-152, 154-156, 158, 188
KCOP, 26-27
Kemps, Dorothy, 146
Kern River, 70, 164
Kernville, 164
keyma, 88, 164
Knight, Leonard, 177
Knott’s Berry Farm, 171
KVCR, 154
LA Adventures, 43
La Brea Tar Pits, 43, 162, 172
La Gioconda, 31
Laguna Beach, 171
Lake Arrowhead, 185
Lake Oroville, 163
Lakeview gusher, 131, 172
Lancaster, 64, 93, 163
Las Posas Valley, 89
Last Supper, The, 79
LAX, 45, 162
Lemonade Berry, 131-132
Levi Strauss & Company, 169
Lincoln, 85, 164, 169
Lincoln Memorial Shrine, 164
Little Theater, 151
Little Tokyo, 43, 162, 165
Locke, 42, 162
Lompoc, 163, 178, 183
Long Beach Naval Shipyard, 168
Loreto, 95
Los Angeles, 11, 20, 22-23, 25-26, 30, 42-43, 46, 101, 109, 123, 125-126, 130, 134, 138-139, 141, 158, 161-162, 164-165, 167, 179, 192
Los Angeles Philharmonic, 30
Los Angeles Thunderbirds, 26
Los Angeles Times, 22
Lost Sierra, 43, 163
Louisiana, 84-85
Malakoff Diggins State Park, 169
Mammoth, 75, 184
Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 173
Mariachi Los Camperos, 167
Marine Corps, 15, 129, 171, 192
Marine Corps Air Station, 129
Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, 178
Marshall, James, 178, 182, 185
McCartney, Paul, 20