Hiking “The Wave”

November 26, 2022November 26, 2022 / Joyce / Leave a comment

When I returned to work and my boss asked me how the hike was, the first word out of my mouth was “extraordinary.” He was like, “Wow, extraordinary!?” That is the best way that I could sum up this experience with one word. It was the most amazing trip of my life because I had never seen such a terrain that was so historical and unique in every way. It was like stepping into a different age.

Heading toward the entrance to The Wave.

It had rained a couple days before, so there was quite a bit of standing water like this little pond.

I do admit that I was a little worried about doing this hike in the middle of August, but thankfully we were blessed with great temperatures. It only got up to about 91°, which is much cooler than it was when I went to Zion in June. When we started out at about 6 AM, the temperature was in the 50s. When we made it to the Wave there was a nice, cool breeze blowing and it wasn’t very hot.

This pond of water at the Wave’s entrance made for a cool reflection shot.

Beyond the wave, we explored Second Wave and the Boneyard, rounding out the loop with the dinosaur tracks, which were really cool and made me feel like I had gone back into the Jurassic Age. I opted not to go up to Top Rock, which I really wanted to see, but I decided that I just wasn’t up to that type of climbing and didn’t want to tire myself out. I just wanted to experience that beautiful place, live in the moment and enjoy just being there. I was in a constant state of awe the whole time.

Strange looking rocks in the “Boneyard.”

I had the pleasure of hiking with a professional photographer, Amy, from Action Photo Tours, who was very experienced with the terrain and knew all of the other sites outside of the Wave that I wanted to see. I also was able to learn photography skills and how to use the more advanced settings on my camera. Before this trip, I had purchased a new ultra wide zoom lens just for the landscape aspect of the trip and I was so excited to use it. I’m very pleased with the photos that I took.

Walking in the Wave itself was quite a trippy experience. It’s hard to describe the feeling that I had while being inside the Wave. It looks one way in the pictures and you think that the pictures online are all extraordinary, but there is nothing like actually being there and seeing it up close and in person.

The features of The Wave may look soft and delicate, but they are actually quite sturdy and rugged.

I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude with each moment that passed and I just wanted to hold onto it and never let it go. I couldn’t help but remember what was going on in my life a year ago when I had my back issues and then the surgery and I just couldn’t stop giving thanks for the experience and for being able to walk this path and have this be a part of my life‘s journey. I’m just so grateful. I hope you enjoy these pictures and I also hope that you also get a chance to experience this wonderful place for yourself. It’s not easy to get a permit, but it is so worth the process.

Walking inside The Wave.
Photo by Amy O., Action Photo Tours.

Visiting a California Ghost Town

November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 / Joyce / Leave a comment

Before summer’s end, I finally got to visit the Bodie ghost town, known officially as Bodie State Historic Park. Today, only about 5% of the buildings remain from the town’s 1877-1881 heyday, most having fallen victim to time, fire, and the elements. Designated a California state park in 1962, it is now preserved in a state of “arrested decay.” This means that buildings’ roofs, windows and foundations are repaired and stabilized, not restored.

It was smooth sailing on pavement most of the way there, but the last several miles or so were on dirt.

Following the 1849 Gold Rush, mining declined along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Prospectors, ever hungry for the next big strike, crossed the Sierra Nevada to prospect the eastern slopes.

Methodist Church. This church, built in 1882, is Bodie’s only church still standing. A Catholic church, also built in 1882, burned in 1928. E.J. Clinton, head of a mining company at Bodie in the late 1920’s, restored the church with his own funds and often preached sermons. An oilcloth with the Ten Commandments, which once hung behind the pulpit, was stolen (Thou Shalt Not Steal”).

W.S. Bodey, from Poughkeepsie, New York, discovered gold here in 1859. He died months later in a blizzard, never seeing the town that honors him. Bodey’s bones were re-discovered in 1879 and then “misplaced” after burial. His final resting place is now thought to be somewhere on the hill above the cemetery, which I skipped, but could see from the dirt road leading to the parking lot. The town‘s name came to be spelled “Bodie.”

D.V. Cain House. Built in 1873, this was home to David Victor Cain, son of James S. Cain. The Cains sold Bodie to California State Parks in 1962. In 1904, D.V. Cain married Ella M. Cody, a Bodie schoolteacher who later founded the Bodie Museum.

Mining in the district progressed at a slow pace until 1875, when a mine collapse revealed a rich body of gold ore. Word spread fast, and Bodie’s boomtown days began. While period accounts estimated Bodie’s population as high as 8,000 and later writers claimed 10,000, census records do not reflect these high numbers. Bodie’s peak population probably ranged from 7,000 to 8,000.

During 1877 – 1881, Bodie’s mining district included 30 different mines and nine stamp mills. Along with miners and merchants, Bodie attracted a rougher element, who gave the town a reputation for bad men and wild times. There were more than 60 saloons, many near Bonanza Street prostitutes’ “cribs” and opium dens in Chinatown. The boom years were over quickly as unsuccessful mines began closing. The population dropped quickly and continued to dwindle into the 1900s. Mining continued until 1942.

View from the hill at the end of Green Street.

The family of Bodie’s last major landowner, James S. Cain, hired caretakers to watch over the town and protect it from looters and vandals. In 1962, California State Parks purchased the town to preserve the historic buildings and artifacts.

I enjoyed my visit to Bodie.

The Texas City Disaster

January 2, 2018 / Joyce / 2 Comments

Since I’ve been visiting with my family in Texas for the holidays, I decided to take a trip down to my hometown of Texas City, TX to tour some of the historical sites related to the Texas City Disaster. Most people don’t know anything about this event, but it’s actually a big part of Texas, and even national, history.

On April 16, 1947, a ship carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded and destroyed much of the town of Texas City, killing about 600 people. About 65 of those people were never found or identified.

This anchor was blown from the S.S. Grandcamp when this ship blew up on April 16, 1947, while moored at Texas City Terminal docks. The anchor, which weighed approximately 3200 lbs. originally, was projected from the ship to a point on Pan American property at 2000-S and 2160-E, sinking about 10 feet into the soil in landing. The distance traveled from ship to point of landing was 1.62 miles. It is now at Memorial Park, the site where the unidentified dead lay at rest.

This statue, created by Lee Stark, sits in the section dedicated to those grieving the victims of the Texas City Disaster and the 1900 Storm that hit Galveston.

I had heard stories about this event growing up, but it wasn’t until I was in high school and had to write a paper on it that I became more interested in what happened. I interviewed my grandpa since he lived near the site of the explosion and was there at the time. He told me that when he heard the explosion, he thought Judgement Day had come.

This fountain and statue were built in memory of the Texas City volunteer firemen who lost their lives in the Texas City Disaster.

The explosion was the force of an atomic bomb and the effects were so strong that windows in Houston, some 40 miles away, shattered. The blast also registered on a seismograph all the way in Denver, Colorado.

I took these pictures because I’m working on a story that takes place during the disaster and wanted to get reacquainted with the events that transpired. I grew up seeing these sites and artifacts, but had no idea of their significance back then. It was good to see them now with a new appreciation of this historic event that helped shape Texas City into the town that it is today.

The S.S. Highflyer exploded in the main slip on 4-17-1947, after being set on fire by the S.S. Grandcamp, which exploded in the north slip on 4-16-1947. This is one of the Highflyer’s propellers that blew off during the explosion. It sits at the entrance to the Texas City Dike at Anchor Park.

There are several of these anchors on display throughout the city. This is the one at Anchor Park near the Texas City Dike.

A view of the docks today. The north slip where the Grandcamp and Highflyer exploded is somewhere in the center of this picture, probably near the tall silo.

Looking toward the docks from outside the fence. The area is closed off today, but when the disaster occurred, residents could walk right up to the docks.

There used to be rows of houses on this grassy land, which sits right across the street from the refinery. The homes that were destroyed during the disaster were eventually rebuilt, but have since been torn down as the refineries have bought the land. I think some people still refuse to move, but this is not a good location to live in.

One thing that was new to me on this tour was the newly redesigned Texas City Museum that has an entire section dedicated to the Texas City Disaster. They had lots of artifacts from the explosions and even a video that a woman took on an 8mm camera of the explosion as seen from the Texas City Dike. I had no idea that someone caught this on video and it was pretty fascinating to see.

This anchor sits right outside the Texas City Museum. This museum has been there since 1948, but I missed it since I rarely spent any time on 6th Street. I also wasn’t into history or museums when I lived there. This museum has recently been remodeled and looks very nice on the inside. The curators take great care in keeping it up.

The shipper’s Export Declaration Form from the S.S. Highflyer — a true copy of the original dated April 15, 1947. If you can zoom in, you can see the amount of ammonium nitrate that was ordered.

A shoe belonging to one of the victims of the explosion.

A piece of shrapnel from one of the ships that exploded.

While I couldn’t take any pictures or do any recordings of the videos, I could take pictures of everything else, so I took as many as possible. I even touched things that were okay to touch, like a large piece of shrapnel from one of the ships that exploded. Seeing the artifacts in the museum and reading the stories almost made me feel like I was there.

The caption on this reads, “Frozen in time. This clock is from the City Hall Service Station in Texas City. The clock stopped at exactly the time of the first explosion on April 16, 1947.”

From the museum’s description: “There were 59,000 rolls of sisal binder twine stored in the hold of the Grandcamp. When the explosion occurred, the twine was scattered over the entire area of about a mile radius. It is believed that the bales torched hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline and oil spilling out from ruptured reservoirs and pipelines. This is one of the rolls of twine from the Grandcamp.”

The caption reads, “There are various pieces of shrapnel from the ships that exploded during the Texas City disaster. The pieces of shrapnel were called “raindrops” because they fell from the sky on April 16, 1947.”

This was a great visit and I was able to scout locations and gather a lot more important details that I can use in my story, although mine is more of a fictitious narrative based on actual events. However, I still want to make it as real as possible.