Page 12 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 4 #3

The mid morning sun blared across brown hills as the wind-

ing two lane descended from the Sierra Nevadas toward the

vast expanse of eastern California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Just last evening I watched in the cool (photo previous page) The sloping road leveled through farms and limiting the exits, the local traffic
magnificence of a sequoia grove as a magenta sky in a slow curve through Lemon Cove to reveal of traveling families brought a steady business to the
darkened to violet beyond the massive trunks of The Big Orange. (photo 4) many small growers that have since been lost. He was
trees that were thousands of years old. Now I As I stood with my cam-
crossed a geographic divide from the montane era admiring this humble ex-
wilderness regions of Sequoia and Kings Can- ample of roadside architecture,
yon National Parks to one of the most developed I heard a welcoming voice from
and fertile agricultural valleys in the world. Tu-
lare County is about the size of Connecticut and within the shaded interior. I
holds both of these two disparate regions. I was learned that his father had built
about to arrive in Lemon Cove. I was seeing Tu- the Big Orange with the idea
lare County for the first time even though I had that he and his younger sister,
been here a decade earlier. An ailing mother in standing on step ups built in-
an overheated car kept my attention away from side could safely sell the oranges
any engagement with my surroundings. from the family grove behind the
stand. The problem was that it
I pulled onto an overlook on the way down just got too hot inside. Now this
to Lemon Cove. There was a large reservoir with sturdy orange structure served
a community of houseboats tied to docks in line mostly as a landmark. He wore
like city streets. (photo 2) Before 1936 I would a faded blue work shirt, a floppy
have seen the largest inland lake west of the Mis- wide brimmed hat and tortoise
sissippi River. Since the last glaciers retreated, shell spectacles. His father had
snow melt from the Sierra Nevadas flowed into left him the grove, Mesa Verde
the valley through cascading rivers. With no Ranch, which he now tended.
outlet, the basin filled each spring and the result His sister had moved on. His
was Tulare Lake some sixty miles across and a soft voice, ruddy cheeks and
wide valley with deep accumulations of fertile pleasantly smiling face showed
soil. In 1936 the rivers were dammed and Tu- traces that he was losing muscle
lare Lake disappeared. Across the valley groves tone. He spoke of the many oth-
of citrus stretched in carefully cultivated rows. er grove stands that had been
(photo 5) Thus, place names like Lemon Cove. plentiful in his youth. Before
(photo 3) These settlements now held faded re- California 99 to the west had
minders of more prosperous times in the 1950’s. been built into a freeway cutting

2

12 | Andy Walcott