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| 1974 Kodachrome slide of the sunset from my Park Service home at the Old Hamilton Hotel-Crevilli House |
When I reported for duty at Redwood National Park to serve as a seasonal Ranger Naturalist in the mid-1970s, I was assigned a room in the old Hamilton Hotel-Crevilli House on the unpaved Coastal Road on the bluff overlooking the mouth of the Klamath River. I loved the views up and down the coast and far out to sea. The sunsets were spectacular and at night if the fog had retreated I could see two light houses to the north and the city-like lights of the huge Russian fishing fleet just beyond the territorial waters of the U.S. I enjoyed watching the many barn swallows that nested in the collapsing dairy barns across the road and which soared over the fields and high into the sky. On my days off I would often sit out on the porch listening to Beethoven's Ninth symphony and sketching the swallows as they kept time with the soaring music.
Some years ago the Park Service burned the old hotel and barns, probably to prevent accidents. So these forty-year old memories, photographs and sketches are a link to an irretrievable past.
Here are four journal entries with drawings and photos from my delightful stay at the old Hamilton Hotel.
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| View south across the Klamath River mouth. My Hamilton Hotel home is at the bottom of the circular pastures above the sandspit. The tide is coming into the river mouth. The Flint Rock seastack is to the right. |
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| My 2009 photo from a similar spot to my 1974 sketch shows that the sandspit has changed greatly since 1974 and the beach now connects Flint Rock to the shore, at least during an outgoing tide as in this photo. With the end of the Johnson Dairy Ranch operation the clearings near the old Hamilton Hotel site have become overgrown with trees. |
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| At the old Johnson Dairy Barns with botanists R. Mastrogiuseppe aka "M-13" and "Henry" |
Journal Entry. Old Crevilli House, Coastal Road, Klamath, Ca., Redwood National Park
This area is so beautiful! There is an old barn across the
road and behind it a sloping field of spring flowers and scattered trees
disappearing over a cliff where the surf crashes below. A steady roar rises up
from the rocky shore. The waves surge over a sand bar at the mouth of the
Klamath River to the north. Much further up the coast the lighthouse at
Crescent City flashes and yet further the light at Point Saint George can be
seen.
I sat out on the old fence gate behind the barn and watched
and listened to the Barn Swallows coursing through the air above, behind, and
in front of me. They too were reveling in the radiant love so evident this
evening in the light and colors of the day’s end. The flaming crimson and
oranges promised a clear day tomorrow.
I lay back on the fence top and viewed the sky and ocean
from this perspective—it gave me a beautiful feeling of soaring. I greeted the
first stars and walked through the dark barn disturbing the roosting swallows.
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| My 1974 photo of the abandoned Johnson Dairy Ranch buildings across from the Old Hamilton Hotel-Crevilli House |
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| Swallows to Beethoven |
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| Clouds and Swallows |
Journal Entry. Old Crevilli Place, Coastal
Road, Klamath, Ca., Redwood National Park
Swallows! Swallows climbing to heaven and tumbling to the
sea in magnificent spirals. Swallows veering through the air on stiffly-braced
slender wings.
The sun is fighting with the somber blanket of fog to bring
me life. The swallows are twittering. The clouds roll up the coast as the
breakers flow over the sand bar at the mouth of the Klamath. Grass heads flow
with the wind. The music, sun, clouds, swallows and my life bring my soul to
overflowing. My joy flows from the corners of my eyes and down my cheeks. I
want to dance to Life—I want to soar! I am making my wings of experience, of
life itself.
My brothers of the sky will show me how to fly. Others of my
kind have been there before and will embrace me along the way. The sun is
blinding my eyes with its soft pervasive radiance. The clouds are passing by.
My eyes are clear. I’ve never seen the sky so radiantly bright. A fog bank
hangs thickly over the ocean horizon beyond the old barn.
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| Cavorting Whales and Swallows |
Journal Entry. Old Crevilli House, Coastal
Road, Klamath, Ca., Redwood National Park
Foam. Water cresting and breaking over rocks, hidden reefs,
whales’ glistening backs, and the sandy shore. Moving water—seemingly coursing
in towards the land. Heaving back and forth in swells between rocks. Sunlight
sparkling in the troughs. White foam spreading and dissipating. The wind above
blowing the gulls and buffeting the grassheads. Pelicans gliding along the tops
of the wavelines. Waves stirring up the sand. Meandering skeins of foam
parallel the coastline and lie draped around projecting rocks. Swallows
chattering as they divide the sea breeze with their scythe-like wings. Sitka
spruce climb the gulches to the alders by the house.
The sea becomes more and more blue as it reaches out to the
horizon, there to be obscured by the hazy purple fogbank crowned with a light
blue that deepens overhead to the zenith.
Where are my spouting gray whales of this morning?
A white-crowned sparrow sitting contentedly on a weathered
gray fence—chirping rhythmically and looking about. The air is cool but the sun
is warm. My swallows are breathing deeply of life. I aspire to gain their
Oneness.
The Klamath flows out to greet and marry with the ocean
waves that rush in to embrace her lighter waters. The rocky coast seems so
strong; but the sea’s energy and patience is boundless. One must take and the
other give.
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| Flint Rock Head |
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| Cypressus macrocarpa aka Monterey Cypress |
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| Monterey Cypress, Old Hamilton's Hotel, July 11, 1974 |
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| Red Alder, Sitka Spruce and Swallows |
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| Raccoon Tracks on Medium Grain Sand--Moist among rocky beach down from Crevilli Place |
Journal Entry. Klamath
Beach Road, Redwood National Park
Evening
fog. Mauve mists rolling out to sea, undulating as the waves they clothe.
Purple-blue becomes deep red-orange fading into yellow, a delicate green and
finally into a celestial blue that deepens upward where the evening star burns
through a wisp of high gauze.
The
shorebirds call to each other beneath the cloud. The surf is muffled. Spruce,
so startlingly silhouetted nearby are obscured by the passing mists which run
through their outstretched branches like cool fingers. The sky is so distant
and clear—the mist so enveloping, rising, obscuring. The night is settling from
the sky. My heart reaches out…my arms are open.
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| My idealized ranger-naturalist communing with his co-Earthlings and enjoying his nifty uniform and Stetson! |
May all Beings be well, happy and Free!
