The Ghost of Jack London

Up to 70 California state parks are slated to close in July due to budget cuts unless rescued by non profits or other agencies willing to take them over. Luckily, some of the parks have been saved from closure.

One of the most recent parks to come off the closure is Jack London State Historic Park north of Sonoma where the writer lived until his death in 1916. I recently visited this historic park and am happy to hear it will remain open for others to visit. The park is a beautiful forest of redwoods, oaks, and Douglas Fir trees, creeks, canyons and wildlife, the place London fell in love with in the early 1900's. 

London was only 26 years old when he became internationally famous for his novel The Call of the Wild in 1903. He became the highest paid and most popular American author of his day. He was also a media darling, a celebrity, and handsome bon vivant not immune to controversy. But he was not a white gloved dilatante. He was an adventurer and nature lover.

He discovered Sonoma County's Valley of the Moon during a visit in 1903 and purchased his first property there in 1905. In the ensuing months and years he continued to buy parcels of land and eventually owned 1,400 acres of pristine Sonoma County forest.

One of the most interesting and tragic remnants of London's life at Glen Ellen, where the park is located in the Valley of the Moon, are the stone wall remains of Wolf House, London's "dream home" which was destroyed in a fire just days before Jack and his wife Charmian were to move in after two years of construction. Ironically, London and his architect Albert Farr, were influenced by the great SF earthquake and took great pains to build a rustic yet fireproof design that used local volcanic rock, boulders and unpeeled redwood mounted on a concrete foundation that could hold a 40-story building.

It's fascinating to walk the site and see that, yes, it was fireproof, but only to a point. Wolf House was a 4-story, 15,000 square foot house with 26 rooms and nine fireplaces. For its day, 1913, it was going to be a state-of-the-art home with hot water, heating, electric lighting, refrigeration, and indoor pool.

The cause of the fire remains a mystery although there are two main theories: (1) London was betrayed by a close friend or workman who started the blaze, or, (2) it was spontaneous combustion from building materials. Some say London never recovered from his shattered dream although at the time he vowed to rebuild. He died three years later from kidney failure at 40 years of age.

After Jack's death, Charmian built a smaller home on their property where she lived the rest of her life. The home now houses the House of Happy Walls Museum.

Inside visitors will find much of the home's original design and furniture, and of course the story of London's life with his books, short stories, and a model of his beloved boat, the Snark, which London and Charmian spent 27 months aboard sailing to far flung places.

Here's how Jack described his love of Glen Ellen and his ranch:

“I ride over my beautiful ranch. Between my legs is a beautiful horse.
The air is wine. The grapes on a score of rolling hills are red with autumn flame.
Across Sonoma Mountain, wisps of sea fog are stealing.
The afternoon sun smolders in the drowsy sky.
I have everything to make me glad I am alive.”

 What a shame it would have been if the park closed and no one could learn about Jack London on the property where he lived, and where he was buried. The rescuer is Valley of the Moon Natural History Association who signed a five-year deal to keep this historic park open.  

In SoCal, talks are currently underway to keep open Palomar Mountain State Park, Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park in Simi Valley, Pio Pico State Historic Park in Whittier, and Los Encinos State Historic Park in Encino. Hopefully the talks will be successful, and more non profits and agencies will come forward to rescue the dozens of other state parks in Southern and Northern California that are on the closure list.


You can find out more about which parks are on the list and what you can do to keep them open at
http://savestateparks.org/.