Orange County Nature Writing

A literary celebration of the natural beauty of this place

All photos by Thea Gavin unless otherwise credited. Web site  created by  Thea Gavin (who should perhaps stick to making compost).  ©2008 ocnaturewriting.com. Last update 8/24/08.

Species-wise, she was petite.

They called her the Little Black Bear.

Mated to Old White Face

by necessity: they were

the last bears in the Santa Ana Mountains.

They roamed the brushy ridges, ambling down

at night to feast on bee-hives in the orchards,

fat sheep and cattle, whose necks snapped like twigs

with one swipe of fore-paw

tipped with rapier claws—few were

the creatures who could withstand a grizzly.

 

Back in the days of ranchos y fiestas,

a cow gone dry would be driven by vaqueros

to the clearing at the mouth of Limestone Canyon.

When daylight came, they’d gallop down the hill,

shake out and swing reatas—a mad race

to see what brave caballero

would be the first to land his lariat

around the feasting bear. With many ropes

pulled tight, a grizzly could be led along

for miles to the Sepulveda ranch house

(also known as El Refugio).

There he would be penned

with a toro mal for entertainment.

 

By the mid-1890’s so few bear

remained the mountain ranchers gave them names.

Moccasin John had left the claws

off a rear paw in a trap;

his track looked enough like a giant foot

to earn a nick-name from Jess Adkinson.

 

One night Moccasin John fed his sweet tooth

on twelve stands of bees. He paid the next

day up in Holy Jim Canyon. With tracks

fourteen inches long, and eight across,

he hadn’t been that difficult to find.

Six men joined Ed Adkinson (son of Jess)

in hauling sacks of bear meat down the mountain.

Safely Named: Orange County's Passing Grizzly, Part I

Trabuco Canyon, former grizzly haunt.  March ‘08.

By Thea Gavin

CONTINUED . . .