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SOUTH LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Kelsey Creek Valley remains undisputedly the first area in Lake County to have been settled by those who were not the native Indians. Almost simultaneously, the first south county settlement by “gringos” was in Coyote Valley, now home to Hidden Valley Lake and, 10 miles or so southeast, Langtry (once Guenoc) Vineyards.
Salvador Vallejo, younger brother of General Mariano Vallejo, claimed the first Mexican land grant north of Mt. St. Helena in 1844.
Known as Rancho Lupyomi, it encompassed more than 70,000 acres that included all of Clear Lake and all of the fertile valleys on its shores – all that would become Upper Lake, Lakeport, Scotts Valley, Kelseyville, the Riviera, Nice, Lucerne, Glenhaven, Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake and Lower Lake. That claim was overruled in 1852.
About the same time, his brother-in-law, Jacob Primer Leese, was obtaining almost 30,000 acres and initiating a similar cattle-raising operation in the more southerly regions of Lake County, then still years away from being distinguished even as Napa County.
Gen. Vallejo was in charge of “el frontera del norte,” an area then stretching from San Jose to the border of the Oregon Territory and from the Pacific to the Mississippi.
In 1836, Vallejo was instructed to dismantle the missions and dispose of their holdings because the Mexican government could no longer afford to maintain them.
This meant that private ownership of land became possible. Huge tracts of land were granted to Mexican citizens essentially just for the asking. Vallejo himself claimed many thousands of acres, and was equally generous in obtaining land for his family and friends.
Leese obtained several grants, including 6,400 acres that years later would be home to San Bruno, Brisbane and Visitation Valley.
He traded that grant for Robert T. Ridley’s 8,242-acre Rancho Collayomi, home of Middletown, in 1845.
Weeks later he acquired the adjacent 21,200-acre Rancho Guenoc owned by George Roch.
Ridley – and probably Roch – had become a Mexican citizen, thus eligible for a land grant, by marrying into a Californio family.
Roch had promptly signed over a sizable grant in southern California the year before to the wealthy owner of adjacent property.
Leese sold both of his local ranchos to Capt. Archibald Alexander Ritchie for $14,000 in 1851.
A.A. Ritchie was an ambitious newcomer who arrived in Yerba Buena in mid-1848 after almost 30 years as a sea captain and as resident agent in Canton for a major shipping firm.
The legalities of property ownership had become remarkably muddled over the previous decade, as newcomers chose homesteads that were enclosed by huge land grants.
By 1851, so many fistfights, gunfights, lawsuits and killings had resulted that the U.S. Land Act decreed all titles must be validated in U.S. courts.
Ritchie claimed both grants in 1852, jointly with Paul S. Forbes.
Forbes may have never even visited California and is not apparently related to William Forbes, “father” of Lakeport. He was American Consul in Canton at the time Ritchie lived there.
There were a few squatters on the Lake County grants, who apparently created no trouble.
One was A.H. Butts, who later moved to Butts Canyon. Another was William H. Manlove, who became first sheriff of Lake County.
In the mountains west of the ranchos, John Cobb was setting up a homestead for his wife and children as early as 1853.
Until 1856, the only wagon trail into this area was the one carved by the military hauling their cannons toward the Bloody Island Massacre – over Howell Mountain, through Pope Valley and Butts Canyon, across the Rancho Guenoc and onto Lower Lake and Big Valley.
Only the hardiest made the trip; the earliest documented was the Hammack party who settled in Upper Lake in 1854.
In 1852, or perhaps earlier, Ritchie engaged young Robert Henry Sterling to settle on the Rancho Guenoc and act as manager of the two grants.
At 24, seaman Sterling had sailed around the world and taken part in numerous trips to China and throughout the West Indies.
He had just returned from a yearlong trip back home to Connecticut, where he had proposed to Lydia Jane Wheaton.
Sterling built an anomalous stone house, ready for his bride when she came ‘round The Horn and they were wed in May 1854.
She was accustomed to the security of large stone houses, the residences of prominent families, provisioned to serve as “safe houses” for everyone.
On July 9, 1856, Capt. A.A. Ritchie was found dead alongside his wagon. The probate dragged on into 1868.
A few parcels of Rancho Guenoc were leased to incoming settlers. The 1860 census tallied 131 residents in the village of Guenoc about a mile south of the stone house, where Hartmann Bridge today spans Putah Creek on Highway 29.
Finally, by 1870, the Ritchie family had started splitting the huge spreads into parcels for sale, and serious development of south Lake County got under way.
Meanwhile, around the lake, settlement had been increasing rapidly for 15 years.
Nina Bouska is a member of the Stone House Historical Society. Visit the group online at http://home.mchsi.com/~stonehouse/statement.htm .
For more information about the Lake County Sesquicentennial, visit www.lc150.org, join the celebration at https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Lake-County-Sesquicentennial/171845856177015 and follow it on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCo150 .
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To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment into space, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., pointed Hubble's eye at an especially photogenic pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273.
“For 21 years, Hubble has profoundly changed our view of the universe, allowing us to see deep into the past while opening our eyes to the majesty and wonders around us,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “I was privileged to pilot space shuttle Discovery as it deployed Hubble. After all this time, new Hubble images still inspire awe and are a testament to the extraordinary work of the many people behind the world's most famous observatory.”
Hubble was launched April 24, 1990, aboard Discovery's STS-31 mission. Hubble discoveries revolutionized nearly all areas of current astronomical research from planetary science to cosmology.
“Hubble is America's gift to the world,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland said. “Its jaw-dropping images have rewritten the textbooks and inspired generations of schoolchildren to study math and science. It has been documenting the history of our universe for 21 years. Thanks to the daring of our brave astronauts, a successful servicing mission in 2009 gave Hubble new life. I look forward to Hubble's amazing images and inspiring discoveries for years to come.”
The newly released Hubble image shows a large spiral galaxy, known as UGC 1810, with a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. A swath of blue jewel-like points across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars. These massive stars glow fiercely in ultraviolet light.
The smaller, nearly edge-on companion shows distinct signs of intense star formation at its nucleus, perhaps triggered by the encounter with the companion galaxy.
Arp 273 lies in the constellation Andromeda and is roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth. The image shows a tenuous tidal bridge of material between the two galaxies that are separated from each other by tens of thousands of light-years.
A series of uncommon spiral patterns in the large galaxy are a tell-tale sign of interaction.
The large, outer arm appears partially as a ring, a feature seen when interacting galaxies actually pass through one another. This suggests the smaller companion dived deep, but off-center, through UGC 1810.
The inner set of spiral arms is highly warped out of the plane, with one of the arms going behind the bulge and coming back out the other side. How these two spiral patterns connect is not precisely known.
The larger galaxy in the UGC 1810 - UGC 1813 pair has a mass about five times that of the smaller galaxy.
In unequal pairs such as this, the relatively rapid passage of a companion galaxy produces the lopsided or asymmetric structure in the main spiral.
Also in such encounters, the starburst activity typically begins in the minor galaxies earlier than in the major galaxies. These effects could be because the smaller galaxies have consumed less of the gas present in their nuclei, from which new stars are born.
The interaction was imaged on Dec. 17, 2010, with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The picture is a composite of data taken with three separate filters on WFC3 that allow a broad range of wavelengths covering the ultraviolet, blue, and red portions of the spectrum.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. in Washington, D.C.
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The quake occurred at 12:42 p.m., according to a preliminary report from the US Geological Survey.
It was recorded two miles north northeast of The Geysers geothermal steamfield, four miles west of Cobb and seven miles northwest of Anderson Springs, at a depth of 1.5 miles, the survey reported.
The US Geological Survey received two shake reports – one from Kelseyville, one from San Francisco.
A 3.3-magnitude quake was recorded in the Anderson Springs area on April 10, as Lake County News has reported.
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James Walter Nightingale, 31, went before Judge Stephen Hedstrom in the Lake County Superior Court's Clearlake Division for the sentencing hearing, which ran nearly three hours on Friday afternoon.
Nightingale was charged with felony hit-and-run resulting in death or great bodily injury, misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and driving on a suspended license in connection with a crash on Sept. 24, 2010, in which he hit 57-year-old Zino Mezoui at the intersection of Seigler Canyon Road and Highway 29.
In February Nightingale entered no contest pleas to the charges, and also admitted to violating his probation for two separate cases, one involving driving under the influence, the other driving on a suspended license.
Nightingale, who wasn't supposed to be driving on the day of the crash because he had a suspended license and was on probation, was said to have pulled in front of Mezoui, out on his motorcycle for the first ride in a long time.
After the collision, which reportedly caused the windows on Nightingale's Chevrolet Suburban to shatter, he drove around Mezoui and headed back up Seigler Canyon Road, telling authorities that he didn't have a cell phone with him and that he went back home to call 911. On the way to his home he reportedly heard the life flight helicopter heading to the crash scene.
But he said once he got to his home his phone didn't work, and when he called a cousin he was told to lie low and watch the newspapers. He would turn himself in five days after the crash after finding an attorney who helped arrange for him to surrender to law enforcement.
During a hearing that stretched through most of the court's afternoon session, Deputy District Attorney John Langan and defense attorney Jacob Zamora argued over whether Nightingale should receive probation and, if not, what kind of prison sentence he should receive.
Hedstrom heard the various arguments, posed questions and worked methodically through the legal questions as family and friends of both Mezoui and Nightingale looked on.
Mezoui's widow, Jan, and his eldest son, Zino Jr., gave victim impact statements to the court, asking for the upper term for Nightingale, who also would take the stand to try to explain his reasons for leaving the scene, which he attributed to fear and panic.
As Hedstrom himself would point out, “There is no perfect outcome here,” acknowledging the impact of Mezoui's loss to his family and friends.
During the hearing, Hedstrom paid particular attention to Nightingale's driving before the crash, which he said went to the degree of negligence. That point proved important because Nightingale had submitted a written statement to the court that attempted to offer justification for his actions.
Langan was prepared to try to challenge those statements by entering into evidence the preliminary hearing transcript, but Hedstrom said he didn't know how helpful it would be, and Langan later in the hearing withdrew that request after he had the chance to cross-examine Nightingale.
Zino Mezoui Jr., 23, told the court during his victim impact statement that he was a changed man after losing his father, who “lived a life full of love and compassion, his most powerful attributes.”
He said to Nightingale, “I implore you to learn from your life experiences in only the most positive of ways,” and asked the judge for the harshest penalty.
“I carry sadness with me at all times,” the younger Mezoui said, adding, “I intend to lead a life full of love and compassion, just as my father would want.”
Jane Mezoui's words for Nightingale were decidedly tougher. “May you see his face embedded in your mind every time you get into an automobile to drive.”
She said Nightingale had no regard for life, and showed what kind of person he was for not stopping to help her husband. “You fled the scene like the coward that you are,” she said, adding, “We know why you fled and why you didn't turn yourself in for five days.”
Since her husband's death, she said she has struggled to keep open their restaurant, Zino's Ristorante on Soda Bay Road, and his sons are working to finish their college, which was their father's dream.
When Nightingale took the stand, following a short side bar between the attorneys and judge, the correctional officer was called forward to remove the cuffs from his wrists.
Hedstrom wouldn't let Nightingale simply make a statement, instead requiring the question and answer format.
When Zamora asked him how he felt about Mezoui's death, Nightingale said, “It was tragic, a very sad thing that happened. Just a shocking accident and I feel that I don't think it could have been avoided."
He offered his condolences to Mezoui's family, explaining that he knows how hard it is to lose a loved one, having lost his mother when he was very young.
Zamora asked him about fleeing the scene. “I really just didn't know what to do that that time,” Nightingale said.
Adding that he was shocked, Nightingale said, “I was just horrified by the tragic accident that had happened, so I didn't know what to do, so I left and went back to my home.”
Langan got the chance to cross-examine Nightingale, which Zamora objected to, saying he had understood that Nightingale could make a statement without being questioned.
Langan questioned Nightingale closely on the details of his story. While Nightingale's written statement to the court claimed that Mezoui had come out of the shadows, which is why he said he didn't see him, Langan challenged that assertion, saying that at 10 a.m. on that Friday Mezoui should have been visible in bright sunlight as he approached the intersection.
Nightingale said he went to call 911 but didn't have a phone, and ended up walking through the woods on the back roads of his family ranch near Lower Lake, getting home around noon or 1 p.m.
Later he reportedly called his family members from a pay phone in Lower Lake, getting the advice to lie low.
Nightingale denied a witness' testimony offered during the preliminary hearing that he was at a business in Lakeport between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. the day of the crash, trying to sell his Suburban.
Langan also questioned Nightingale on whether he tried to alter the registration on his vehicle prior to the day of the crash. Zamora instructed Nightingale not to answer based in his Fifth Amendment rights not to incriminate himself, and objected, with Hedstrom sustaining the objection.
During Langan's cross-examination, Nightingale said he wasn't in the “right state of mind,” a justification for leaving the scene. Langan pressed him on using controlled substances. Nightingale said he had a medical marijuana card. Zamora again objected to the line of questioning.
Hedstrom, in assessing Nightingale's statements and actions, said he didn't agree that Nightingale understood the Mezoui family's loss. “I don’t think he really knows the family's grief here. It's much greater than he can understand,” said Hedstrom, adding that there also was no way Nightingale could make it right.
While Nightingale maintained that he didn't know what to do, Hedstrom said, “I can't buy that,” explaining that he could have helped Mezoui by staying at the scene.
Not only did the family suffer an emotional loss, but also an “incredible” monetary loss, Hedstrom said.
Hedstrom said Nightingale had five misdemeanors from 1995 to 2010, the most serious ones being a driving under the influence charge in Sonoma County in 2007 that later was reduced to a lesser “wet reckless” charge and a DUI charge in 2009 for which he was placed on five years probation.
In June 2010 he admitted violating his probation while driving in January 2010 and was given three years probation, and this past February he admitted to those offenses and to violating his probation in two other cases by driving in August 2010.
Hedstrom denied Nightingale probation. “This court concludes that there is a likelihood that the defendant would be a danger to others if not in prison.”
Langan argued for the maximum term. “He's been admonished before, he's still doing it, and now the Mezoui family has paid the ultimate price for this,” adding that Nightingale needed punishment and deterrents.
Zamora argued that the suggestion that Nightingale's behavior was increasingly serious was “hard to swallow,” and wasn't backed up by the evidence. He said Nightingale could be helped and rehabilitated by the structure possible on probation, but since the judge was determining a prison term, he argued that all of the misdemeanor charges should be served concurrently, rather than consecutively.
In the end, Hedstrom ordered Nightingale to serve the upper term of four years in prison on the felony hit-and-run charge, with the misdemeanor charges each getting a year that he was ordered to serve concurrently, although much of that time was wiped out with time already served and other credits.
Nightingale also has been ordered to pay the Mezoui family more than $47,000 in restitution, which will be the subject of another hearing on May 17.
Hedstrom said the statute allows credit of up to one half of the sentence for good conduct, meaning Nightingale could be out of prison in about two years. He warned Nightingale that if he was released on parole and didn't follow the rules, he could be returned to prison for a “significant time.”
As he was being led out a side door to go back to the county jail, Nightingale told his family and friends, “See you in a few years.”
Afterward, Langan said it was the best outcome they could hope for given the evidence and the extent to which the law would allow them to go.
He said a witness driving behind Mezoui that day testified during the preliminary hearing that Mezoui was driving the speed limit – Nightingale, in his statements on Friday, alleged that Mezoui was driving 70 miles per hour – and that Nightingale had slowed or stopped before pulling out. Another witness claimed that Nightingale broke traction while taking off at the intersection.
Langan stated the circumstances of the case were “egregious.”
Jan Mezoui wasn't ultimately pleased with the outcome. “I don't feel like justice was served. I really don't,” she said, adding that never once did Nightingale say he was sorry for his part in the incident.
Zino Mezoui's sons, Zino Jr. and his brother, Sami, 21 – both resembling their father with their jet-black hair and good looks – are continuing their education. Jan Mezoui said they are good young men.
Zino Jr., said he is studying criminal justice and wants to be a police officer.
Reflecting on what he's endured following his father's death, he said, “I would hope that it would only strengthen my character.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
The crash occurred at around 3:30 p.m. on Highway 175 in Cobb, the CHP said.
A Ford Focus and a Toyota Tercel collided near Cobb Mountain Elementary School, according to the CHP.
The report indicated that the roadway was blocked as medical personnel worked to extricate one subject.
Officials said the roadway was clear and most of the units cleared from the scene by about 5 p.m.
Information about those involved and the full extent of their injuries was not immediately available.
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Shortly before 9:30 p.m. Thursday a corrections deputy completing required cell checks found the 29-year-old male inmate, whose name was not released, in the process of the suicide attempt, according to a report from Capt. Timothy Pearce of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Pearce said the corrections deputy summoned assistance and assessed the condition of the inmate, who had no pulse and was not breathing.
Life saving measures were immediately initiated and the fire department was notified, Peace said.
Upon their arrival, fire department personnel were able to detect a pulse. Peace said the inmate was then transported to Ukiah Valley Medical Center. The inmate was subsequently transferred to St. Helena Hospital.
Pearce said the inmate's name is being withheld pending notification of family members.
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