Serenity where war once raged

An eye-opening visit to the Lava Beds National Monument

WHEN I BEGAN WRITING ‘CAPTAIN JACK & THE SONS OF COVID’ several years ago, I knew the novel might lead me to the Lava Beds National Monument in Northern California, the scene of an epic struggle in 1872-73 between a small band of Native Americans, members of the Modoc tribe, and the U.S. Army.

I traveled there from San Francisco as the book was still mostly in the thinking stages. Turned out to be bad timing on my part to do a field trip. A devastating fire and the sudden emergence of COVID-19 made full exploration of the vast wilderness area complicated. Plus, the lava beds are almost impassable to walk through without twisting an ankle or falling. The soldiers fighting the Modocs found that out quickly and painfully in the war.

Soldiers in boots found this terrain daunting - especially while being shot at

THE AREA I THOUGHT MIGHT BE IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT - a spot called Captain Jack’s Stronghold - was off limits when I visited on the first trip. I tried flashing my press credentials to get a peek. But the police guarding the stronghold entrance were not impressed. A press card just doesn’t get you as many places as it used to.

Fast forward to last week.

IN MY SECOND TRIP I stayed at a lodge a few miles away, where the owners were very knowledgable about the Modoc tribe, the war and details about Captain Jack’s Stronghold. It turned out for the purposes of the novel’s plot that getting to see the Stronghold now was waaaaaay better than seeing it when I was just beginning to write. This trip I had full access to where a Modoc Chief nicknamed Captain Jack and a small band of warriors held off a far superior force (in numbers) of U.S. soldiers.

My reading about the stronghold and viewing amateur videos didn’t do justice to the place. While there, I wrote my Finger Lakes Times newspaper column (printed in full below) about the experience. This was no ordinary battlefield or war. It still isn’t, 150 years later, where an odd serenity seems to blanket most places.

I PLAN TO GO BACK WHEN I FINISH WRITING Captain Jack and The Sons of Covid.

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Retreating into the wilderness

JUNE 5, 2024, FINGER LAKES TIMES, GENEVA NY

By Michael J. Fitzgerald

THE COMBINATION OF NOW-ROILING NATIONAL POLITICAL TURMOILS, coupled with the recent sudden death of a family member, pushed me this week to travel into a Northern California wilderness area blanketed with a natural quiet and steeped in history.

It was so quiet this morning I could hear a young rabbit gently chewing greenery on my cabin's doorstep. 

It’s Finger Lakes quiet.

The rabbit reminded me of many quiet hours sitting outside the Valois family cottage on Seneca Lake. Sitting on our overlook on summer mornings, I can sometimes make out the sound of wings flapping as birds land on nearby trees.

It’s a kind of quiet many people never get the chance to hear.

I RETREATED TO AN AREA ADJACENT to the Lava Beds National Monument on the Oregon-California border. The rugged, mostly lava-covered national park was the scene of a war between the Native American Modoc tribe and the U.S. government in the 1870s. The Modocs were unwilling to relocate to reservations where they would be forced to live off the largesse of the federal government. They were content to live as they had for many centuries, in tune with nature on lands rich with wildlife and fresh water from lakes and rivers. Unsurprisingly, settlers expanding ever-westward wanted the Modocs pushed off their ancestral lands to make way for traditional farming, gold mining and all the industrial/commercial trappings of an expanding white civilization.

As was so often the case in American history, the U.S. government agreed with the settlers, sent troops to force the Modocs to leave and a war resulted.

A cave likely used to hide women and children when the soldiers attacked

This background might seem at odds with the notion of seeking a place of  peace and serenity. But the history behind the Modoc war was part of the inspiration I had for an in-progress novel. Today, a calm feeling pervades the entire area, even amid numerous historical markers commemorating contentious confrontations, lethal battles, and Native American and federal fortifications. There is also a monument placed where a U.S. General was killed.

Even so, it’s palpably tranquil, the quiet following a brutal storm of fighting since passed, just not forgotten.

What also drew me here - besides the chance to eavesdrop on grass-munching rabbits - are persistent local tales about the labyrinth of caves, rugged trails, towering buttes and steep hillsides where the Modocs lived and fought valiantly. People who have spent considerable amounts of time around these enclaves quietly whisper that there are spirits about.

Hoo-boy, right?

I understand. 

MY SKEPTICAL-JOURNALIST NATURE generally rules out encounters with ghosts. But the novelist in me says to reserve judgment. That probably comes from reading the recent work by American novelist James Lee Burke who has an amazing talent to peer into the minds of his complex characters. The characters often have ghosts from the past to deal with.  His just-released book “Clete” is a classic example.

Ghosts, spirits and eerie feelings aside, I’ll be soaking in the ever-present quiet this week while I explore the Lava Beds National Monument and areas nearby. I am especially keen on exploring the caves and lava hideouts where a small contingent of male Modoc warriors, along with Modoc women and children, totally outfoxed several hundred U.S. soldiers and officers, holding them at bay through numerous battles. It’s quite a tale, detailed in a nonfiction book called “The Modocs and Their War.”

If I detect anything spirit-like in those caves or hideouts, I’ll let you know when I return to Seneca Lake next week. I’m eager to get back to the barely audible sound of birds’ wings and familiar sounds of silence as I sit lakeside.

Michael J. Fitzgerald has worked at six newspapers as a writer and editor as well as a correspondent for two news services. He splits his time between Valois, N.Y., and the Pacific Northwest. You can email him at Michael.Fitzgeraldfltcolumnist@gmail.com and visit his websites at michaeljfitzgerald.blogspot.com and michaeljfitzgerald.substack.com.