 The Schulman Grove Visitor Center in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest was destroyed by fire a year ago. Now, blueprints for the new center are nearly complete. Photo by Mike Gervais By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
9-10-2009 Last Friday, Sept. 4, marked the one-year anniversary of the fire that destroyed the Schulman Grove Visitor Center in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
The log cabin center was declared a total loss by the time local firefighters reached the structure at 10:30 a.m. on that Thursday in 2008. The building, located 24 miles east of Big Pine at an elevation of 10,000 feet, was the welcome and interpretive center for the nearly 30,000 annual visitors that come to see some of the oldest living things on the planet, the bristlecone pines.
A part of the wheel-chair accessible boardwalk and many signs along with a couple small trees also perished in the suspicious fire.
Since then, Inyo National Forest has won a $2 million dollar grant to re-build, with blue-prints for the new, energy-efficient visitor center nearly complete.
Rebuilding efforts started nearly the day after the smoke cleared when on Sept. 9, 2008, John Louth, the ranger of the forest of ancient trees and manager of the visitor center, said, “My sense of loss morphed into a steely resolve to rebuild.”
While Louth worked his end trying to secure federal money, the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Center headed the private contributions and local fundraising.
The ESIC held auctions and raffles and raised a considerable amount of money, but Louth said the local donations and outpouring of support for the visitor center played a huge part in keeping efforts focused on rebuilding and not on sorrow or anger.
“I’m convinced that if it wasn’t for the community donations and support,” Louth said, the new center would still be a pipe dream.
In February 2009, INF won the competitive grant from the Forest Service Facility Capitol Improvement program.
This money, Louth explained, helped to get plans drawn with groundbreaking to begin next spring.
Louth has said previously that he expected construction to begin this year, but he explained Forest Service engineers have been exceptionally busy this year making the most of federal stimulus money and “shovel-ready” projects.
“We weren’t pushed to the back burner, they just have a very heavy workload, “Louth said.
The new building is to be very similar to the last one, but with some modern upgrades. Louth explained the new structure will be LEED (or Leader in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, utilizing solar power and highly efficient insulation.
The building plans should be certified soon, Louth said, and hopefully bids for construction will go out by the holidays. Weather permitting, a grand opening for the new visitor center could happen by July 2011.
Forest Supervisor Jim Upchurch said he was very happy with the progress and that the plans for the new building are looking really good.
He added that INF is collaborating with the Forest Service’s Center for Design and Interpretation in Colorado in developing an interpretive plan for displays.
There is a temporary visitor center manned and supplied with books and exhibits that will be open as long as weather permits.
Louth added that visitation has been up this year.
The fire was considered suspicious from day one, as there is little to no fuel at the visitor center and no electricity.
The fire also happened very early in the morning. A White Mountain Research station employee first saw and reported the blaze at 8 a.m. and he reported the building was nearly burnt to the ground then.
The fire followed a rash of vandalism in the backcountry that summer. Car windows were being smashed and gasoline siphoned from cars in both Inyo and Mono counties.
The White Mountain Research Station’s summit laboratory atop the 14,000-peak had been ransacked as well, with cabinets and windows broken and gasoline doused all over the inside of the structure, but no fire.
At the time, Inyo County Sheriff’s Department investigators said any connection between the crimes was speculative.
That was until John Christiana from San Francisco was arrested at 1 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008 in Lone Pine. Sheriff’s deputies found Christiana near Lone Pine High School after detecting a distinct and powerful smell of gasoline coming from his vicinity. Officers searched his vehicle, which had been reported stolen, and found numerous gas containers and evidence that directly connected Christiana with the smashing of the windows. But there was not enough to connect him to the fire at the visitor center or vandalism at the summit hut.
California state fire marshals took over the visitor center investigation from local authorities and a report is still pending.
In March 2009, Christiana was charged by the Mono County District Attorney’s Office with two felony burglary and one felony vandalism charge in connection with the summit hut.
On April 4, the Inyo County District Attorney’s Office added the felony charge of arson of a structure or property on Forest Service land. This followed Christiana’s written confession to burning the visitor center to sheriff’s deputies. This was added to Inyo’s original 2008 charges that included felony auto theft, grand theft, two counts of receiving stolen property, vandalism, possession of a firearm and a misdemeanor charge of carrying a loaded fire arm.
Christiana’s case in now in a state of limbo as he has been deemed “not competent” to stand trial due to his mental instability.
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