Dave Mull and his 1926 Dodge                                              Photo: Rick Masters

    
in Independence, California
                Old-time family fun!
    JULY 4, 2010
     CELEBRATING THE LOWER
     OWENS RIVER PROJECT

Parade Theme
 “Owens River ~
Let Freedom Flow”

     AWARDS

• SWEEPSTAKES 

• BEST OF THEME 

• MOST PATRIOTIC

• JUDGES AWARD

• BEST EQUESTRIAN

• STAR-SPANGLED YOUTH

IN MEMORY OF KEITH BRIGHT

IN MEMORY OF KEITH BRIGHT, WHO HELPED RECLAIM THE OWENS VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA

HON. JERRY LEWIS OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010

       Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of my very good friend Keith Bright, whose leadership, generosity, foresight and persistence helped remake and restore the Owens Valley in California over the past five decades. Mr. Bright passed away April 7, 2010 at the age of 95, and his ever-present smile will be missed greatly by his many friends.

      Keith Bright was born in Lemoore, California, during the oil boom in the state’s San Joaquin Valley. He began working in the oil fields at 19, but went to college to become an expert on the science and business of petroleum. During World War II, the military refused Keith’s patriotic efforts to enlist because he was more valuable producing the vital supply of oil to the troops.

      During his years in the oil fields, Keith Bright founded KEN Corporation, one of the world’s largest producers of oil-based drilling fluid, and NECK Petroleum, a drilling company based in Bakersfield, Calif. He developed oil and gas fields in the valley.

      In the 1960s, Keith Bright moved to the eastern Sierra Nevada and bought a ranch near Independence, California, in the heart of the Owens Valley. A long alpine valley ringed by some of the highest mountains in America, by the 1960s it had become parched because most of the water in the Owens River was diverted through the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the taps of Southern California.

      I came to know Keith Bright in the 1980s after redistricting added the Owens Valley to the area I represented. He was an intense advocate for Inyo County and the needs of the valley, both before and after he became a County Supervisor.

     By the time Keith Bright joined the board of supervisors in 1986, Inyo County had been embroiled for more than a decade in a lawsuit to reclaim some of the water being pumped out of the valley by Los Angeles. Although ordered by courts to reduce pumping a number of times, Los Angeles continued to literally pump the Owens Valley dry throughout the 1980s.

      To break the impasse, Bright in 1991 led the board in negotiating the landmark Inyo-Los Angeles Long-Term Water Agreement, which for the first time required Los Angeles to address the environmental effects of its pumping on the Owens Valley. The agreement sparked a recall movement against the Inyo County board – Bright defeated the recall by a 60 percent margin.

      I was pleased to work with Keith Bright on a number of projects to bring back the Owens River, and it was a delight to see him on hand in 2006 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power opened the valves and sent water pouring down the river once again. There is still work to be done, but anglers now catch trout along stretches of the river that were dry for decades.

       Keith Bright was a moving force behind many other improvements in the Owens Valley. He was one of the main backers of creating a National Historic Site at Manzanar, the internment camp where many Japanese Americans were forced to stay during World War II.

       Mr. Speaker, Keith Bright was one of the most dedicated, enthusiastic Americans I have ever met. He was truly a modern man of the Old West, dedicated to rugged individualism and local initiative. He almost shouted from the mountaintop to let his local community work and keep big government off their backs.

     In memory of the long life and wonderful character of Keith Bright, the people of Inyo County have planned a memorial service designed to be a celebration. I ask my colleagues to join me in commending that celebration, and in remembering the life of the man who devoted himself to his community for nearly 50 years.

IN MEMORIAM
Keith B. Bright
March 31, 1915 – April 6, 2010

Everyone is invited to celebrate the life of Keith Bright on April 17, 2010 at 1:00 PM at the Pioneer Memorial Methodist Church, 157 North Washington Street in Independence, with burial at the Independence Cemetery. Keith passed away surrounded by family and friends on April 6, 2010 in Bishop, CA. Keith loved a party and to be surrounded by people, and his home became the place to celebrate birthdays and holidays. In honor of his love of people and expansive personality, we welcome you to convene at the American Legion Hall on Edwards Street (Highway 395) in Independence immediately following the services. Please bring a potluck dish, and your stories about Keith Bright. Public speaking was his forté, and he loved a good story, so we hope you will come with your experiences, either in writing or speech.

Keith B. Bright was born on March 31, 1915 in Lemoore, California. He was a 4th generation Californian with roots in Angels Camp and the central San Joaquin Valley, the descendant of families that crossed the Nevada desert to establish ranches, hotels and work in the mines in the 1850s. His early years were spent in the hardscrabble places in the San Joaquin Valley’s Westside, near Tulare Lake and Devil’s Den. Keith used to relate stories of riding his horse to school in 1st grade, washing dishes in a dirt-floor boarding house to help his mother, and watching one of the last Miller and Lux cattle drives in the Central Valley. Keith’s large extended family gave him opportunities to work on the Whittle Ranch at Angels Camp and the Hays Ranch in Peeples Valley, Arizona. He and his mother settled in Taft, California where his step-father, Theodore “Sarge” Pierce, worked for General Petroleum as a catskinner operating heavy equipment in the oil fields. During his growing-up years, large family gatherings were common, usually in the form of picnic potlucks, and Keith had many cousins and relatives that continued the network of relationships throughout his life. School was not Keith Bright’s favorite activity, and he told tales about high-jinks that he and his friends engaged in, including rubbing garlic cloves on the steam radiators in Taft High School. While in high school and at Taft Junior College, he discovered theater and he acted in many plays, performing throughout California. Keith had a larger-than-life stage presence, and acting came naturally to him. His paternal aunt, Ione Bright, was a stage actress in San Francisco and New York. Keith considered attending the Pasadena Playhouse and pursuing a career as an actor following junior college, but ultimately decided to attend University of Southern California in petroleum engineering. When World War II began, he tried to enlist many times, but was refused because he was in petroleum production, a critical industry to the war effort.

    Keith was married to Gretchen Roese on September 11, 1939, and they had two children, Charles Theodore (Ted) and Susan Bright, before the marriage ended in divorce. On November 8, 1946 Keith married Eleanor Jane Young, a geologist he met in the Rio Bravo oil fields, who preceded him in death in 2008. Together they had three children, Mary Anne, Nancy Jane, and Donald Keith Bright. Keith and Jane bought the old Parker Ranch on South Fork Oak Creek near Independence in 1962, ultimately moving there in 1968. For many years, there was no telephone or television, and electricity was direct current from a small hydro-plant on the creek. The Ranch became the anchor that kept family and friends together. Gardens were grown, cattle raised, marriages celebrated, and children raised from birth there. On July 6, 2007 most of the Bright Ranch was burned in the Inyo Complex Fire, and on July 12, 2008 the landscape was transformed in a devastating debris flow, and the Ranch became a memory.

    Keith was a creative problem solver with a great deal of tenacity. In 1948, he and others formed KEN Corporation to develop and market oil-based drilling muds throughout the world. In those years, the oil business was peopled by unique characters – self-made men and women that formed close friendships that extended beyond the business relationships. Keith fit right into that image. He had many friends in the oil business throughout United States, and business deals were by handshake and trust. He always believed in the essential goodness of people, and because of that, was able to bring together conflicting viewpoints and get people to talk. He was a big-picture man, a natural leader, who was able to see ways to accomplish a goal, and pushed through the obstacles in the way.

    Keith Bright grew increasingly concerned about the future of the oil industry and the energy supply for the United States, and became politically involved. He was not hesitant to throw open the door to a senator’s office and walk right in, quelling any objections by reminding the senator’s staff that they worked for the public. In 1982 he received the California Independent Petroleum Producers Glenn C. Ferguson Award for his efforts on behalf of the industry.

    Retirement was not a word in Keith’s vocabulary. The completion of a second aqueduct in 1970 and the enactment of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) soon after revitalized the ongoing water conflict between Inyo County and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. During this time, Keith served as a Water Commissioner for Inyo County. On December 1, 1986 he was appointed to the Inyo County Board of Supervisors by Governor Deukmejian to fill the term of 4th District Supervisor Johnny Johnson, and he put his energies toward fighting the water battle. Keith clearly saw that Inyo County had to lock in protections for its water resources before the population pressures from Southern California made environmental protection unlikely. He helped craft and was a signatory of the Inyo County/LADWP Water Agreement, the stipulation and order that settled the court battle over the adequacy of the Los Angeles/Inyo Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which analyzed the effects of pumping in the Valley since 1970. Although signed in 1991, the Agreement and EIR became effective in 1997 with approval by the 3rd District Court of Appeals. Keith Bright continued to advocate for implementation of all aspects of the EIR and Agreement, knowing that if enforced as written, the Agreement would protect the environment of the Owens Valley and benefit the people of Inyo County.

    Keith’s previous contacts in the State and Federal government were beneficial when lobbying on behalf of Inyo County. He was instrumental in navigating all the complex political details that enabled the transfer of land to the Park Service, and the resulting creation of the Manzanar National Historic Site. Likewise, he worked with Congress to secure $1,000,000 for the relocation of the Inyo County Road Shop from Manzanar to Independence. Keith’s advocacy of the establishment of Manzanar as a National Historic Site helped bridge differing viewpoints, and he was honored in 2008 by the Manzanar Committee for his work on behalf of Manzanar.

    Always active in the Republican Party, Keith tirelessly worked for the cause and became somewhat of a legend every time he sold tickets to the Republican Breakfast at Bishop Mule Days. More than one registered Democrat bought those tickets and it became a source of amusement to see how many succumbed to his persuasive sales pitch. Because he was able to bring people together with humor and compelling rhetoric, Keith made Inyo County a better place. He left an indelible mark on the lives of his family and the community with his sense of decency and strong ethics. He was an optimist that always believed in the fundamental goodness of people, overlooking slights with the expectation of fairness and honesty. Keith Bright’s true legacy is the enduring gift of his values, honed in the small towns of California’s past and demonstrated throughout his life.

THE 2010 (B.C.) INDEPENDENCE FRUITCAKE FESTIVAL IS NOW ANCIENT HISTORY
FRUITCAKE ~ THE SACRED FOOD OF THE PHARAOHS

The Indy Fruit & Nut Pickers perform at
The 5th Internationally Acclaimed Independence Fruitcake Festival
Legion Hall    Independence, California   January 23, 2010
  ---  AND THE MUMMIFICATION OF THE FRUITCAKE PHARAOH  ---
 
Fruitcake lovers from the Lower Nile and the far reaches of the unexplored world
may gain entry to the Royal Pyramid by presenting a fruitcake offering to the Pharaoh.
WARNING: By the Pharaoh's royal decree, fruitcakeless imposters will be denied entry.
They will then be sacrificed, embalmed, mummified and their hearts offered to Anubis.
 

THE 2010 INDEPENDENCE FRUITCAKE FESTIVAL IS SPONSORED BY THE ILLUMINUTTI

 
MAGNIFICENT FRUITCAKE RECIPES
 

Fruitcakes in Space
Fruitcake or Eggnog is required for admission
COME AS YOU ARE NOT

   
"Take me to your fruitcake."
See the "Fruitcakes in Space" Video

We have a limited number of these spectacular T-shirts.
CivicShirts@InyoCounty.Info
The long-sleeve black shirts come in sizes
S, M, L, X-l, XX-L and XXX-L.
If you can't make it to the Festival but you want a shirt,
send us an email followed by a check to
Independence Civic Club Tee Shirts
P.O. Box 482, Independence, CA 93526
We'll mail you the shirt. Add $5 for foreign orders.
All shirts are $30.
Profits go into our charitable fund.

 
The Fruitcake King
The 2007 Fruitcake Festival Video
The article the Perpetual Fruitcake King will forever regret
Fruitcake Fest Sets Sights on Trifecta
 Inyo Register, Bishop California       December 15, 2007
It’s true. The Fruitcake Festival is no longer “our little secret” in the Owens Valley, where it’s sort of the valley’s version of crazy Aunt Nancy living in the attic that no one really wants to talk about. The twittering is the result of some national media attention for the rather odd festival, which celebrates the annoying mixture of cheap cake, chunks of cast-off dried fruit, almost-rotten nuts, and enough booze and other preservatives to make a mummy blush that is also known as fruitcake.

California Festival Celebrates Fruitcake
Weekend Edition Sunday     December 16, 2007
National Public Radio and the Independence Civic Club's
Nancy Masters get together for this hilarious interview.

Listeners Defend the Fruitcake
Weekend Edition Sunday     December 23, 2007
Our story last week about a California fruitcake festival brought letters from listeners who love and defend the much-maligned fruitcake. NPR's Liane Hansen reads a few of these letters, and then hears from one listener who was moved to song.

OUR SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Click on the image to view our local schedule of events.

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    Independence Update   

Our very own disaster flick is in the making!
Latest update Sunday Nov 30 7:45 PST
Fire, Flood and Mud
It's been a tough 371 days in Independence
and it looks like rain...
Click F11 for fullscreen; F11 again and esc to exit.
Right mouse click for menu and quality settings.


Special Report
HOLDING ON TO INDEPENDENCE
How the fast-moving Inyo Complex Wildland Fire of July 2007 almost torched the little town of Independence, threatened the historic
Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery and nearly killed nine firefighters.

A model for any civic group under normal circumstances, residents went above and beyond to help their neighbors when disaster struck.
Download 4-page PDF story by clicking the link below
Community Group of the Year
Independence Civic Club

Darcy Ellis    Inyo Register    October 30, 2008

    There’s sort of a running joke among members of the Independence Civic Club about which sign of the apocalypse will strike their small community next.

    A sardonic sense of humor has become somewhat of a trademark here – this is the group, after all, responsible for the International Fruitcake Festival – and yet one can’t help but wonder how much genuine concern underlies the mock speculation about tornadoes, earthquakes, even locusts and plague.

    After two consecutive summers that saw the Inyo Complex Fire bearing down on their town in the summer of 2007 and the Oak Creek flash flood and mud slide tearing a path of destruction through two dozen homes this past July, it’s not hard to see why these men and women  - who watched as their neighbors, family and friends lost everything they owned, who themselves suffered at the indiscriminate, merciless hand of Mother Nature – are a bit gun shy.

    Yet ask just about anyone familiar with not only the Independence Civic Club’s recent humanitarian efforts but also its more routine community action endeavors and they’ll no doubt say that regardless of what the gods have in store for the county seat tomorrow or 20 years from now, the Civic Club won’t hesitate to be among the first to react.

    Indeed, when the sky opened up at the base of the Sierra on July 12, relentlessly dumping an hour’s worth of hail in mere minutes onto terrain left bare by the prior summer’s fire, the Independence Civic Club responded almost immediately to the ensuing flash flood that devastated Oak Creek and Fort Independence.

    Within 24 hours the group had established a relief fund at a local bank and its members – some of whom were personally displaced by the mud slide – were already scrambling to collect food, clothing and a place to stay for their newly homeless neighbors.

    The club’s effort would only accelerate and expand over the following days and weeks, until it was able to start distributing to flood and mud slide victims the more than $30,000 it had collected and raised on their behalf in less than two months.

    It is for many reasons, but primarily their selfless response to the flood, their resilience in the face of adversity, belief in civic well-being and their testament to the power of solidarity, generosity and grass-roots spirit, that the members of the Independence Civic Club are being honored in 2008 with The Inyo Register’s inaugural Community Group of the Year award.

    The way the independent panel convened to select a recipient saw it, the group was really a no-brainer choice for the honor, considering its above-and-beyond flood relief efforts on top of the community improvement and civic endeavors it organizes on a regular basis.

    Members of the Civic Club Executive Committee were nevertheless taken aback, citing the club’s work as nothing any other community group wouldn’t have done in the same circumstances.

    That’s not to say, however, that they aren’t thrilled to be recognized.

    “I am stunned,” said Civic Club President Nancy Masters, “I’m surprised because what we did is what anyone would have done, and receiving an honor is not why we organized these relief efforts.  But I feel very honored that our organization was selected.”

    The club’s secretary and Master’s sister, Mary Roper, echoed those sentiments.

    “It’s unbelievable,” she said.  “You never expect recognition, and that’s certainly not why you do all this stuff.  I’m flattered.  There’s a lot of community groups in Inyo County who do a lot for their communities, so it’s really an honor to be singled out.”     more

• Flash Flood, Mud Slide Wreak Havoc    
  Mike Gervais     Inyo Register, Bishop California     July 15, 2008

• Relief, Aid Available in Independence
  Inyo Register, Bishop California     July 19, 2008