The 15th annual Southern California knap-in took place over the weekend of June 5-7 at Indian Springs Ranch, which lies high up in Lone Pine Canyon about 5 miles from the resort town of Wrightwood. The site is anchored by two stone buildings dating back to 1890 and today serves mainly as an educational center devoted to the preservation and promotion of local Native American traditions. Indian Springs Ranch caretakers Robin and Terry Cornett (760/249-6949) host all the events at the location. The heart and soul of the knap-in, however, are the team of octogenarian Dr. Alton "Longbow" Safford (760/249-5045) and survival skills technologist Joe Dabill (805/467-3450). Each is well worth knowing and each deserves his own essay, which goes beyond the scope of this report. Also present this year was El Nino (tel.: unlisted), who showed his stuff by pushing chill winds up the canyon on Saturday and low clouds and wind on Sunday, which made it feel like January rather than June.

Joe La Blasca claimed the earlybird award by showing up with his son on Thursday, whereas most campers drifted in on Friday. The most interesting tent was put up by the team of Becky and Ed Eagle of Nuevo, CA, who started by erecting a circle of long, slender wood poles with bark intact which they bound together with rope. When they were done they had a domed framework over which they spread canvas (a semi wickiup?). This structure stood up to the winds better than some modern tents. Becky and Ed are into the Rendezvous scene and decorated the campground by running about in buckskins representing the tribes of which they are members. In some ways the hit of the weekend was Tom Mills' quivers made from the dried stalks of Yucca flower stems, which can grow to 10' in height and 7" in diameter. Over the course of the weekend Tom conducted a number of foraging parties for raw materials and helped to start several campers on their way to making their own quivers. When these start showing up at 3-D shoots and rendezvous in growing numbers, the credit (or blame) belongs to Tom. Look for a future article by Tom and Victor Smith on how to make these. Tom, a hobbyist herpetologist, was also, briefly, the hero of the moment by catching a large rattler and relocating it away from human traffic.

There was only one organized event which took place on Saturday afternoon: a selfbow tournament with prizes donated by participants. These ranged from bow staves, to knives, to trinkets. Dave Davis and Joe Dabill tied for 1st place. Non-organized events including knife and tomahawk throwing, and trick roping. Joe Dabill lead a small group on a tour of the area pointing out edible and otherwise useful flora and demonstrated his considerable skills at fire starting. Joe makes excellent self bows.

Linda Blue came to honor her husband, Robert Blue - artist, knapper & teacher - who died on January 22, 1998.

Old time knappers were represented by Lee Cory, Bruce Goulette, Ron Patzig, Steve Carter, Pat Wetzler and Ken Haught, among others. I'm not much of a knapper myself (I just like the setting and the people who show up for these things, so I keep coming back), but I can attest to the presence of many spawls and shards on the blankets, so I take it that these fellows and others kept pretty busy producing beautiful points and spending time with neophytes who were introduced to the art for the first time.

On another sad note: the weekend was dedicated to the memory of Chuck Weardon (1914-1997), long time knapper and vendor, who closed out his tenure on this earth with his presence at the 14th annual Knap-in. He took ill before he could return home and passed to his new venue where, we're sure, he continues to promote the knapper's ancient art to new audiences.

I had a great time and plan to return next year. The 16th annual Southern California Knap-in will take place June 4-6, 1999 (This is the first weekend of June). For information contact: Alton L. Safford (760) 249-5045, or Terry or Robin Cornett (760) 249-6949.