Saving the Mountain

He came to
Sonoma Mountain
From Oakland. Mr. Jack London —
The best known writer in America, maybe in
The world — a man seeking silence and a real shelter.
The beauty of the land healing his soul battered by
City noise, city grime, even then, back in 1905, well over
100 years ago, the urban Oakland landscape blotted with soot
and smoke. Sonoma felt so clean and wild. It called out to him
and he called back, found the mountain a wonder to explore, as
he did, on horseback, stopping now to admire lilies and the views
of the valley. The mountain that truly saved him from his own very
wild life, and that might save us from our own impossible lives if
only we did make saving it a kind of Sonoma sacrament. And if we
did, then all the round world, I do believe, would be beholden to us —
the truly hardy backpackers and Jack London fans — who flock here as
birds do — to hike, and who love this green and wooded land as you,
and you, and you and all of us do, too, today, tomorrow and beyond.

— Jonah Raskin, Summer, 2010, Sonoma