Strange Happenings

You may have read the Los Angeles Times article (4/28/2026) by Grace Toohey (Not a mini-volcano; just spontaneous combustion) which spoke of the Hope Ranch “volcano” which had recently “come alive.” In researching my soon to be published book "Gold Rush Entrepreneurs: Flint, Bixby & Company" I came across several references to the "volcano" stagecoach drivers and passengers often observed along the coastal route of Flint/Bixby’s Coast Stage Line.

Coincidentally, perhaps, there was much seismic activity in the Ventura County area following the eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia. In January 1914, Captain Billy Graves told Long Beach Press reporter Eugene Fisher about a strange event he remembered happening around 1883 (1/31/1914). Tons and tons of dead and dying fish came ashore. No one was ever able to explain the phenomena satisfactorily, and it remains a mystery to this day.

According to Billy’s recollections, the beach was strewn with dead fish all the way from Rattlesnake (Terminal) Island to Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach. The shore beyond White’s Point and Point Fermin was in even worse condition than Long Beach. In fact, the rotting fish became a menace to public health. Ranchers came to the beach and gathered the fish to feed their hogs. The fish included white and black sea bass (larger than any ever taken with a hook and line, Graves recalled), halibut as long as a man; barracuda, tuna, albacore and small fish by the thousands.

Some attributed the wholesale destruction of the fish to a volcanic eruption somewhere in the subterranean caverns of the ocean, which was believed to have destroyed all marine life from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Graves said medical men and scientists thought the havoc might have been caused by some plague which broke out among the fish, but they were never able to scientifically establish the truth of their theory. Strangely, when examined, it was found that some of the fish, washed up on the shore while still alive, had their vertebrae shaken loose from the flesh. This if anything Graves felt, gave strength to the volcanic upheaval and explosion theory and perplexed the scientists even more.

One of the largest volcanic eruptions in the course of modern history occurred on August 26, 1883 – the eruption of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait of Indonesia. Could this have had anything to do with the death of the fish in California? The Indonesian eruption was heard nearly 3,000 miles away, and it was later found to have had global effects. Volcanic dust in the atmosphere caused spectacular red sunsets over the next three years in the Northern Hemisphere. Katherine Cashman in the World Book Encyclopedia, says the volcanic dust may also have been the reason for a worldwide drop in temperature that lasted for five years.

The first reference to the” Javanese Calamity” was reported in the Los Angeles Times on September 7, 1883. The article mentioned unusually high tides in California, which might be explained by the volcanic eruption. Reporters failed to make the connection, however, between the stunning red sunsets they were experiencing (they thought it was due to a fire in the Santa Monica Mountains), and the Krakatoa eruption.

On September 16, 1883, an LA Times reporter wrote that Mount Hoar (now called Rincon Mountain), eastward of Santa Barbara, had burst into flames following an earthquake in the region. The Times reported one man discovered a piece of cooled lava that was “as big as a wagon.” Another resident, traveling on the beach, said he saw clouds of smoke wrapping the hills, rising like a dark column into the sky. There were those, however, who said it was nothing more than a simple mountain fire. The Los Angeles newspaper sent a reporter to find out what was really going on.

On September 17, 1883, the unnamed newsman took a group to Ventura and discovered the so-called crater located in the steep precipitous side of the sea wall about a mile below Rincon Creek. Two or three hundred feet above the beach the smell of sulfur was very powerful. In the side of the cliff was a rift or fissure, not more than three feet in length, and perhaps ten inches in width. Near the center of this was a round hole about three inches in diameter from which steam issued, but no smoke. There was no sign of volcanic action, nor any deposit of sulfur. A tunnel, running four or five hundred feet into the side of the mountain was discovered. Inside the shaft the heat was very intense. Though no volcano was discovered, it did appear as if some process of combustion was occurring beneath Mount Hoar.