CALIFORNIA'S GOLD: DEVIL'S JAW (TV)
Summary
One in this series of travel programs featuring host Huell Howser, who travels around California, exploring the state's diversity.
Howser opens this installment from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, then travels seven miles inside the base to the "Devil's Jaw," also known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific," a particularly dangerous coastline area where many ships have run aground and sank, including in the infamous Honda Point disaster. Local expert Jeffrey Geiger explains that in 1923, owing to foggy conditions and choppy seas, seven of fourteen U.S. Navy destroyers ran aground on the Devil's Jaw, killing 23 sailors and prompting a court martial. Several witnesses describe seeing the "terrible" event unfold, and Howser carefully climbs down the uneven terrain to examine some of the wreckage, which remains visible on the land and in the water after seven decades.
Howser then travels up the coastline with a few members of the Lompoc Dive Club, noting that he had hoped for slightly more "treacherous" seafaring. The town of Lompoc boasts an annual flower festival and parade as well as the La Purisima Mission, which sits inside a historical park and was restored between 1934 and 1941 after falling into significant disrepair. The construction workers gather for the 50th anniversary of the mission's reopening, recalling their challenging days working on the site as teens and young men. A group of local fourth-graders receives a guided tour of the mission, learning about the history of the establishment, and singer Steve Jones closes the program with a solo version of a folk song, "El Charro." Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: March 1, 1992
- RUNNING TIME: 0:26:42
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:53912
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; California; Shipwrecks; Buildings - Repair and reconstruction
- SERIES RUN: PBS KCET - TV series, 1991-2012
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - "California's Gold" home video
- TV - Commercials - Home Savings of America banking services
CREDITS
- Huell Howser … Producer, Writer
- Joyce Huyett … Associate Producer
- Vicki McCoy … Associate Producer
- Huell Howser … Host
- Steve Jones … Interviewee, Performer
- Jeffrey Geiger … Interviewee