Chews Ridge Lookout#Astronomy use anchor

In 1919, a family resided in a government-owned cabin at the summit, which also served as a fire lookout.{{cite book |author=Reaves, Irma Oksen |title=Lookouts of the Los Padres Forest |year=1988}} The {{convert|12|ft}} tall steel frame tower supporting the {{convert|13|x|13|ft}} cab was built in 1929. The tower is at an elevation of {{convert|5082|ft}}.{{cite web |title=Chews Ridge lookout, California |website=peakbagging.com |url=http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/ChewsRidge.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615044816/http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/ChewsRidge.html |archive-date=June 15, 2020 |access-date=June 15, 2020}} Arthur Story and his wife were among the first residents of the lookout. The lookout was destroyed by the Marble Cone Fire in 1977 and rebuilt in 1978. In 1984 the cab was replaced with a standard R-6 design which featured a cat walk and a flat roof.{{Cite web |title=Chews Ridge Lookout |url=http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/chews-ridge-lookout}}

The tower cab is accessible by a steep staircase of extremely narrow steps. There is no running water, electrical service, air conditioning, or heating inside the cab. Additionally, there is no cell phone service, landline telephone, or internet connectivity on Chews Ridge. Communications are conducted with a battery-powered U.S. Forest Service radio.{{cite web |title=Chews Ridge Lookout |website=FFLA Monterey |url=https://ffla-monterey.org/chews-ridge-lookout/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615033901/https://ffla-monterey.org/chews-ridge-lookout/ |archive-date=June 15, 2020 |access-date=June 15, 2020}}

Image:Chews Ridge Lookout 1939.jpg

Beginning in the 1940s, the tower was seasonally staffed by C. C. Yates and his wife of Arroyo Grande, California. They continued to work seasonally through the 1950s. The tower has not been staffed by the U.S. Forest Service since about 1990. The Forest Service subsequently used the structure to house radio repeater equipment and to mount antennas. In 2019, the California-South Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association reached an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to begin staffing the tower with volunteers. They cleaned up the cabin, rehabilitated the pit toilet, reinstalled and refurbished the Osborne Fire Finder, and refurbished the tower inside and out.{{cite report |title=Report to the Los Padre National Forest |year=2019 |publisher=Forest Fire Lookout Association |url=https://firelookouthost.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-Rept-to-LPF-PDF.pdf |access-date=June 15, 2020}}

The Forest Fire Lookout Association is training volunteers to serve as forest fire lookouts. They began staffing the tower in August 2019. Their goal is to staff the tower seven days per week from May through November. The lookout is accessible from Carmel Valley Road, and then south on Forest Route 18S02/Tassajara Road {{convert|9|mi}}. Most of the Tassajara Road is unpaved. Some portions of the road are only suitable for high-clearance or four-wheel drive vehicles, and depending on current weather conditions, may become impassible.{{cite web |title=Chews Ridge project |publisher=Forest Fire Lookout Association |url=https://firelookouthost.org/chews-ridge-project/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615033903/https://firelookouthost.org/chews-ridge-project/ |archive-date=June 15, 2020 |access-date=June 15, 2020}}

The lookout atop Chews Peak was one of six active fire lookouts in the Monterey Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest. The others were located on Cone Peak, Ventana Double Cone, Junipero Serra Peak, Pinyon Peak, and Three Peaks.{{cite periodical |title=Ventana Double Cone lookout |date=Winter 1998 |periodical=Double Cone Quarterly (DCQ) |issue=Winter Solstice '98 |via=ventanawild.org |url=https://www.ventanawild.org/news/ws98/dclook.html |url-status=live |access-date=April 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420050559/http://www.ventanawild.org/news/ws98/dclook.html |archive-date=April 20, 2016}}{{cite periodical |last=Wood |first=Lea |date=Fall 2001 |title=The story of Comings' cabin |periodical=Double Cone Quarterly (DCQ) |volume=IV |number=3 (Fall Equinox '01) |url=http://www.ventanawild.org/news/fe01/comings.html |url-status=live |access-date=November 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124211149/http://www.ventanawild.org/news/fe01/comings.html |archive-date=January 24, 2010}}

The Esselen people are indigenous to the Santa Lucia Mountains. They left unique handprints on cave walls which are found to the south of Chews Ridge.{{cite web |title=Esselen Indians |series=Local history |website=mchsmuseum.com |publisher=Monterey County Historical Society |url=http://www.mchsmuseum.com/esselen.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122003607/http://www.mchsmuseum.com/esselen.html |archive-date=November 22, 2011}} There is evidence of Esselen occupation, including bedrock mortars found in grasslands near concentrations of Valley Oak.

One of the first non-Native Americans to climb the ridge was William Brewer, who climbed the lower slopes of the ridge in May 1861.{{cite report |last=Griffin |first=James R. |year=1975 |title=Plants of the Highest Santa Lucia and Diablo Range Peaks, California |series=USDA Forest Service research paper PSW |department=Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station (PSW), U.S. Forest Service |publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=atdImkJ8ZmoC |access-date=June 17, 2020}} Chews Ridge was named for Constantine Marcus and Eleanor "Nellie" (James) Chew, who were married near Monastery Beach in Carmel, California on September 29, 1881. He was 45 and she was 17. They homesteaded two parcels of 155 acres and 160 acres on the ridge to the west of the peak in 1880 and 1892, about 4 miles south of Jamesburg.{{cite report |title=Patent Details Accession |id=CA0190__.405 |department=Bureau of Land Management |publisher=Department of the Interior |url=https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=CA0190__.405&docClass=STA&sid=0awzwjsg.uxn:}}{{cite report |title=Patent Details Accession |id=CA0430__.181 |department=Bureau of Land Management |publisher=Department of the Interior |url=https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=CA0430__.181&docClass=STA&sid=0awzwjsg.uxn. |url-status=live |access-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616045244/https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=CA0430__.181&docClass=STA&sid=0awzwjsg.uxn. |archive-date=June 16, 2020}} Constantine Chew was born in Ohio and descended from the Chew family of England. His wife was the daughter of John and Cynthia (Cox) James. Jamesburg was named after her father.{{Cite web |title=The Central Coast |date=June 2017 |website=California's Chinese heritage: A legacy of places |url=https://www.californiaschineseheritage.com/2017/06/the-central-coast.html}}

Eleanor Chew was the Jamesburg Postmaster from 1894 to 1919. She was paid $159.20 in 1902 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|159|1902}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}).{{cite book |title=Official Register of the United States: Containing a List of Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service ... |year=1903 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=56 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hcfunupMJbwC}} She also wrote a column titled "Jamesburg Gleanings" filled with local news for the Salinas Californian and Salinas Daily Index newspapers for 25 years. On September 25, 1906, Eleanor Chew reported in her column that "an automobile party of seven, accompanied by a camp wagon, arrived here last night and will go to Miller Canyon today. This is the first auto to attempt the grade above here. H. Dana, of Mountain View, owner of the machine, is in charge."{{cite periodical |title=History of the Monterey Ranger District, Part I |date=Summer 2002 |periodical=Double Cone Quarterly (DCQ) |issue=Summer Solstice '02 |via=ventanawild.org |url=https://www.ventanawild.org/news/ss02/mrd.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529151250/http://www.ventanawild.org/news/ss02/mrd.html |archive-date=May 29, 2016}} Daily auto stage service to and from Salinas began in 1914. Nellie Chew also became the librarian for the Jamesburg branch of the Monterey County Library established on March 14, 1914, located in the post office.{{cite book |title=News Notes of California Libraries |year=1917 |publisher=California State Library |page=416 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VgcbAAAAMAAJ}}

The Chews sold the ranch in April 1919 to William Gordon and Pauline (Henningsen) Lambert of Jamesburg.{{cite web |title=A history of the Caves Ranch |website=cuke.com |url=http://www.cuke.com/tass-history/caves-rogers.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616050133/http://www.cuke.com/tass-history/caves-rogers.html |archive-date=June 16, 2020}} Constantine Chew died on March 29, 1920, at age 85 in National City, California, at the home of his son John.{{cite web |title=Constantine Marcus Chew |website=geni.com |date=August 8, 2023 |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Constantine-Chew/6000000007601543210}} Eleanor died at age 88 on 36 January 1952 in Pacific Grove, California.{{cite report |title=California Death Index |date=1940–1997 |place=Sacramento, CA |publisher=State of California |department=Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics}}

During World War II, the lookout was staffed by observers for the civilian Aircraft Warning Service. Additional housing was constructed for the observers, who were on duty around the clock.

{{Infobox campground

| headingcolor= green

| name = China Camp

| image =

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| location = Monterey County, California, United States

| coordinates =

| elevation = {{convert|4260|ft|m|abbr=on}}

| type = Drive In

| land = Los Padres National Forest

| campus_size =

| annual =

| campsites = 10

| facilities = Two vault toilets, picnic tables

| water = No

| fee = $20/night

| fires = Yes

| season =

| operated_by = {{URL|www.recreation.gov | Recreation.gov}}

| established =

| slogan =

| website =

| footnotes =

}}

China Camp is a public drive-in campground near the summit of Chews Ridge. The camp is named after the many Chinese workers who lived at and near the site while they constructed the road.{{cite web |title=Tassajara Hot Springs |publisher=San Francisco Zen Center |url=https://www.sfzc.org/practice-centers/tassajara/about-tassajara/tassajara-hot-springs |access-date=August 12, 2021 |language=en}} The camp site is the eastern trail head of the Pine Ridge Trail.{{cite web |title=California Forest Fire Lookouts |url=http://www.peakbagging.com/Peak%20Lists/CA_Lookout2.html |url-status=live |access-date=November 20, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108055449/http://www.peakbagging.com/Peak%20Lists/CA_Lookout2.html |archive-date=January 8, 2009}} There is a modern pit toilet. No water is available.

There are 10 campsites that can be reserved in advance. {{as of|2018|06|alt=As of Summer 2018}} campsites 1–5 are open year-round; campsites 6–10 are only open in the summer season. Fees are $20 per night and allow one vehicle per site. Additional vehicles cost more.{{Cite web |title=China Campground |url=https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lpnf/recarea/?recid=10908 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829075331/https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lpnf/recarea/?recid=10908 |archive-date=August 29, 2018 |access-date=August 28, 2018 }} There is no overnight trailhead parking without a campground reservation.

The unpaved southern, high-altitude portion of the road from Tassajara Road to Chews Ridge is only suitable for high-clearance or four-wheel drive vehicles, and during extended wet weather the road is impassable to all. The road continues over the mountain {{convert|7.9|mi}} down a very narrow and steep dirt road suitable only for four-wheel drive vehicles to Tassajara Hot Springs.{{cite web |title=China Camp Campground |url=http://www.hikelospadres.com/china-campground.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829035201/http://www.hikelospadres.com/china-campground.html |archive-date=August 29, 2018 |access-date=August 28, 2018 |website=hikelospadres.com |language=en}} It is the only high peak in the Santa Lucia Range with a road crossing its summit.

China Camp was named after the Chinese workers who lived at the camp in 1888 while they completed building the road to the resort at Tassajara Hot Springs.{{cite web |last=Rogers |first=David |title=Tassajara history |website=cuke.com |url=http://www.cuke.com/tass-history/tony-trail-rogers.html |access-date=June 16, 2020}} On steep portions, the wagon driver would drag a log behind the wagon to prevent it from descending too quickly.

In 1903, a fire started by an untended campfire near Chews Ridge burned a path {{convert|6|mi}} wide to the coast over three months. E. A. Sterling reported that "the largest fire in recent years started last year, 1903, in July, and burned for three months. It started from an unextinguished campfire in Township 18 south, range 4 west [in the Chews Ridge area], and burned a strip of about a township wide through to the coast, becoming wider towards its western end." On July 21 of that year Eleanor "Nellie" Chew reported that "a fire has been raging on the Carmel for some time past and the air is filled with smoke. The weather has been cool, otherwise it would have been very unpleasant." Two months later, on September 22, 1903, she reported that "the mountain fire which has given the people of this vicinity so much trouble for the past month has again broken out and nine or ten men have been fighting it for several days. The coast fire has also come over the divide and crossed the Carmel river and threatens Andrew Church's place with destruction."{{cite news |title=History of the Monterey Ranger District, Part I |date=Summer 2002 |periodical=Double Cone Quarterly (DCQ) |issue=Summer Solstice '02 |via=ventanawild.org |url=http://www.ventanawild.org/news/ss02/mrd.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916000546/http://www.ventanawild.org/news/ss02/mrd.html |archive-date=September 16, 2009 |access-date=June 15, 2020}}

In 1906, a fire that began in Palo Colorado Canyon from the embers of a campfire burned {{convert|150000|acres}} over 35 days and was finally extinguished by the first rainfall of the season.{{cite periodical |last=Rogers |first=David |date=Spring 2004 |title=The Big Sur fire of 1906 |series=Past Times |periodical=Double Cone Quarterly (DCQ) |issue=Spring Equinox '04 |via=ventanawild.org |url=https://www.ventanawild.org/news/se04/pasttime.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160628064947/http://www.ventanawild.org/news/se04/pasttime.html |archive-date=June 28, 2016 |access-date=August 22, 2016 |publisher=Double Cone Quarterly}} The lookout was destroyed by the Marble Cone Fire in 1977 and rebuilt in 1978. In 2017, the Soberanes fire burned east to Chews Ridge, requiring fire fighters to burn backfires to stop further spread.{{cite web |last=Houser |first=Nick |date=September 22, 2016 |title=PHOTOS: Soberanes Fire backfire operations along Chews Ridge |publisher=KSBW |language=en |url=https://www.ksbw.com/article/soberanes-fire-backfire-operations-chews-ridge/3472034 |access-date=June 15, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615064806/https://www.ksbw.com/article/soberanes-fire-backfire-operations-chews-ridge/3472034 |archive-date=June 15, 2020}}{{cite news |title=The blaze that won't die: How Monterey County wildfire became one of costliest to fight |date=September 30, 2016 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-soberanes-fire-20160926-snap-htmlstory.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615064806/https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-soberanes-fire-20160926-snap-htmlstory.html |archive-date=June 15, 2020 |access-date=June 15, 2020}}

A developed hardwood forest and mixed community of Valley Oak (Quercus lobata) and Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri) thrives on the slopes of Chews Ridge. The ridge unusually supports extensive areas of savanna with large valley oaks, with many patches of open grassland than other peaks in the Santa Lucia Range. The predominant rock types include pre-cretaceous schist, very small ultrabasic outcrops, and Miocene sandstone.

On June 6, 2014, Joseph Nissensohn was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for killing Tanya Jones, 14, and Tammy Jarschke, 13, of Seaside, California on Chews Ridge in 1981.{{cite news |title=Killings bring death sentence |date=June 6, 2014 |newspaper=The Salinas Californian |language=en |url=https://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/local/2014/06/06/death-sentence-man-convicted-slayings/10106083/ |url-status=live |access-date=June 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615054945/https://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/local/2014/06/06/death-sentence-man-convicted-slayings/10106083/ |archive-date=June 15, 2020}}{{cite web |last=Lotshaw |first=Tom |date=n.d. |title=Nissensohn gets death penalty |newspaper=Tahoe Daily Tribune |url=https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/local/nissensohn-gets-death-penalty/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615050243/https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/local/nissensohn-gets-death-penalty/ |archive-date=June 15, 2020 |access-date=June 15, 2020}}

Chews Ridge, at an elevation of {{convert|5082|ft}}, is the third highest peak in the Santa Lucia Range. Junipero Serra Peak at {{convert|5865|ft}} is the highest. During severe winter storms, the peak can receive {{convert|1|to|2|ft}} of snow.{{cite web |last=Graff |first=Amy |date=February 12, 2018 |title=Freakish weather could bring snow to mountains of Monterey Peninsula Monday |website=San Francisco Chronicle |url=https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/Monterey-Peninsula-snow-Big-Sur-Chews-Ridge-12607360.php |access-date=June 17, 2020}}{{cite web |title=Storm dusts snow on mountains in Big Sur; woman struck by lightning |date=April 2, 2014 |publisher=KSBW |language=en |url=https://www.ksbw.com/article/storm-dusts-snow-on-mountains-in-big-sur-woman-struck-by-lightning/1053840 |access-date=June 17, 2020}} In 1907, Eleanor Chew reported that {{convert|9|ft}} of snow had accumulated on the ridge.{{Cite web |last=Rogers |first=David |title=History of the Monterey Ranger District |website=cuke.com |url=http://www.cuke.com/tass-history/hist-mont-ranger-district-1.htm |access-date=June 18, 2020}}

{{main|Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy}}

Astronomy graduate students at Warner and Swasey Observatory, Case Western Reserve University were interested in building their own astronomical observatory. They learned about a 36-inch unused mirror stored at Princeton U. and obtained it on a long-term loan. They eventually began looking for mountain ranges "along the west coast of a continent" where the air was smooth from the ocean, "resulted in small sharp star images". Two student members traveled to the Monterey area to investigate the Santa Lucia Range.

In 1972, members of the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy applied to the Forest Service for a use permit, and it was granted in 1974. Over the next couple of years, the Case students moved to Monterey County, and took part-time jobs in the area, to make a down-payment on {{convert|80|acre}} in Cachagua Valley, near the Carmel foothills.{{cite magazine |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |author-link=Dennis Overbye |year=1979 |title=Making it in Monterey |magazine=Sky & Telescope |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=223–230}}{{cite journal |last=Walker |first=Merle |year=1970 |title=The California site survey |journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific |volume=82 |issue=487 |page=672 |doi=10.1086/128945 |bibcode=1970PASP...82..672W |doi-access=free}} In 1975, the Army Corps of Engineers finished the last half-mile to the observatory as part of a training exercise. Astronomer Bart Bok and his astronomer wife Priscilla donated "their entire collection of journals and books". The Oliver Observing Station ({{coord|36|18|20|N|121|34|00|W |type:landmark_region:US-CA |display=inline}}) was built {{convert|0.6|mi}} south-southeast of the lookout.

When the facility opened in 1982, it was the first private observatory to open in the United States in the 20th century.{{cite news |last=Vaughan |first=Chris |year=1987 |title=Wishing on a star bought an observatory |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel}}{{cite news |last=Davis |first=Charles |date=c. 1992 |title=Celebrating 10 years of stars |newspaper=Monterey Herald}}

• Mountain peaks of California
• Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy
• Tassajara Hot Springs

{{reflist|22em}}

• {{cite book |author=Reaves, Irma Oksen |title=Lookouts of the Los Padres Forest |year=1988}}

• {{cite web |url=http://mira.org/oosweather |title=Chews Ridge weather |series=Oliver Observing Station |publisher=MIRA }}
• {{cite peakbagger |id=16792 |name=Chews Ridge, California |accessdate=June 14, 2020}}

{{Big Sur|state=collapsed}}

Category:Mountains of Monterey County, California

Category:Santa Lucia Range

Category:Monterey Ranger District, Los Padres National Forest

Category:Mountains of Northern California

Category:Big Sur

Category:Fire lookout towers