Johnny Cash's Connection with Condors

[xrMike]

In June 1965, his truck caught fire due to an overheated wheel bearing, triggering a forest fire that burnt several hundred acres in Los Padres National Forest in California. When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said: "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it."

The fire destroyed 508 acres (2.06 km2), burning the foliage off three mountains and killing 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered condors. Cash was unrepentant: "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards."

The federal government sued him and was awarded $125,127. Johnny eventually settled the case and paid $82,001. Cash said he was the only person ever sued by the government for starting a forest fire.

(taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash)

I don't know why, but I immediately thought of Calguns when I read that.

He accidently killed 49 out of 53 total birds -- not bad at all!

Some of us today would even call that "a good start," heheh.

[Spiggy]

Off Topic

[AJAX22]

Also, I'm prety sure neither of them ever picked cotton...


but seriously, he couldn't have nabbed the other 4?

still a good showing..

I wonder if you could start a fund in another country (non extraditing) that paid a bounty on any condor brought in dead.

[WileyWilly]

Makes me want to go buy some of his music!

[Spiggy]

man, never thought a heroin song could sound so elegant

[Sutcliffe]

I'm a little doubtful of this

Burned the foliage off three mountains? Last time I checked 508 acres was less than a square mile. Mighty small mountains if you ask me. Unless the birds were chained up or otherwise forced to keep from flying off they must be pretty incredibly stupid to let such a small blaze bring them to the brink of extinction.

[locktime]

From the Ventura County Star November 18, 2007 Book review of his first wife's book:


Boyd also was an investigating officer on the 508-acre forest fire Johnny accidentally set in late June 1965, near where Alder Creek spills into Sespe Creek above Fillmore. The so-named Adobe fire took a week to put out, required air tanker drops and resulted in the Man in Black being prosecuted.

Carl Rivenburgh, then an assistant fire control officer on the U.S. Forest Service's Ojai district, wrote Cash a citation and interviewed him at the scene.

When he got there — "way back in the backcountry" — Cash's pickup, a truck camper the singer affectionately called "Jesse," was pulled off to one side of the road and Cash was seated nearby. Cash told Rivenburgh that he had gone there to fish and that the fire started from his truck. Rivenburgh said he crawled underneath and discovered the exhaust pipe had separated from where it went into the muffler. That problem led to heat igniting nearby grass when Cash tried to start the camper.

Rivenburgh said Cash, who told him he tried to beat down the fire in early stages with his leather jacket, "was just about three-fourths shot and couldn't walk real straight."

"In my conversation with him, I considered him inebriated, probably drunk by liquor," said Rivenburgh, now 85, retired and living in Klamath, Calif. "Later — I wasn't educated on dope in those days — I thought he was probably shooting up on something."

In a 1997 autobiography, Cash recalled the fire in his inimitable style. He said he went into a later court proceeding "full of amphetamines and arrogance," refusing to answer questions straight.

He denied starting the fire, writing that he said, "No, my truck did and it's dead, so you can't question it."

In that book, Cash also indicated that the fire scared off or even killed 44 California condors (the fire was close to a sanctuary). Asked about that in a deposition, Cash wrote that he replied, "I don't give a damn about your yellow buzzards."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, stewards of the condor recovery effort, said any condors were likely only driven off; if they had died, there'd be a record. Dennis Ensign, a firefighter who worked the blaze 42 years ago, recalled no dead birds there.

Cash also claimed to be the first private citizen the federal government successfully sued and collected from for starting a forest fire (to recover costs of fighting it). But the Forest Service doubts it.

Accounts from the day said Cash was fined about $125,000 — an amount Cash mentions in the autobiography — but The Star later reported it was reduced to about $82,000 and that Cash's insurance companies were ordered to pay the tab.

[Darklyte27]

thats what happens when you buy american.. haha

[xrMike]

From the Ventura County Star November 18, 2007 Book review of his first wife's book:

That was interesting; thanks for adding it. It definitely fleshes out the story. So maybe he didn't kill all those birds after all...

The link to the song above didn't work for me, but here's another:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO9dbmJ_2zU

He's covering the original version, written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. I like this song a lot, but then I'm a Cash fan. It's simple but powerful, and is generally recognized as "framing" (musically) the last phase of Cash's life.