The Manzana-Huer Huero Connection and the Krakatoan Fury
From the book’s preface: “This is a true story of the Wild West as it was over a century ago. It is a story of … struggle to survive in the harsh and forbidding environment of the desert. Of struggle to create a new community and new lives. It is a sort of mystery. Why was this community created? What happened to it? Why was it destroyed? It is a story of people. Of lives devoted to noble causes. … [o]f lives influenced by both the rigors, and by the beauties, of the environment. And, unexpectedly, it is a story of romance.
The text has at least four levels: family history, regional history, mystery and scientific research. The elements of mystery and scientific research come about because of the quest to answer baffling historical questions that arise in the two preceding levels.
The first level, and the level at which the work was begun, is family history. The following account is the story of the efforts of four generations of the Pierce family in connection with two separate ranches in California. The first ranch was the Manzana Colony … located in the Antelope Valley… [t]he second area was the Iron Springs Ranch, … located in San Luis Obispo County … in what had once been the Spanish Rancho Huer Huero. The discussion of these two ranches at the first two levels gives rise to the title the Manzana – Huerhuero Connection.
The third level, mystery, came about when it was discovered that history can be exciting and mysterious – perhaps as exciting as a James Bond thriller. The excitement here, as we attempt to solve a mystery, is a true story – the story of the eruption of Krakatau. This extraordinary event had a profound effect on history, not only on the history of both ranches, but on all of Southern California as well. Yet surprisingly, no one has ever heard of it before. The fourth level, scientific research, arose in an attempt to understand the effects of the Krakatoan eruption. The result may be a contribution to a newly developing scientific theory: the theory advanced by some scientists that the eruptions of volcanoes can have an effect on the weather.
…
The final answers for the two ranches were surprises, which establishes still another connection between the two areas. There is much more to each ranch than ordinarily meets the eye. Thus, in the accounts that follow, the reader is invited to explore the many facets and surprises of the Manzana – Huerhuero Connection and the Krakatoan Fury.”
Mr. Brooks was encouraged to publish this work in part because of the extensive early data he collected on the rainfall near both ranches and other sites in Middle and Southern California, and how that rainfall correlated with volcanic activity and the weather cycle. He was probably the first person to demonstrate this with a data set for California.