Burning Landscape of 1962: Wildfire or Controlled Burn

The Seasons of Scorching

It is not a new phenomenon: smokers' cigarettes exuberant for oxygen, and the scorched intoxicating the woods. Smoke and flames draped around the sides of a road suggest a wildfire or controlled burn. This is a recorded piece of history — it was once a trash fire. But the on-screen caption "IT NEVER STOPPED BURNING" echoes an indelible burn that has continued for generations, uncontrollable. The date '1962' suggests a historical context or event — when fires and smoke were prevalent. The landscape appears barren and scorched, evoking an ancient sense of destruction and loss. The haze continues to punish the woods. The desolate view through the trees creates a somber and dramatic atmosphere. The atmosphere reveals a hazy smoke filled sky that refuses to die. It has scoured the woods to mark its absolute and utter control for years. It haunts the smoke burgeoning above the trees. The hazy sky can cause loss of vision and even cause blindness. The smoke of the land is far, far wider than the flame.

Rupture of Ecosystem

The scorched earth may be the product of pre-modern and ancient (pre-1940) indigenous inhabitants of the area who were no longer present in 1962. Environmental conditions could change; thus, burning could have been a way of life. It could have been a planned controlled burn. This contradicts the on-screen caption "IT NEVER STOPPED BURNING," suggesting recurrent wildfires. The prevalence of trees indicates that forest fires were not a new phenomenon. The trees root deep into the soil, pulling oxygen from it, and the fire, caused by the depletion of oxygen, must have burned with the trees' wood. The trees themselves, even if still rooted, are likely charred and carbonized, further contributing to the atmosphere. However, not much is known about how frequent the fires were or who might have ignited them. The presence of the road suggests the involvement of humans, but it doesn't reveal their intent or purpose. The image might be of a historical fire, for example, the year the The Santa Catalina Mountains fire took place, which was in 1962, so there is no certainty that the year '1962' found on the image suggests a known event. The people could have burnt the forests not just for indigenous or ecological purposes, but also as a means of mass suicide or cultural genocide. The road running through the charred land parallels the fire's ability to cut through the forests and the barrenness. The smoke and the haze are conjoined and lead through the forest.