Vintage Views: Mount Diablo – Walnut Creek, Then and Now

Tinkering around with some of the raw vintage imagery that forms the backbone of my wife, photographer Sarah Anne Bettelheim, and my ongoing Vintage Views: Mount Diablo series, I stumbled into creating a sort of frozen-in-time machine, blended (mash-up?) view of Mount Diablo overlooking Walnut Creek that spans a century, capturing the growth of our East Bay Area at the toe of the mountain’s slopes.

Framed below a contemporary dusting of snow on Mount Diablo’s summit, this composite photograph reveals how the comparatively open (and undeveloped) oak savannah grasslands and farmland of 1909 (left) give up the ghost in little more than a century to the present-day (2012) urban residential redoubt of Walnut Creek (right) where the city sprawls guarded beneath a canopy of ornamental trees. Though Walnut Creek has clearly grown, the urban growth surrounding Mount Diablo’s foothills has nevertheless been held at bay due in no small part to the hard work of groups like Save Mount Diablo.

This is a departure from the Vintage Views: Mount Diablo series, but an interesting exercise in telling Mount Diablo’s story.

To help support the San Francisco Bay Area non-profit organization Save Mount Diablo, whose mission is “to preserve Mount Diablo’s peaks, surrounding foothills, and watersheds”, every year Sarah Anne Photography donates a Vintage View to the annual “Moonlight on the Mountain” full-moon fete and auction. Visit www.savemountdiablo.org to learn more about how you can help protect Mount Diablo.

Bibliotheca Herpetologica: The Legendary Sword Lake Turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake

It was five years ago that I first read about the rarest freshwater turtle in the world – the Swinhoe’s softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) – known from Hoàn Kiếm Lake (“The Lake of the Returned Sword”) in Hanoi, Vietnam. In late 2007, the Hoàn Kiếm turtle was one of only three Swinhoe’s softshell turtles in existence, the remaining two were known from China: an older male on display at the Suzhou Zoo and a recently re-discovered female, “China Girl,” part of the Changsha Zoo’s, collection. Of the eight Swinhoe’s softshell turtles known to scientists in the wild or captivity in the preceding years, the remaining five had died since the 1990s: two in the West Garden Buddhist temple in Suzhou; one in the Suzhou Zoo; one in the Shanghai Zoo; and one in the Beijing Zoo.

That there might be only three of its species left in the world was remarkable. But what made the Hoàn Kiếm turtle especially unique was that this very turtle was purported to be over 600 years old. According to legend, in ages past this legendary turtle was once the messenger of the Dragon King, who bade the turtle deliver a sword to a farmer to help the Vietnamese people vanquish their Chinese invaders. Armed with this mystical sword, the farmer Lê Lợi gathered an army and overthrew their oppressors. Not long after Lê Lợi became king, he was boating on Lục Thuy Lake (today’s Hoàn Kiếm Lake) when the turtle returned to retrieve the blade.

And so it was that when a giant soft-shelled turtle began appearing in Hoàn Kiếm Lake after a centuries-long hiatus, onlookers – and the world – took notice. I did too.

The following year, experts from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Asian Turtle Program and Education for Nature-Vietnam announced in April 2008 that they had successfully photographed and confirmed a second wild individual – the fourth of its kind alive today in the wild or captivity – west of Hanoi in Đồng Mỏ Lake. Later that year, the prodigal turtle disappeared after floods washed out Đồng Mỏ’s dam, only to reappear weeks later in the possession of a local fisherman, who announced his intent to sell the turtle to a local Hanoi restaurateur. The fisherman eventually turned the turtle over to authorities, who returned it safely to the lake.

That same year, Swinhoe’s softshell turtle stakeholders came together to initiate a captive breeding program between Changsha Zoo’s China Girl and the Suzhou Zoo’s male. To their credit, the program has continued to this day but, despite repeated pairings and the more than 100 eggs laid each season, none have successfully hatched to date.

In 2011, the Hoàn Kiếm turtle again made headlines when it began to develop lesions and other signs of injury. After much debate, on April 3rd, 2011 the turtle was captured and isolated on an island at the heart of Hoàn Kiếm Lake for medical treatment. It has since been released after its recovery, and efforts are underway to clean up the lake.

Five years ago, I took it upon myself to learn more about this unique species and the colorful Arthurian legend-like story it embodied, a project that has culminated this year in the publication of “Swinhoe’s Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei): The Legendary Sword Lake Turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake,” an article in the journal Bibliotheca Herpetologica (Volume 10, No. 1) that marks the first comprehensive review of the rare Swinhoe’s softshell turtle’s history and natural history and the legend of the Sword Lake Turtle together in the English language for western audiences.

For those interested in the legend itself, I have excerpted it with the journal’s permission below. To learn more about the Swinhoe’s softshell turtle’s history and natural history, I recommend joining the International Society for the History and Bibliography of Herpetology; the standard two-year membership includes a journal subscription beginning with issue 9 (featuring “The Herpetological Legacy of Linnaeus”) as well as issue 10(1) on Swinhoei’s softshell turtle. Individual issues can also be purchased for $7.50 each as instructed here.

The Legend of the Sword Lake Turtle

“In the six-hundred years since the Dragon King first guided the farmer king to victory, the legend of the Sword Lake Turtle has evolved in the telling. The heart of this legend roughly holds true to the historical record. Between 1418 and 1426, after enduring years of violent occupation under an invading force of the Chinese Ming, the farmer Lê Lợi raised an army of 500 volunteer soldiers – the Lam Son army – to free their country.  Although Lê Lợi’s guerilla tactics demoralized and chipped away at the invader’s forces, the Ming occupation persisted (Trang 2006). It is here that the lines between legend and history blur.

As retold by Minh Trang in “Sự Tích Hồ Gươm (The Legend of Sword Lake)” (Trang 2006; see also Asian Turtle Conservation Network 2008), legend has it the Dragon King – witnessing from his underwater palace the Lam Son army’s struggle – sent forth the Golden Turtle (referred to as the “Golden Tortoise” in Trang 2006) to deliver a magical sword blade to Lê Lợi. Whether by design or by accident (here the legend is unclear on all counts), this blade was delivered, not to Lê Lợi, but to a fisherman, Lê Thận. Lê Thận cast his net three times, each time entangling it in the sword blade. It wasn’t until the third cast that Lê Thận, beguiled by the reappearing blade, tucked it in his belt and returned home. Soon thereafter, Lê Thận joined Lê Lợi’s resistance army.

One night, after stopping by Lê Thận’s quarters to visit, Lê Lợi noticed the blade on the wall, which began to glow in his presence. Inspecting the blade, Lê Lợi saw the radiance emanated from two words etched on the blade: “Thuận Thiên” (“Heaven Approves” or “The Will of Heaven”). Several days later, during a retreat of Lê Lợi’s guerilla army before an anticipated Ming attack, the farmer king again saw a strange glow – this time from the canopy of an ancient banyan tree. Upon closer inspection, Lê Lợi saw that it was a sword hilt decorated in gems and etched with the same divine words: “Thuận Thiên.”

When Lê Lợi and Lê Thận next crossed paths, Lê Lợi asked to see the blade; the blade and hilt were a perfect fit. Seeing this as a sign from heaven, Lê Thận knelt before Lê Lợi, bestowed him the sword, and swore his allegiance to the farmer king that he might save their people and their homeland (Trang 2006).

As word of Lê Lợi’s magical sword spread, his Lam Son army grew (Trang 2006, Friends of Vietnam Heritage 2008). Backed by a growing resistance some 350,000 soldiers strong, reinforced with horses and elephants, and – by legend’s score – armed with the magical sword that made Lê Lợi grow tall and gave him the strength of many men (Friends of Vietnam Heritage 2008), Lê Lợi destroyed the Ming forces and led his people to victory. After years of oppression, in 1427 the Chinese recognized the Vietnamese people’s independence. One year later, Lê Lợi was declared king under the title Lê Thái Tổ, founder of the Lê Dynasty (Friends of Vietnam Heritage 2008).

Not long after Lê Lợi became king, he was touring Lục Thuy (“Green Water”) Lake when the Golden Turtle emerged from the waters to retrieve the divine sword. By some accounts, the Golden Turtle asked for the sword’s return and Lê Lợi respectfully complied (Trang 2006); by others the messenger instead plucked it from Lê Lợi’s belt, inciting the king to retrieve it (Friends of Vietnam Heritage 2008). In the end, however, Lê Lợi acknowledged the sword’s return to the Dragon King and in tribute, renamed the waters Hồ Hoàn Kiếm, “The Lake of the Returned Sword” (Trang 2006, Friends of Vietnam Heritage 2008)” (Bettelheim 2012).

 

Full Citation: Bettelheim, Matthew P. 2012. Swinhoe’s Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei): The Legendary Sword Lake Turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 10(1): p 4-20.

Acknowledgements: This work could not have been undertaken without the help of Scott Davis, Balazs Farkas, Uwe Fritz, Richard Gemel, Douglas Hendrie, Gerald Kuchling, Steve Leach, Peter C. H. Pritchard, Clayton Statham, Robert G. Webb, and Roger Bour.

Vintage Views: Mount Diablo – Walnut Creek IV

With Save Mount Diablo’s Moonlight on the Mountain auction fast approaching (September 8, 2012), I’ve once again taken up collaborating with my wife, photographer Sarah Anne Bettelheim, on the next in our ongoing Vintage Views: Mount Diablo series, which involves pairing historical imagery of the San Francisco Bay Area’s iconic Mount Diablo (Contra Costa County, CA.) with contemporary photographs taken from the same vantage point.

Our most recent collaboration – Vintage Views: Mount Diablo – Walnut Creek IV – recreates the view of a vintage postcard that gazes out over downtown Walnut Creek. Across the horizon (from right to left, beginning with the main mount) loom the peaks of Mount Diablo’s Summit, North Peak, Eagle Peak, and Mount Olympia. In Mount Diablo’s foothills can be seen Shell Ridge and the sentinel sandstone rock formations of Mount Diablo State Park’s “Rock City,” once known more familiarly as the “Garden of the Jungle Gods.” Rock City’s foundations are riddled with turrets, wind caves, and grottos carved by the elements, and include Sentinel Rock and Elephant Rock. Between 1909 – when the original vintage postcard was mailed – and the present, Walnut Creek’s growth is evident as it expanded into the outlying farmland. Also noticeable is the transition from the relatively open oak savannah grassland and farmland in 1909 to a present-day cover of urban residential communities overlain with ornamental trees. This urban growth has been stalled from advancing further upslope due in no small part to the hard work of groups like Save Mount Diablo, which alone has protected over 100,00 acres of open space surrounding the mountain since 1971.

In the coming months, we’ll be adding new views and new historical imagery to match. Stay tuned…

To help support the San Francisco Bay Area non-profit organization Save Mount Diablo, whose mission is “to preserve Mount Diablo’s peaks, surrounding foothills, and watersheds”, every year Sarah Anne Photography donates a Vintage View to the annual “Moonlight on the Mountain” full-moon fete and auction. Visit www.savemountdiablo.org to learn more about how you can help protect Mount Diablo.

Vintage Views: Mount Diablo

Over the last few years, I’ve been collaborating with my wife, photographer Sarah Anne Bettelheim, on what has come to be known as the Vintage Views: Mount Diablo project, which involves pairing historical imagery of the San Francisco Bay Area’s iconic Mount Diablo (Contra Costa County, CA.) with contemporary photographs taken from the same vantage point. Sister projects currently underway in the same vein include Vintage Views: Animalia and Botanica.

In Vintage Views: Mount Diablo, for example (right), we started with an early 1900′s stereoview image of a prominent spine known as Devils Slide, which erupts along Black Hawk Ridge in Mount Diablo’s Black Hills, overlooking the East Fork of Sycamore Creek. This prominent relief feature, a vertical bed of Miocene rock some 23.7-5.3 million years old, is an example of a homoclinal ridge or strike ridge – more commonly known as a “hogback ridge” – wherein the soil strata are deeply tilted and exhibit near-symmetry in cross-section. In the distance, the peak Knob Point can be seen. Since the stereoview was made (presumed to be in the 1920’s or 1930’s), evidence of a shift in vegetation communities is evident on both the north-facing slope (from chaparral to oak woodland) and the south-facing slope (from grassland to chaparral), where a game trail appears to have survived the test of time.

The project’s views of Mount Diablo vary, ranging from the upthrust bulk of Devils Slide described above to an expansive view of Walnut Creek from the surrounding hills to a distant portrait overlooking Concord and Cowell to the bucolic vista to be seen from Marsh Creek Road. The historical snapshots of Mount Diablo are captured in matchbooks, postcards, pamphlets, maps, photographs, poster stamps, pen and ink, and stereoviews dating back to to the late 1800′s.

The final Vintage View includes a facsimile or original historical image paired with Sarah Anne’s original photography. It is up to you to first pick from Sarah’s selection of contemporary photographs, and then pick an original or fascimile historical image to accompany your photograph. All Vintage Views are printed in a *limited run* of 25 fascimile historical images; on rare occasions, select Vintage Views are available paired with an original, genuine historical image (when available). Each finished Vintage View is mounted behind acid-free museum matboard and archival UV glass and includes a laminated legend to help decipher the story behind each view.

Across the seasons and over the years, our view of Mount Diablo continues to evolve. Woods give way to towns and gardens, seeds take root, rock faces weather. But the silhouette and the spirit of Mount Diablo remain intact, fixtures that span the horizon and the years.

In the coming months, we’ll be adding new views and new historical imagery to match. Stay tuned…

To help support the San Francisco Bay Area non-profit organization Save Mount Diablo, whose mission is “to preserve Mount Diablo’s peaks, surrounding foothills, and watersheds”, every year Sarah Anne Photography donates a Vintage View to the annual “Moonlight on the Mountain” full-moon fete and auction. Visit www.savemountdiablo.org to learn more about how you can help protect Mount Diablo.

Herpetological Review: Jacques Burkhardt’s Western Pond Turtle

I am excited to announce that I was recently asked to contribute to the new quarterly column, “Art in Herpetology,” one of the many new features of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles‘ new-and-improved, full-color journal, Herpetological Review (see also SSAR’s facebook page).

Hot off the presses in the third issue of the 2011 volume (page 382), you’ll find featured the never-before-published watercolor work of Jacques Burkhardt, one of over 900 scientific illustrations in the Ernt Mayr LIbrary‘s Jacques Burkhardt Collection in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Harvard University. And of course, the skeletal turtle illustrated is none other than a western pond turtle, noted in this undated watercolor illustration as Actinemys marmorata.

This is just one of two western pond turtle illustrations in the collection – the first (featured here) from the San Francisco area [Physical Piece Id: bAg 168.60.10 (10)a], the second from Southern California ca. 1856 [Physical Piece Id: bAg 168.60.10 (23)a].

Full Citation: Bettelheim, Matthew P. 2011. Art in Herpetology. Herpetological Review 42(3): p 382.