Everyone,
I'm afraid this is my 3rd posting of this story, but since the
question of a California-wide letterboxing site hasn't yet been
decided upon, I didn't want to leave any of my groups out. Everyone
has been so supportive of the trouble we Southern Californian's have
had with our recent destructive wildfires, so here's my old story yet
again:

I work for Southern California Edison, the largest Southern
California electric company. To help coordinate emergency response
in the fire-burned areas around Lake Arrowhead, the company has sent
up our Mobile Command Center to Santa's Village, located near Lake
Arrowhead, along Highway 18. I received a page yesterday saying a
piece of equipment had gone down in the command center, and they
needed an immediate replacement. Long story short, I was given a
Sheriff's Department pass to travel into the restricted fire area in
order to facilitate the installation of said device. I've just
returned home from my trip. Let me report that up there on the
mountain is death, war, horror, and destruction. I saw enormous
areas blackened and denuded of trees and chaparrel--and a number of
burned houses and vehicles.

As far as letterboxes are concerned, I didn't have time to check on
the status of "Tunnel II Trail" and "Rock Camp," because of my work
(I never found these LBs previous to the fires). I was also not able
to check on the status of "Crest Park Picnic Area," or "Rim of the
World Drive" (I do have the "Rim..." stamp from a previous visit,
which was planted by a Chow-Labrador dog), because that stretch of
the highway was closed because of a large rock slide, and they made
me detour around it. I did get to visit, for the first time,
the "Mormon Lumber Road" letterbox.

Annette, I found the "Mormon Lumber Road" letterbox in a burned out
area. The container is melted and burnt, and the plastic bags
containing the stamp and stampbook are all fused together from the
heat, but the stamp and stampbook are fine. The stampbook is
slightly singed, but is basically perfect--it smells strongly of the
fire. The last entry was entered on 10/18/03, just one week before
the conflagration. I took pictures showing what the letterbox area
looks like as I found it, and will show the photos to you, and/or
post them, if they turn out okay after being developed (cheap camera
used). I have the "Mormon Lumber Road" with me now, and we can talk
offline about the best way to get it back to you. In my opinion,
this would make a great Event Stamp--a box that survived the 2003
Southern California Wildfires--it should be passed around to events
around the country, like other Event Stamps that came to the recent
SLO Stamping in the Meadow Event.
--Buzzard