Lake Hughes

I am a Lake Hughes resident and read with interest your Feb. 21 story "Parted Waters." Is it your goal to look for something adversarial in every story? Here is a story hinged on the adversarial nature of those people who want peace and quiet and those who want raucous fun and good times. Yes, there are people who want peace and quiet who are upset by those who make a lot of noise in the pursuit of fun, and yes, those who want to pursue fun and make a lot of noise while doing it are upset by those who would inhibit them.

Rustic, dotted with willows and cottonwoods and largely untouched, the tiny Leona Valley communities of Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake mark a slow and quiet corner of Los Angeles County. Known jointly as The Lakes, it is a community rich with tales of stagecoach stops, bandit hideaways -- even legendary lake monsters. But a welcome sign sums up residents' greatest pride: "The Lakes: Where Nature Is Your Neighbor." "That's why we chose to live here," said Allaire Koslo, the community's honorary mayor, whose family has lived in the area for more than 40 years.

Work is expected to begin next month on a water treatment plant near Lake Hughes to replace leaking septic tanks that have contaminated the lake. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday awarded a $4.2-million contract for the project to Speiss Construction Co., which is expected to finish the plant by the spring of 1990. The action comes after eight years of debate that at times polarized the 1,000 residents in the unincorporated town of Lake Hughes, 58 miles north of Los Angeles.

Angelo Mozilo was obviously wide awake when the matter of his own self-interest was at stake, but asleep at the switch when Countrywide shares plummeted during the mortgage meltdown ("Mozilo defends stock sales," March 8). There is something terribly wrong with a system that allows greedy chief executives to profit unconscionably while failing at their job. I always thought that a person was rewarded for success, not for abject incompetence and negligence. Obviously, I am naive in thinking that decency and even basic morality have a part to play in the halls of corporate America.

A Valencia man was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and manslaughter Tuesday after his car crossed into an oncoming traffic lane on a canyon road in Green Valley and crashed head-on into another car, killing the other driver, the California Highway Patrol reported. Kenneth Gurule, 21, was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail after the 3:30 a.m. accident on San Francisquito Canyon Road at Pelton Street in the rural area north of Santa Clarita, CHP Officer Steve Cortes said.

A 39-year-old Lake Hughes man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a man whose skeletal remains were found in a Simi Valley ravine last month, Simi Valley police said Tuesday. Luis Roberto Benavidez was arrested Friday as he left his home on a horse ranch in rural northern Los Angeles County, Police Lt. Bob Klamser said.

Authorities on Monday identified two teenagers killed when a car plunged into Lake Hughes over the weekend. Clifford Johnson, 19, of the Lake Hughes area and Timothy William Grimsley, 15, of Green Valley died when their car went over the side of Lake Elizabeth Road on Saturday night, California Highway Patrol Officer Rusty Moore said. The Los Angeles County coroner's office is conducting an autopsy, but preliminary evidence suggests the two drowned, Moore said.

A live hand grenade with its pin pulled halfway out was discovered by a park manager Sunday in a campground and recreational area near Lake Hughes, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said. Sheriff's Deputy Gabe Ramirez said the park manager found the unexploded military Mark II grenade on the shore near the lake about 12:30 p.m. The grenade was retrieved by the sheriff's arson and explosives unit, which detonated it at nearby Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, a county jail in Castaic.

Don Arnett likes what's in his back yard. Stretching out from his one-story home is an immaculate lawn of bright green grass, with a stone patio table to one side. At the end of the lawn is a short, rock retaining wall and then a lake. The lake is calm and scenic. The fluttering of wings and the amiable honking of its native ducks are the loudest sounds. "My favorite thing is when the moon comes up over one side of the lake or down the other," said Arnett, 64.

A helicopter carrying a father and son crashed in high winds in the back yard of a Lake Hughes home Saturday afternoon but caused only minor injuries, authorities said. The privately owned chopper went down about 3 p.m. in an orchard behind a house in the 18100 block of Elizabeth Lake Road, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Antonio Madrid said.

Ian Stewart, 21, of Lake Hughes joined the Marine Corps three years ago to help find himself and was looking forward to returning home next year. The 2001 graduate of Quartz Hill High School had discussed becoming a firefighter but first wanted to travel around Europe and spend more time customizing a four-wheel-drive 2003 GMC Sonoma that he bought this summer.

Re "Edison's 2,998 Mistakes," Commentary, Nov. 1: Please thank author Harold Evans for writing such a motivating article about how we should never give up. Although I can't really compare myself to the likes of Edison or the Wright brothers, I am going to tape this column to my refrigerator. Then the next time I burn a dinner (number 1,075) I will have proof for my three children that there is no reason to give in to failure! Thank you for giving us hope. Elisabeth Chatfelter Lake Hughes

Re "The Only Sense Is of Loss," Dec. 2: It is hard to figure out why there is almost equal sympathy given in this article to the victims of this monster, Michael Carneal, and the monster himself. Am I supposed to feel sorry for Carneal's lack of being able to figure out why he was "shooting people"? It appears that his only explanation is that he was bored with life. ("I didn't have anything to lose.") It's more typical now for The Times to go inside the mind of the murderer and find out "why" and "how" and all the other things that make it almost glamorous for Carneal to sit in prison and figure out the unthinkable.

Authorities on Monday identified two teenagers killed when a car plunged into Lake Hughes over the weekend. Clifford Johnson, 19, of the Lake Hughes area and Timothy William Grimsley, 15, of Green Valley died when their car went over the side of Lake Elizabeth Road on Saturday night, California Highway Patrol Officer Rusty Moore said. The Los Angeles County coroner's office is conducting an autopsy, but preliminary evidence suggests the two drowned, Moore said.

If Lou Adler had any doubts about the impact Paul Newman's camp can have on people, they vanished when his son shaved his head. When the 13-year-old returned that way from a visit to the Connecticut camp in the early '90s, his friend "thought it was because of Michael Jordan," Adler recalls. "But it was because of the kids he met," the ones whose hair had fallen out on its own, because of chemotherapy.

Regarding Robert Hilburn's "Few Pillars, No Thrillers" (Oct. 22): Obviously your panel have their heads in the sand. Bet the farm that when Guns N' Roses come out and tour, they'll regain their place on top. ART HADDOCK Bellflower I agree that "The King Is Dead" (may he rest in peace) and with nearly everything else the panel of 25 suggests, but what about Alanis Morissette? Here is a woman sure to hit the charts, over and over. Hey guys, this lady isn't just angry, she's funny, poignant and has a way with music and words.

Lake Hughes is gone. The mountain hamlet of the same name lives on, but drought has shriveled its namesake to a shallow puddle. Old-timers there are saddened by the lake's demise, but not surprised. The lake has disappeared before. "It comes and goes," said Bob Marshall, whose great-great-grandfather homesteaded a ranch in Lake Hughes in 1885. About every 10 years, when a drought hits and the rains stop, the 135-acre lake vanishes.

The town of Lake Hughes is a pine-scented, scenic speck sitting on the San Andreas Fault due west of Lancaster. Snuggled against the Angeles National Forest, its 500 residents--many of whom make the 100-mile round trip to Los Angeles each workday--choose to live in the remote location because of its small-town atmosphere and what they wake up to each morning.

I am a Lake Hughes resident and read with interest your Feb. 21 story "Parted Waters." Is it your goal to look for something adversarial in every story? Here is a story hinged on the adversarial nature of those people who want peace and quiet and those who want raucous fun and good times. Yes, there are people who want peace and quiet who are upset by those who make a lot of noise in the pursuit of fun, and yes, those who want to pursue fun and make a lot of noise while doing it are upset by those who would inhibit them.

Don Arnett likes what's in his back yard. Stretching out from his one-story home is an immaculate lawn of bright green grass, with a stone patio table to one side. At the end of the lawn is a short, rock retaining wall and then a lake. The lake is calm and scenic. The fluttering of wings and the amiable honking of its native ducks are the loudest sounds. "My favorite thing is when the moon comes up over one side of the lake or down the other," said Arnett, 64.