Jack London's Wolf House

A couple of weekends ago, we drove up to Glen Ellen, a sweet little town in the wine country between Sonoma and Petaluma. It's about an hour away from Oakland - an easy drive at least partly on country roads. We went to visit Jack London Historic State Park, one of the many precious public landmarks that were saved when local people stepped in to help and more money was miraculously found in California's park budget.

The last time we were here, in January, the park was closed, as at that time it was only open on certain days of the week, and a sign was posted that it would close permanently this summer. Now it's open 7 days a week. Hallelujia!

This park is well worth the drive and the $10 per car it takes to get in. Here's the story about Jack London and his Wolf House, in case you don't know it. Jack London was a well-known figure in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He grew up in and around Oakland and Berkeley, CA, and was a vagabond and explorer. He was also a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, my favorite of which is probably To Build a Fire. Incredible short story.

 Anyway, he made a fortune and eventually married a woman named Charmian. Together they moved to what is now the site of the park, Beauty Ranch, and built a mansion there over a period of several years, called Wolf House. Two weeks before they were to move in, Wolf House burned down. This was in 1913. All that was left were stone walls and the stones of the nine fireplaces in the home.

The ruin of Wolf House is still in the park, and you can wander around the walls and go up onto a second floor ledge overlooking what was the pool and the courtyard in the center. It's in a beautiful sunken glen among the trees a half mile or so from the entrance. You do wonder whether it would have been prone to flooding in the rainy season.

 

Jack and Charmian determined to rebuild, but Jack died in 1916 before much progress was made. He was only 40. Charmian continued to live on the ranch and eventually built The House of Happy Walls, which today serves as a museum housing all kinds of interesting stuff from their worldwide travels and adventures.  It's a lovely home, but not grand in the way Wolf House promised to be.

 

The House of Happy Walls

 It's easy to feel a sense of melancholy and nostalgia here in this park. The beauty and the ruins. The House of Happy Walls, where there must also have been a fair amount of loneliness and isolation. The simple picket-fence-surrounded grave on a nearby hill, where both Jack and Charmian are buried (she died in 1955), marked with a large stone from the ruins of their dream.

On the brighter side, the park is filled with walking trails and lovely views, and it makes a very interesting day trip from the Bay Area.