I have finally got around to looking at my old black & white photos from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I was given a film scanner for Christmas in 2020 and so have been able to turn these old Tri-X Pan negatives into digital images, bringing them into the 21st century. It has been a great walk down memory lane.

One set of pictures were taken at Knapp’s Castle, a ruined mansion in the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara. I was visiting friends in Santa Barbara around 1980, and we headed up the San Marcos Pass road, turning onto East Camino Cielo at the top of the hill. The road to Knapp’s Castle is about 1.5 miles down the winding Camino Cielo. As we walked out to the ruins, the view of the Santa Ynez Valley and Lake Cachuma were spectacular. (Click on any picture to get a full-sized view.)

The ruins are just that — ruins. The mansion was built in 1916 by George Owen Knapp, the founder of Union Carbide. It burned in a wild fire in 1940. As you drive around the back roads of the Southern California mountains, you will occasionally come across the remains of a burned structure. Ironically, the most common thing left after a fire is the fireplace. The rock structure of the fireplace survives. Lake Cachuma is in the distance.

Some other rock walls survived the fire. Here the Santa Ynez Valley is visible through the small window in a surviving wall.

The USGS had come through in 1956, dutifully marking the location. I tried to look up the marker using the word “BURRO” which is inscribed on top of the marker, but had no luck.

The friend who accompanied me is silhouetted against the western sky as we make our way back to the car.

It is interesting to note that, while I did take a full roll of 36 photos that day, today I would have taken far more. I do admit I like the ease and convenience of modern digital photography.