Steelhead Trout and Rindge Dam

Re “Extinction of Special Fish May Hit a Snag,” Nov. 30.

Steve Hymon’s story awakened many dormant and poignant memories of my childhood summers in Upper Malibu Creek. Although we lived in southwest Los Angeles, my family and that of my Uncle John spent entire summers from 1944 through 1950 camping at Crater Camp, just across Piuma Road from the confluence of Las Virgenes, Malibu and Cold creeks. When the campground sold in the early ‘50s and became a raw land subdivision, my dad and uncle bought a lot and built some of the first homes in a place called Malibu Meadows. It was paradise for a young lad who spent most of his days hiking, looking for Indian artifacts, hunting rabbits, fishing for trout and learning to swim in a hundred-yard-long pool created by a seasonal dam across Malibu Creek.

During this time, we met a colorful, old local character, Ray “Hooray” Horton, who lived in a tiny cabin on the property and who regaled us with tales about his early life in this unique canyon. In response to biologist Anthony Spina’s lack of data about upstream steelhead migration: Old Ray told us of spearing silvery-looking trout “as long as your arm” in Cold Creek during the winter months before that “damn dam went in,”, suggesting that steelhead had indeed made it as far as these tributary creeks. The trout I caught as a boy in those three creeks were undoubtedly descendants of early steelhead migrations. I too support the demolition of Rindge Dam because the extinction of any and every species takes away a bit of our own humanity. In this case, our humanity has the power and resources necessary to save the resilient and courageous southern steelhead.

DON KOBABE, Westlake Village