LAKEPORT, Calif. – Nearly a year after it launched a major fundraising effort, a community group on Tuesday was able to make its biggest single contribution to date to the Middletown Library.
The Friends of Middletown Library members Tamsen Nash and Randa Fish presented a $10,000 check to Lake County Library Director Christopher Veach and District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon at the Board of Supervisors’ Tuesday morning meeting.
Nash, the Friends’ vice president, said that, over the years, the group has donated many thousands of dollars to the library, but in small amounts.
“This time we decided to do a very large fundraiser,” and to earmark it for the children’s library, Nash said.
The Friends sent out a request letter to the community on Sept. 30, Nash said.
“The money kept coming in,” Nash said, which caused the fundraiser to be extended from three months to six or seven.
Nash said the fundraiser was special in that the Friends asked the community to donate $5,000, with the group pledging to match that amount with another $5,000.
“I’m very pleased and proud of our community,” Nash added.
She said she also was proud of Veach, who did a lot of research and came up with areas where he would like to spend the money.
Board Chair Jeff Smith thanked the group for the donation.
Veach, taking the check, added, “Thank you for all the work that you’ve done.”
The group has asked that the funds be earmarked for the library’s children’s section.
In an interview last year, Friends Treasurer Jacquie Bogue told Lake County News that many of the library’s children’s books that were checked out at the time of the Valley fire were lost in homes that burned.
Bogue said that was one of the reasons for the desire to put funds toward the children’s library resources.
The Friends of Middletown Library welcomes new members year-round. Pick up a form at the Middletown Library, write to the group at P.O. Box 57, Middletown, CA 95461, or visit its Facebook page for more information.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Area Town Hall this week will host a visit from Congressman Mike Thompson and discuss a proposed park project on the Lake and Napa County line.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, at the Middletown Community Center, 21256 Washington St.
On the agenda is a visit from Thompson (D-St. Helena), who was elected to Congress in 1998.
He represents the Fifth Congressional District, which includes the southern portion of Lake County.
Also on the Thursday agenda is an update on the Montesol Park Project from John Woodbury of the Napa Open Space District.
The district is soliciting public input on a plan to purchase a 1,254-acre portion of the Montesol Ranch, which is located west of Highway 29 on the Lake and Napa County border.
Plans for that portion of the property – about 1,000 acres of which is located in Lake County – include a new regional park which the district says could include a number of recreational opportunities, from camping to hiking, biking to horseback riding.
The MATH Board includes Chair Claude Brown, Vice Chair Linda Diehl-Darms, Secretary Fletcher Thornton, and members Lisa Kaplan and Gregg Van Oss.
MATH – established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 – is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
Meetings are subject to videotaping.
For more information email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
UPDATE PER LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Evacuation advisories for local residents have been lifted at this time.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Firefighters are working at the scene of a fire at the intersection of Highway 29 and Highway 175/Cobb in the Kelseyville area.
The fire, called the Bottle incident, was first reported shortly after 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to reports from the scene.
Initial reports indicated it could have been in connection to a traffic collision, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Sheriff Brian Martin confirmed that it appeared that the fire had been caused by a vehicle crash, but added that the cause has not yet been determined.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office issued an alert shortly after 5 p.m. reporting that firefighters were at work on the fire.
At that point, the sheriff's office said no homes were threatened, but residents in the area were advised to monitor their surroundings and be prepared to evacuate. Power lines also were reported down in the area.
The CHP and the sheriff's office said Highway 29 will be closed down between Highway 175 and Kits Corner.
Traffic is being diverted onto Bottle Rock Road from Highway 29 and onto Red Hills Road from Kit's Corner, the CHP said.
Just before 5:45 p.m., Cal Fire reported that the fire was between 40 and 50 acres, based on aerial mapping.
The Mount Konocti lookout tower also was reported to be evacuated a short time later.
Additional equipment has been requested to respond from South Lake County Fire, according to radio reports.
Just before 6:15 p.m., the fire was reported to be 75 acres, according to Cal Fire air attack.
On Tuesday evening Sheriff Brian Martin was near the fire area and reporting via Facebook that residents near the area should be prepared to evacuate "at a moment's notice."
Due to weak signal he continued his report by phone with Lake County News to say that it appears that the fire is largely in sparsely populated wildland area.
As to progress made on the fire, Sheriff Martin reported from his vantage that it was "hard to tell from the road” but that it looked like firefighters are making progress.
Shortly after 7 p.m., the fire's forward progress was reported to be contained and evacuation advisories for nearby residents had been lifted.
At about 7:30 p.m., the CHP said Highway 29 at Kit's Corner and at Highway 175/Cobb was remaining closed for an undetermined amount of time.
This story is being updated as the situation develops. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An effort to create a park project on the border of Lake and Napa counties is seeking input from the community.
The Trust for Public Land and Land Trust of Napa County recently purchased a conservation easement for 7,286 acres of land on the Montesol Ranch, owned by the Livermore family and located in Lake and Napa counties.
Montesol Ranch is the largest private property in Napa County, the protection of which will tie together a 22,200-acre contiguous conservation area, including eight miles of shared boundary with Robert Louis Stevenson State Park.
The property has extremely high biodiversity and abundant water resources.
The recently-purchased easement will restrict much of the property from residential and vineyard development, and protect very high-priority biodiversity and watershed values.
The two organizations also have obtained an option to purchase in fee title the 1,254 acres of the Montesol Ranch located west of Highway 29. About 1,000 acres of the Phase II area is located in Lake County.
The Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District is proposed to be the owner of the Phase II area, with the goal of operating a new regional park that could potentially include hiking, bicycling, horseback riding, camping and more.
The lands are adjacent to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, which the Open Space District expects to soon be operating under a pending agreement with California State Parks.
Currently the district is applying for a grant from the Habitat Conservation Fund to purchase the remaining acreage for about $200,000; that purchase needs to be completed by the end of 2018.
As part of its outreach, the district is requesting public input – ideas, hopes and concerns – to help develop plans for future park usage.
The Middletown Area Town Hall will host a presentation on the project at its meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, at the Middletown Senior and Community Center, 21256 Washington St.
A public presentation also will be held during the Middletown Area Merchants Association meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 9 a.m., also at the Middletown Senior and Community Center. During the meeting they will give a project overview, take suggestions and answer questions. The meeting is open to the public.
Feedback and letters of support can be submitted to John Woodbury at the Napa Open Space District via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call 707-259-5933 for more information.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council will hold a protest hearing this week on a proposal to raise garbage collection rates and consider authorizing staff to approve more potential change orders on a major paving project.
The council will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
On Thursday the council will hold a protest hearing, as it’s required to do under Proposition 218, for the proposed increase in garbage collection rates.
City Manager Greg Folsom’s report to the council explained that the new rates, which went into effect on July 1, raised the monthly cost for a 32-gallon garbage container from $15.46 to $19.99, among the lowest rates in the region.
Separately, Last month, the council approved the second final reading of an ordinance instituting universal garbage collection in the city, as Lake County News has reported.
That also triggered a requirement under Proposition 218 to notify property owners, a process which Folsom said the city has begun.
Also on Thursday, the council will consider authorizing staff to appropriate up to $50,000 for additional change orders and contingencies for the paving project on Phillips and 18th Avenue.
On the meeting's consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are warrant registers; minutes of the July 12 Lake County Vector Control District Board meeting; consideration of amendment to the contract with Raney Planning and Management Inc. for preparing an environmental impact report for the Walmart expansion project; and consideration of purchase of an equipment trailer for the Public Works Department.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Fire Protection District is planning a community open house on Sunday, Aug. 13.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lower Lake Fire Station, located on Main Street.
The open house will be a 75th anniversary party for the district.
It also will mark the one-year anniversary of the Clayton fire, which burned 300 structures and nearly 4,000 acres in Lower Lake.
There will be a meet and greet with firefighters and the chance to check out ambulances and antique fire engines.
They also will offer hot dogs, hamburgers and goodie bags for children.
Other event features will include information on the Healthy Heart Program, concussion awareness, file of life, fire prevention handouts and child safety seat information.
Proceeds from t-shirt sales at the event will benefit the Lake County Fire Volunteer Association.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A search warrant service last week in Clearlake led to two arrests and the confiscation of drugs and weapons.
Thomas Mark Nordahl, 32, and Candace Marie Conzet, 29, both of Clearlake, were arrested in the case, according to Sgt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
On Friday Lake County Sheriff’s Narcotics Unit detectives and officers from the Clearlake Police Department served a search warrant that had been obtained by sheriff’s detectives at a residence in the 5500 block of Old Highway 53 in Clearlake, Paulich said.
Paulich said detectives searched the residence, locating approximately one-quarter pound of methamphetamine, half an ounce of heroin, four and a half pounds of processed marijuana, one-quarter pound of marijuana concentrate, two loaded handguns and body armor.
Detectives were able to determine the residence belonged to Nordahl and Conzet, and that they had the drugs for the purpose of sales, Paulich said.
Conzet and Nordahl were not located at the residence at the time of the search warrant. Paulich said both were found a short time later by Clearlake Police officers in front of a residence on Fresno Street in Clearlake and placed under arrest.
Nordahl was transported and booked at the Lake County Jail for possession of methamphetamine for sale, possession of heroin for sale, possession of methamphetamine and heroin while armed with a firearm, maintaining a place to sell/use controlled substances, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of body armor by a person convicted of a violent felony, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon and possession of marijuana for sale, according to Paulich.
Conzet was booked for possession of methamphetamine for sale, possession of heroin for sale, maintaining a place to sell/use controlled substances and being a person under the influence of methamphetamine while in possession of a loaded firearm, Paulich said.
Bail for both Nordahl and Conzet was set at $500,000, and they remained in custody on Monday, based on jail records.
The sheriff’s office is continuing its efforts to eradicate narcotics from the communities of Lake County and seize the suspected profits of drug trafficking for asset forfeiture whenever possible.
Anyone with information that can assist the Narcotics Unit with this effort is encouraged to call the anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
From left, Candace Marie Conzet, 29, and Thomas Mark Nordahl, 32, both of Clearlake, Calif., were arrested on Friday, August 4, 2017, on drugs and weapons charges. Lake County Jail photo.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week will receive a donation from a local group in support of the Middletown Library, consider an ordinance related to speeds on Clear Lake during high water and get an update on the Hoberg’s Resort cleanup.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx . Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
At 9:15 a.m., the board will consider accepting a $10,000 donation from the Friends of the Middletown Library.
A letter to the board from the Friends Vice President Tamsen Nash explained that the group held a challenge fundraiser in order to provide the gift, which it is asking be earmarked for the library’s children’s section.
Also on Tuesday, the board will consider an ordinance authorizing an extended idle speed zone near shore during high water on Clear Lake.
In another untimed item, the board will get a report on the Hoberg’s Resort cleanup of Valley fire debris and its erosion control measures.
The full agenda is below.
CONTRACT CHANGE ORDERS
6.1: Consideration of Contract Change Order No. 3 for Dry Creek Road at Dry Creek Bridge Replacement Project, Federal Project No. BRLO-5914 (080); Bid No. 16-04.
6.2: Consideration of Contract Change Order No. 4 for Foard Road at Anderson Creek Bridge Replacement Project, Federal Project No. BRLO-5914 (068); Bid No. 16-03.
CONSENT AGENDA
7.1: (a) Waive the formal bidding process, pursuant to Lake County Code Section 38.2, as it is not in the public interest due to the unique nature of goods or services; and (b) approve the agreement between the county of Lake and Willow Glen Care Center for adult residential support services and specialty mental health services for Fiscal Year 2017-18 for a contract maximum of $50,000 and authorize the Board Chair to sign the Agreement.
7.2: Adopt the resolution approving the 2016-2017 second annual update to the Mental Health Services Act Three-Year Program and Expenditure Plan for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 through Fiscal Year 2016-2017.
7.3: Adopt resolution approving the California Department of Public Health's (CDPH) Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP), Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) and Pandemic Influenza (Pan Flu) Grant Contract for Fiscal Years 2017-2022 in the Amount of $1,544,700.00, and Authorize the Board Chair to Sign a Non-Supplantation Certification.
7.4: Sitting as Lake County Watershed Protection District Board of Directors, (a) adopt resolution approving the intent to participate in the deferred maintenance project to receive state funds under the Section 6.10 OF Senate Bill 826 (STATS. 2016, CH. 23) and (b) authorize the director of Water Resources to sign the project agreement and standard conditions statement.
7.5: Authorize the county librarian to close the Lake County Library - Lakeport Branch Aug. 8 through 12 due to carpet Installation, to reopen as soon as it’s safe for the public to enter the library lobby.
7.6: Adopt resolution authorizing the Public Works director to sign the notice of completion for the Soda Bay Road at Cole Creek Bridge Replacement Project; Bid No. 13-31.
7.7: Approve contract between the county of Lake and North Coast Opportunities/Rural Communities Childcare for the Provision of CalWORKs Stage One Child Care in the amount of $70,000.00, from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019; and authorize the chair to sign.
TIMED ITEMS
8.2, 9:15 a.m.: Consideration of acceptance of $10,000 donation from the Friends of the Middletown Library.
UNTIMED ITEMS
9.1: Consideration of and report/status update on Hoberg’s Valley fire clean-up of structural debris, soil and concrete sampling, and erosion control.
9.2: Consideration of agreement with AAA Business Solutions for the purchase and installation of cubicles in the amount of $84,949.36; and authorize the chair to sign.
9.3: Consideration of county employee benefit plans – EIA Health, Dental, Vision and Life Renewal for 2018.
9.4: Consideration of an ordinance authorizing an extended idle speed zone near shore during high water on Clear Lake.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council will hold a special meeting this week to take up several items of business related to city projects, delinquent utility fees and a final parcel map.
The meeting will take place beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
On the agenda is a public hearing on delinquent utility charges.
The council will consider adopting a resolution to confirm and approve the utility billing delinquency list and direct staff to submit the list to the Lake County Auditor-Controller’s Office for inclusion on the property tax roll.
The staff report said that approximately $22,654.01 in water and sewer bills was delinquent as of June 30.
Also on the agenda is the proposed award of the Giselman Street Overlay Project to Team Ghilotti Inc.
Team Ghilotti was the lowest bidder, at $279,305. According to Public Works Director Doug Grider’s report for the meeting, that’s roughly $35,000 more than the city’s engineer had estimated it would cost.
Grider said the project will take place after school is in session, and the city will work closely with the contractor to divert traffic to minimize delays during busy school hours.
“The contract is 30 working days although the significant portion of work impacting traffic will be completed in three consecutive days,” said Grider, with the anticipated start date Aug. 14.
In other business on Tuesday, the council will consider adopting a resolution approving the final parcel map for D & R Lake Properties LLC at 1930 S. Main St. and 10 Queen Ann Way, which is the undeveloped portion of the Victorian Village subdivision, according to Community Development Director Kevin Ingram.
The council also will consider authorizing the replacement of the city’s 8-inch well pump by Valley Pump & Motor Works Inc., which submitted the lowest bid of $40,685, Grider reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce and the city of Clearlake will host the second annual “State of the City” presentation and town hall on Wednesday, Aug. 30.
The town hall will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Clearlake Community Center, located at 3245 Bowers Ave.
The program will begin at 5 p.m. with an open house featuring the opportunity to interact with and ask questions of the Clearlake Police Department, Code Enforcement, Public Works, Finance, Building Department, City Clerk, Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, PEG TV and more.
The formal presentation by the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce and the city of Clearlake will begin at 6 p.m.
Highlands Senior Service Center’s Chatterbox Catering will provide the appetizers.
“The Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce is excited to be working with the city of Clearlake to help inform the local business community about the positive changes being made,” said Chamber President Denise Loustalot.
“This is our second annual ‘State of the City’ meeting,” said City Manager Greg Folsom. “We have accomplished a lot and have a lot more in the planning stages and we want the community to know all that is happening.”
“It’s a great time to be mayor of Clearlake,” said Mayor Russ Perdock. “The city of Clearlake is rebounding and we are starting to see real changes for the better happening.”
The public is invited to attend and is encouraged to come early in order to have time to interact with the different departments to find out what programs are being offered and to get questions answered.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that new water quality criteria for mercury in California waters have been approved.
The new rules, developed by the State Water Resources Control Board, set mercury limits in fish tissue to protect human health and aquatic-dependent wildlife.
New protections also have been added for tribal cultural use and subsistence fishing.
In California, Gold Rush-era mining operations released millions of pounds of naturally occurring mercury, a potent neurotoxin, into state waterways. Once there, the toxic metal builds up in fish tissue and is consumed by people and wildlife.
To address that risk, the state’s new criteria set maximum mercury limits in fish tissue for various species caught for sport, subsistence and cultural practices.
“We commend the State Water Resources Control Board for working with numerous tribes and dischargers to develop and adopt water quality standards for protecting human health and wildlife throughout the state from the harmful effects of mercury,” said Alexis Strauss, EPA’s acting regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “By focusing on mercury concentrations in fish tissue, these rules will have a direct and positive impact on public health and the environment.”
The state’s new rules set five new water quality criteria for mercury in fish tissue for tribal subsistence fishing, general subsistence fishing, prey fish, sport fish and for fish commonly consumed by the protected California Least Tern.
The new criteria will help protect and inform the public about levels of mercury in popular sport fish like salmon, bass, sturgeon and trout.
“Salmon, bass, sturgeon and other popular fish like trout are sought after as a key food source by California Native American tribes, and other groups that depend on fish for sustenance, but are often contaminated by mercury. Mercury is found in many freshwater bodies in California, and is largely a legacy of the Gold Rush era, and difficult to deal with, but cannot be ignored,” said State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus. “This approval is an important step in focusing attention on what can be done to limit exposures.”
The new mercury criteria will apply to inland surface waters, enclosed bays, and estuaries of the state, except for water bodies where approved site-specific objectives already exist, such as San Francisco Bay and Delta; Clear Lake; and portions of Walker Creek, Cache Creek and Guadalupe River Watersheds.
This week in history takes a look at Christianity in America and the protestant revivals that sparked a Great Awakening.
Aug. 6, 1801: Christianity in America today
Every Sunday millions of American Christians file into the pews of their local church, joining together in a millennia-long tradition of communal worship. It is a time-honored tradition; Sunday is for Football and God.
Or at least, it used to be.
According to a two-year long study conducted by the Hartford Institute of Religion Research, only some 20 percent of Americans actually attend Church every week, although another 20 percent say they do but actually stay home.
What on earth (or in heaven) is going on here?
I have no idea. I suggest you ask your local minister or priest for the answer (if you can remember his name).
At any rate, it appears that Americans are falling out of love with organized religion, or at least have become too lazy to pull themselves out of bed on Sunday morning. Each year an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 churches close up shop, their ministers growing tired of preaching to empty pews.
As we ride down, down, down the parabolic graph of church-going in this country, it might sooth our aching hearts to remember a time when religion mattered, a time when God’s Word washed forth from the fiery lips of traveling preachers and people flocked to hear its joy.
For that, we have to go to the beginning – not all the way to the Word, only to the settling of America.
The Enlightenment
As we know from our school lessons, Puritans, Quakers and other religious minorities seeking asylum from persecution in England and Europe flocked to America in the 16th and 17th centuries. These early Americans brought with them, alongside their children and luggage, their faith in God. Of course, each one of them had a particular notion of how that faith ought to be organized. In an irony as old as religion itself, these formerly persecuted refugees were quick to themselves become the persecutors. This was the age of witch trials and pernicious religious police.
The new century, the 18th century, found America (and all of Europe) struggling against a torrent of subversive ideas.
The Age of the Enlightenment had arrived and men like Isaac Newton, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire began to systematically chip away at the foundation of society.
All that was established sat precariously on its now unsteady base. The Old could either cling to its entrenched ideas and fight like a cornered animal against the New, or it could readjust to a new equilibrium, one that worked with the New rather than against it.
The revolutions and the schisms of the next century were the fruits born of this struggle.
Having just clawed its way through a century of bloody civil strife, one that saw the birth of Protestantism and its many branches, Christianity found itself once more in the crosshairs. This time, the Protestants stood alongside the Catholics on the chopping block.
A tent revival during the Second Great Awakening. Public domain image. The Great Awakening
By the 1730s most American colonists identified with some branch of Protestantism – Calvinist, Congregationalist (former Puritans), Anglican take your pick.
Although adamantly separated from the Catholic Church, these branches still clung to the same pomp and ritual that characterized Catholic worship.
Sure, among the Protestants, the power to commune with God now lay with the individual, rather than an intermediary like a priest, but this was largely a theological distinction.
For the average congregant, worshipping in a Protestant church in 1730s America had all the emotional and religious intimacy as a court proceeding has today.
To rescue the individual from the hoary traditions of religion and bring a sense of personal guilt and need for salvation through Christ – these would be the goals of what would become known as the First Great Awakening.
Leading this crusade were protestant ministers like Solomon Stoddard and George Whitefield, men whose dynamic and impassioned styles of preaching ignited the fear and love of God in all who listened.
For the next decade and a half, wandering preachers in the Stoddard-Whitefield vein blazed holy trails through Europe and England. When they reached the American wilderness, they evangelized Indian, colonist and slave alike.
The fiery blast of religious fervor that announced the awakening’s arrival gave way to a slow simmer that lasted for the rest of the century.
The Second Great Awakening
With the creation of America following the Revolution came a clear separation of religion from the affairs of state.
This decisive delineation between earthly and heavenly powers had the effect of splitting adherents’ loyalties; on the one hand lay God and spiritual devotion and on the other money, earthly goods and social success. Some Americans, especially the educated elite, compromised between the two and argued that leading a moral life on earth, not church attendance, guaranteed salvation in the hereafter.
Meanwhile, population in the new country reached epic proportions, rising from one million in 1750 to nearly four million in 1790. These new people stretched the limits of the original 13 colonies and began the era of western migration that would characterize American life in the 19th century.
Amid this crisis of faith and demographic shift, the embers of the First Great Awakening glowed red, found fresh fuel and on this day in 1801 roared to life under the canvas tents dotting the fields of Cane Ridge, Kentucky.
The Second Great Awakening began just as furiously as the first, but spread farther afield. From the muggy magnolia groves of Georgia to the thickets of Kentucky poplar, revival tents rang with the voices of the saved. American Protestants exulted in their newfound faith, revived and reinvigorated with the knowledge of their dependence on God.
This first, massive revival event in Kentucky in 1801 attracted an estimated 20,000 men, women and children. At the pulpit stood seven or more ministers at once, preaching simultaneously to the seething crowds of worshippers. Those who experienced this unique, emotionally-charged form of worship would never forget it.
This new wave of religiosity in America had more staying power than the first, and carried the nation through half of the 19th century.
Membership to Methodist, Baptist and other evangelical churches rose steadily, looking to outpace the staid Congregationalists of the previous century in no time.
Antone Pierucci is a Sacramento-based public historian and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.
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